Reviewed by Chioma Published: 2008
It's about: A half-Jewish girl is sent to live with her mother's sister's family in the Netherlands during WWII. Early in the novel, Cryla's cousin, Anneke, becomes pregnant by a German soldier. She is due to enter a Lebensborn, a maternity home for girls carrying German babies. However, before Anneke enters the Lebensborn tragedy strikes. Someone in the community knows Cyrla is Jewish and plans to turn her and the family in to the Nazis. Cyrla looks a lot like her cousin Anneke due to her blonde hair and so she takes Anneke's place in the Lebensborn. The novel details her struggles with love, identity, and living in a home where Hitler is worshiped and Himmler visits.
I thought: I really enjoyed reading this fast-paced book and finished it in 13 hours! While it's not the best written piece of high literature (it's too sentimental for that), the plot and characters are very intriguing and easy to relate to. At times the plot takes soap opera twists and turns, but it's still pretty believable and it kept me hooked the whole time.
Verdict: Stick it on the shelf!
Reading Recommendations: It's more fluffy than most books on the Holocaust, not to say that there weren't sad moments, but it's not one of those books that devastates you for weeks. If you're anything like me, you'll read this quickly so try to read it when you have some time to set aside.Warning: There isn't any strong language, but watch out for intense love scenes (it wasn't bad enough for me to skip the pages, but at times it was bad enough to make me feel like I was reading a romance novel). There is a detailed description of a death, concentration camp tragedies, and an attempted rape so this book is better suited for mature readers.
