Oh wow, this is a book I will read again!
I love historical fiction, especially stories like this that tell me something about history that I'd never heard about before. I had no idea of the brave, tenacious Jews who lived in the forest during WWII, surviving extreme hardships.
The author did a fantastic job of researching how they managed to survive, and I found the author notes at the end of the book as fascinating as the story itself.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book that I consider a must-read! ( )

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This falls somewhere between 3 and 4 stars for me. I was so excited to start this, the description sounded amazing. However the writing didn't really draw me in and I didn't find myself excited to pick it up at the end of the day (I didn't hate picking it up either but I wasn't thinking about it throughout the day). In the spots where major things happened I found I didn't have much to any emotional reaction until the end and even then I should have had a stronger reaction. I also felt it ended super abruptly. ( )

A two-year-old girl is stolen from her German parents. Her kidnapper somehow senses that this young girl has a much greater destiny to fulfill. The old woman teaches this youngster many things. They live in a forest, making do with what nature supplies as well as what the old woman can steal. Two decades later, it does seem like this now young woman will have a special destiny. She encounters some Jews who have fled the Nazis and are hiding in the forest. They are intellectuals, and have little of the skills needy to survive in the deep woods. Now, this woman understands what her purpose in life is, and helps more than one group of Jews to survive until it is safe to return. This book is well written, though the subject matter is brutal, and the many deaths, heart-rending. It would have been a stronger book had the author eliminated some (or all) of the romantic passages. They just didn’t seem to fit the main thrust of the story. The supernatural overtures were also out of place, in my opinion. Was it a sixth sense that these two women of forest had, or something more? Also without explanation is the voice the woman heard in times of danger, and the feeling the “dove” on her wrist sent her. The story had plenty of substance, it didn’t need these additions. ( )

Definitely drew me in, and I learned something new about WW2. ( )

What an incredible story of jewish people fleeing Nazi terrorism to survive in the forest. Yona a young woman raised by Jerusza to survive alone in the forest, meets up with a group of people fleeing the towns under Nazi occupation. She becomes instrumental in their survival. Recommended. ( )