A Sparrow in Terezin #bookreview

A Sparrow in Terezin (Thomas Nelson, April 2015)

Bound together across time, two women will discover a powerful connection through one survivor’s story of hope in the darkest days of a war-torn world.

Present Day—With the grand opening of her new art gallery and a fairytale wedding just around the corner, Sera James feels she’s stumbled into a charmed life—until a brutal legal battle against fiancé William Hanover threatens to destroy the perfectly planned future she’s planned before it even begins. Now, after an eleventh-hour wedding ceremony and a callous arrest, William faces a decade in prison for a crime he never committed, and Sera must battle the scathing accusations that threaten her family and any hope for a future.

1942—Kája Makovsky narrowly escaped occupied Prague in 1939, and was forced to leave her half-Jewish family behind. Now a reporter for the Daily Telegraph in England, Kája discovers the terror has followed her across the Channel in the shadowy form of the London Blitz. When she learns Jews are being exterminated by the thousands on the continent, Kája has no choice but to return to her mother city, risking her life to smuggle her family to freedom and peace.

Connecting across a century through one little girl, a Holocaust survivor with a foot in each world, these two women will discover a kinship that springs even in the darkest of times. In this tale of hope and survival, Sera and Kája must cling to the faith that sustains and fight to protect all they hold dear—even if it means placing their own futures on the line.

Kristy Cambron fancies life as a vintage-inspired storyteller. Her second novel, A Sparrow in Terezin, was named Library Journal Reviews’ “Pick of the Month (Christian Fiction)” for February 2015. Cambron is an art/design manager at TheGROVEstory.com storytelling ministry. She holds a degree in art history from Indiana University and has nearly 15 years of experience in instructional design and communications for a Fortune-100 company. She lives in Indiana with her husband and three football-loving sons, where she can probably be bribed with a coconut mocha latte and a good Christian fiction read.

My thoughts:

 I love stories that take place during WWII.  This story told me more of a side that I am not that familiar with, but want to learn more of.  My grandmother lived through WWII.  She was an English citizen residing in a smaller town near London.  She lived through the Blitz, met my grandfather(an American soldier) whom she married during the war, gave birth to my uncle, and then finally came across the ocean to be with my grandfather.  My uncle was three years old before he ever got to meet his father.  That’s how long it took to get over her.

While my grandmother shared some stories from the war, she didn’t share the hard parts.  She didn’t share the death and destruction, just the things that I already knew.  Such as rationing and how she met grandpa.  I love those stories, but I also love learning how it really went.

In this story you find out not just about what was happening in London, but what was happening in the concentration camps.  The concentration camps were vile, we all know this.  But this goes further and tells more specifics.  I have to say the modern day part of the story was not read with as much excitement and interest as the parts that took place during the war.  

Excellent read that I highly recommend.  Go get yourself a copy!