World War II Book Reviews

The stories of World War II often focus on battlefield heroics and the history-shaping decisions made by famous leaders. However, scaling this global conflict down to a more intimate level can also be immensely valuable, which is precisely what author Karla M. Jay has done in her new work of historical fiction, When We Were Brave.

Three very different storylines grow and artfully wind together in this sometimes harrowing read: a recently emigrated family sent back to Germany, an SS officer wrestling with a crippling crisis of faith, and a young Jewish boy just beginning to understand the cruelty […]

Some of the most traumatic and impactful events in human history are tied to war, which tears apart families, history, ideas and entire continents with their senseless brutality. In Ripple Effect: Because of the War, the first book in the Ripple Effect series, author Jenny Ferns steps down from the macrocosm of the battlefield to the peripheral effects of violence and chaos away from the frontlines. As this book’s title implies, the long-term results of war go much further than those who were wounded or killed.

Veronica and Rachel are sisters, although they both fell on opposite sides of […]

★★★★

When Anne-Marie and Helmut marry in London just a year after World War II, they are young, in love, and glad to be finally free of the deep tragedy Hitler had brought to Europe. Swedish Anne-Marie is sweet, educated, and emancipated, but Helmut is from Germany, and Jewish. He has lived through many terrible family losses, and there are many divides in their knowledge of world events recently passed.

Through their love, they must now get to know each other, and heal the rifts in understanding between their families, both culturally and emotionally. The awful truth is almost to […]