The Violin Makers Daughter by Sharon Maas
Stacey • July 28, 2019
A riveting tale of impressionable Sarah, an apprentice violin maker and non-practising Jew in the midst of a raging war, systematically spreading throughout Europe. The first time the Nazi’s appear they decide to hide their Jewish background and stay in their beloved family home. The terrorizing wait to see if they can remain hidden and be left in peace…. The ultimate betrayal eventually comes to call and their status of Aryan decent has come into question and they are given a week to provide the paperwork… The countdown begins.
The time has come to flee but they cannot flee together. They must separate and go in smaller groups. Sarah must go alone and she must leave first. Her life depends on her ability to blend in, keep her head down, trust the people she does not know, to keep her safe. She must learn to keep her emotions in check. Keeping the despair of leaving her family from bubbling to the surface and her blind hatred for all Germans under wraps as to not draw attention to herself.
On her journey she mets Ralf, German and a soldier. She still can’t bring herself to trust him, even after her saves her life. Now he’s on the run too and agrees to get Sarah safely to where she needs to be. During their journey he will do much more than just protect her…. He will teach her to avoid detection, master her emotions, be brave and how to survive… He shows her that just as a war can destroy and create hate, It doesn’t have the power to stop an all consuming love.
Hiding their identities and deny who they are as the race from safe house to safe house, Ralf and Sarah continue their journey together. All too soon Ralf is captured and Sarah has a choice to make.
The weight of the world seems to rest on the shoulders of young Sarah. Having no world knowledge and being held in practically like a hostage in her home by a war she doesn’t understand and the full gravity of it being held secret by her parents. All she wants to do is make violins and put the love and careful attention to detail into each and every one. When the pounding on their door comes that night and Sarah now knows what her parents were keeping from her. She must leave the safety of her home, of her family and make the dangerous journey to safety. The rough terrain and the soldiers everywhere. Not knowing who she can trust, keeping a part of herself hidden so she can remain undetected. She has to keep her wits about her and ultimately her eye on the prize.
You can feel the emotional rollercoaster she is on. You literally watch her throw off her adolescences and transition into womanhood in such a quick succession, it would make anyones head spin. It really comes to a head when she is saved by a young German Soldier, Ralf who is now on the run too, having risked his life to save her and her friend Eric.
The journey is, at times, agony to read. Sarahs hatred for all Germans is so black and white that she can’t, at first, see there is so much grey all around her. Everything she says, everything she does, every small detail has to be just right in order to avoid detection. She has no life skills to help her on this life or death quest to safety. She is learning as she goes.
The whole book from start to finish is like watching Sarah mature from a naive caterpillar into a butterfly of knowledge. Her full transition from child to woman is painfully played out and you will feel every emotion right along with her. My heart was so full to bursting and the tears were hard to bite back knowing she was wholly dependent on herself and trying to navigate her feelings for a man she barely knows and didn’t trust in the beginning. No experiences to draw on and no Mother to ask. The whole book had me reeling with the simplicity of tale and the complexity of a world that we today, cannot comprehend. You could almost hear the footsteps of the Soldiers along the cobble stone streets and feel the pounding on the front door.
I’ve never read any of Sharon Maas’ work before, which is shocking to me as I am an avid historical fiction reader. This book was right on the money for me. You can feel the fear of the unknown, the hatred and the violence of a time that the author herself, didn’t live through but really has a way with the written word. I felt like I was living through 1940s France. The hairs on my arms would stand on end whenever she came to a check point. The air of silent terror really played out well through the whole book for me.
I really felt love can conquer all, even hatred. Historical fiction enthusiasts should really add this to their reading pile. If you enjoy having your heart beating as fast as a drum, having sweaty palms so slick you can barely hold the book any more and breathing so quietly so the Nazi’s can’t hear you, then this is the read for you.
Sincerely, The Lioness
Not so Fast by Karen Booth I just finished Not so Fast by Karen Booth and here are my thoughts. I think I just started my formula-1 era... Mia is an F-1 fan and she hosts a podcast all about it... She spends her time tearing one of the favourite drivers, Xander, to shreds.. His season is in the toilet and she doesn't pull punches but when they meet at the track... She comes to understand that it is easy to criticize when you are not behind the wheel and there is more to the driver than meets the eye. It was cute. It was a sweet romance. Yes it is a bit enemies to lovers but it is remedied pretty quickly when they start spending time together. I like that a girl is knowledgeable about driving and the author did an awesome job of giving us a low key run down on F-1 without sounding like a ted talks. It was an interesting audiobook, the narrator did a good job with the narration but I kinda wished I had read it myself... Maybe I still will! I loved the writing and the storyline. Mia was actually very likeable. I did think the ending when she talks to that other driver and he relaxes around Xander was a bit silly. He didn't believe Xander, why would he believe her? Not believable but whatever. I really enjoyed it 4 stars #notsofast #karenbooth #formula1romance #romancebook #romancereader #romance #bookreview #bookalorian #audibooks #audiobooklovers #readerofig #litdulterouswhore #enemiestolovers
I just finished Insignificant Others by Sarah Jio and here are my musings. Lena Westbrook is heartbroken when her boyfriend of 2 years doesn’t propose to her like she thought he was going to. She runs home to her aunt and when she wakes up the next day, she finds herself in Paris… Married to a man she doesn’t know.. Every night when she goes to bed she wakes up in another timeline with another man…. She realizes each man is a missed opportunity from her life and she gets to see if any of these men were really as significant as her imagination believed… I kinda liked the time slipping. It was really cool! Imagine being able to live for one day a missed opportunity that plagued you. It would be wild. What I loved the most is that Lena didn’t really go looking for the one… She was really looking to find herself and that was the beauty of this book for me. It was really well written and I loved Lena. She was a bit of a workaholic and her life felt scripted. It was awesome watching her test drive the lives and careers she could have had. I loved it. 4.5 stars
I just finished Unlikely Neighbors by Renee Daniel Flagler and here are my thoughts on it. After a small health scare, Holland knows she needs to start living her life in a bigger way. Just as she is about to move herself to Charleston something major happens. An aunt she didn’t know she had, passed away and left her a house… In Brooklyn. For Holland, an adopted child, the allure of some family history is too great to pass up but what she doesn’t expect to find is Noble, a CEO for a drinks company who has been pushed out by his board for someone with more experience.. The two didn’t anticipate finding something so tempting to land in each other's laps. OK this one was the breakout audiobook for me. It was brilliant! I enjoyed the ever loving heck out of it. Kudos to the narrators because you bought the sizzle. It wasn’t just a cute romance, it had some real heat to it too. Neither of them were looking for a connection but they both needed the connection. Holland found a blood relative she didn’t know she had and she finds all kinds of things out about the family she grew up without and it was heartbreaking but healing ya know. Noble started his business a decade ago and then gets ousted by his board. You may be thinking… DANG that's horrific but really, it gave him the opportunity to start actually living and I loved it. He made a killing off his hard work and now he gets to reap the rewards. The book isn’t just romance. It’s about finding oneself again and learning who you are. It’s about living and loving in equal measures. It was an amazing book and I highly recommend it. 4.5 stars #unlikelyneighbors #reneedanielflagler #romance #audiobook #audioreader #romancebook #romancereader #booklover #bookalorian
I just finished The Last Secret Agent - My life as a spy behind Nazi Lines by Pippa LaTour and her are my musings! I had no idea this incredible woman existed until I read this book. Meet Pippa LaTour… She was an undercover British operative during WW2. She literally parachuted into Nazi occupied France and caused all kinds of mayhem behind enemy lines. She was instrumental in getting information out about troops leading up to D-day! That is bad ass!!! Pippa didn’t have an easy life especially in the beginning and imagine being part of history and keeping it a secret from your family… That is incredible. The risks she took and she couldn’t even share that part of her life with her family.. I could not imagine it. The book was humbling. Women have spent their time in history being minimized and Pippa’s story really hit me hard. The writing was wonderful and I felt a strong connection to this brave and intelligent woman who didn’t take any credit for the things she did. I am in awe. I love WW2 non fiction reads. Having a new perspective on something that changed the lives of the whole world was a real eye opener. The things she saw and she still did her job. PROPS!! 5 big huge stars! I couldn’t put it down! If you love reading about real women in history and WW2 is your jam.. This is your next book. Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy! #thelastsecretagent #pippalatour #ww2 #worldwarII #historyread #memoir #nonfiction #bookreview #smpreader #smpreads #smpinfluencer #booklover #bookalorian #bookblog #bookishblogger
I just finished Gone by Dreda Say Mitchell and Ryan Carter and here are my musings. When Alison's son Sam is swept out to sea and the body never recovered... She never recovered either. It's been 10 years and the ghost of Sam still lingers.. She has questions no one wants to answer and Alison's obsession begins to claw its way out. Now this psychological thriller is loaded with family drama and while the pace was fairly quick for the most part... Some parts slowed right off and that set the whole story askew for me and it took me a moment to get my story bearings back. I did enjoy the storyline but it was a tad predictable in spots but all in all the story was hella intriguing and I thought the ending was absolutely wild! I liked the writing and the narration was done really well. Great book 4 stars Thank you to @netgalley and @brillianceaudio for my gifted ALC #gone #dredasaymitchell #thrillerreader #thrillerbooks #thrillers #bookreview #bookblog #lionessofliteracy #bookalorian #booksbooksbooks #booktok #bookstagram
I just finished Project Mind Control Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA by John Lisle.. I received the hardcover and an ALC. Firstly the narrator was quite excellent. I did immersion reading for this one and it was a great experience. I was really excited to read this book. I love a good conspiracy and MKULTRA is one I have researched a lot. WARNING! If you are someone who does your own research on these things.. This book isn’t for you. The author spends a lot of time minimizing the project and making it seem like a nothing burger. The book basically comes down to whether or not the CIA was to blame for the lives this project destroyed and honestly, he didn’t even answer that. One of my favorite moments came at the end of the book. The author talks about the fact that they did congressional hearings on CIA oversight and how they released so much of it to obscure the rest for national security and then talks about how Cathy O’Brien talks about a project called project Monarch and how there is no information on it from the CIA so it must be false. Says the CIA lied and hid the things they did… Dismisses a project because he said it doesn’t exist. It actually made me laugh. It is hard for me to trust what he had to say because of the lack of research done outside of Sidney Gottlieb but the information about the trials was where the magic was for me but again, there isn’t a lot of substance here. What I will say is that you can tell the author was trying to be neutral and display the facts as he saw them and I can appreciate that but MKULTRA wasn’t just about the parts touched on in this book. It was a much larger and terrifying project and this book will lead you to believe that some naughty man hurt some people with LSD trials and the CIA funded it but didn’t sanction it. The takeaway is these experiments would have happened without their involvement. Like I said, nothing burger. This book will have you believing the project failed.. And yet… It started in the 50s and continued here in Canada in the 1980s… that's a long ass time for a project to run and yet be such a failure…. Food for thought! The worst part is the writing wasn’t half bad but for me, this is a book to make the massives feel like this project failed when there are a lot of research papers, a lot declassified.. That contradicts this view. 3.5 stars Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy of this book and honestly I hope people buy it and do more research. #projectmindcontrol #conspiracy #mkultra #mindcontrol #nonfiction #smp #bookreview #bookinfluencer
I just finished Whack Job - A History of Axe Murder by Rachel McCarthy James and here are my thoughts. Firstly this is the book I didn’t know I needed! I had no idea that the history of the axe was so vast.. and bloody. Secondly this title is brilliant and it was just the start of the witty and sarcastically told story of something I see as a basic tool but really… It has had a lot of uses dating back to caveman times. I was hooked. You would think… Axes? Really? A whole book? The book wasn’t long enough. I needed more! Seriously, if all non-fiction books were written like this, I would never read fiction again! I think anyone who loves true crime, should definitely add this one to their shelves. So… good… 4.5 stars Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy. #whackjob #nonfiction #truecrimejunkie #bookreview #bookishblog #bookalorian #bookinfluencer #literaryinfluencer #literarytok #booklover #bookn
I just finished a Simple Twist of Fate by April Asher @novelsbyapril and here are my musings… It’s been 13 years since Harlow “Harry” Pierce has been home but when her half human, half shifter goddaughter is having trouble controlling her magic, she knows home is the only place she can go to get the help they so desperately need. Coming back was never supposed to be on the cards especially since that fateful night… When her best friend and the love of her life were fated to be together but swallowing down her dread, she makes the trek home.. Jaxon is still the same shifter he has always been and when Harry turns up begging for his help… He isn’t prepared to see the witch who stole his heart. I have been a fan of April Asher since not the witch you wed and I have been addicted to her paranormal romance reads ever since. She didn’t disappoint. I love all the characters. Jaxon is the typical grumpy shifter with a dash of touch her and die. SWOON!!! I usually despise second chance romance because I hate miscommunication but this one gets away with it. I think I would have ran like my ass was on fire as well. You don’t mess with fate but Harry is the kind of witch that doesn’t look back and if it hadn’t been for her goddaughter… she would never have gone back. I love the zany plot too. The magic has gone wonky and things haven’t been quite right since that night 13 years ago but the gnomes stole the show for me. Read it and find out haha. I like the way each friend has a different personality but they all work so well together and the chemistry between Jaxon and Harry is out of the world HAWT!! I had one problem with the book. The competition… I get it was there for comic relief but it was a tad distracting for me. I could have done without it and had more of the search for Grace’s dad. Maybe in some POV of the mother looking for the dad. Food for thought. I had the audio and the ebook and I did immersion reading for some of it. The narration was bang on! It was a solid 4.25 stars for me. Thank you to @dreamscape_media and @netgalley for my gifted ALC and ARC.
I just finished Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay and these are my thoughts. It’s parents weekend at a small private college in North Cali… 5 families get together for the first night dinner, only to find their kids don’t show up. They assume they just ditched out but when they don’t show up the next day… Things begin to heat up. Five seemingly very different kids all go missing at the same time… Will they be found alive? Full disclosure… I love Alex Finlay.. This means I have very high expectations. Let’s start with the fact it's set on a college campus… I love campus thrillers. I love the ominous feel of the storyline. I love the writing style and the short chapters that flicks between different POVs, meaning each family and it was gripping. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, it totally kept me on my toes! There is a beautiful complexity to the characters which just shows the calibre of the writing because we have many many characters to follow along with. It was fast paced and very engaging. I am so glad I read this one. 4.5 stars Thank you to @netgalley @minotarur_books for my gifted copy! Out now #parentsweekend #alexfinlay #thriller #thrillerreader #thrillerbooks #bookishreview #booklover #readersofig #booknerdigans #netgalley #minotaurbooks #literaryinfluencer #bookinfluencer #bookalorian
I just finished Top Heavy by Rhonda DeChambeau and here are my musings.. Esme is a dancer, it’s her identity. When she and her best friend make their way onto an elite team… she's over the moon. Except, they took the stops of 2 popular girls and the rest of the team are icing them out… Her family can barely afford groceries let alone tuition… Things begin to spiral when a stranger touches her in an inappropriate way and Esme begins to spiral. Firstly the subject matter of this book is a little heavy so please check the triggers… The biggest thing about this book is the unusual format of the writing. It’s written in an almost poetry format and at first I wasn’t sure about it but as I kept reading it actually made sense because it feels like we are listening to Esme’s internal monologue and it has a real authentic vibe to it. As a dancer myself back in my younger years I could really connect with Esme and the issues that having even 1 lb of extra weight can have on your joints. In this case it was her chest and how it felt for her to have so much attention on a body part she can’t control. It was relatable and even as an adult I could still connect to her which was lovely. The writing is well done even with the different format. The ending was excellent and I think the book would make an excellent one person monologue on stage. 4.5 stars Thank you @penguinteenca for my gifted copy - Due out 10th June 2025 I enjoyed the book immensely. #topheavy #rhondadechambeau #penguinteenca #ya #bookreview #booklover #bookcommunity #midgrade #readersofig #bookalorian #bookblog #readervlog #bookchat #literaryinfluencer #bookinfluencer
