Review - the Children we lost by Catherine Hokin

The Children We Lost by Catherine Hokin

Publisher: Bookouture

Release date: 24 January 2024

Back cover blurb: ‘No! Not my child!’ she screams, her voice breaking as she pounds the window uselessly. But no one looks up as the man in uniform cradles her precious baby and strides away…Berlin, 1944. Nineteen-year-old Annaliese arrives at the imposing stone building, clutching her small suitcase. She has nowhere else to go after her father threw her out, ashamed of his pregnant, unmarried daughter. But Bruno promised they would live together as a family once the baby was born – and until then she’d be taken care of at this home for expectant mothers. But Bruno never comes, and Annaliese starts to feel unsettled by the silent, stone-faced nurses and the heavy doors that are always locked behind them. Nursing her perfect, pink-cheeked baby, her heart swells – she never imagined she could feel such overwhelming love. But a cold fear has caught hold of her. Has coming here been a terrible mistake? Berlin, 1979. Lawyer Evie has come to the city to investigate the horrifying stories of infants torn from their mothers during the war. One of the cases is Sebastian, whose yellowing birth certificate tells a heartbreaking tale. Evie is drawn to this lost man, and vows to do all that she can to help him. But poring through old records, it is Evie who recognises the faded photo in a newspaper article. Her heart stops as she realises her whole life has been a devastating lie – and that her and Sebastian’s pasts are impossibly, unimaginably connected…

I absolutely love this author's work, and this novel is no exception. 

1944 in Berlin and Annaliese is abandoned at the Lebensborn home, cast out by her own family and left to get on with things by her Nazi officer lover. She knows he will come for her eventually, but until then she must make the most of the situation she has found herself in, for there are many worse off.

1979 in the US and Lawyer Evie has been set a new task by her boss, dealing with Nazi war criminals who may have come the US legally under Operation paperclip but now need to be held accountable for their crimes.

Her first task is to investigate children who were misplaced during the war at the hands of the Nazi regime. A chance meeting with Sebastian who is looking for his birth Mother leads them both to travel to Berlin.

Neither of them are prepared for what they are about to discover, for the truth is worse than either of them could ever have imagined. 

Sebastian who has so desperately sought the truth is now wishing that he hadn't bothered as he learns that both his parents are potentially Nazis, and Evie who only wanted to help, has her own life turned upside when when she stumbles across a newspaper article featuring a high society Nazi wedding. 

It seems that everything she's understood about her own life up until then has been a lie. She now has her own story to deal with alongside Sebastian's. Which only makes her more determined than ever to bring the guilty to justice, no matter how dangerous that might be...

The Children we lost by Catherine Hokin is available to pre-order now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

x Vicky-Leigh x

Review - the Woman on the ledge by Ruth Mancini

The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini
Publisher: Century

Release date: 4 January 2024

Back cover blurb: A woman falls to her death from a London bank's twenty-fifth-floor roof terrace. You're arrested for her murder. You tell the police that you only met the victim the previous night at your office party. She was threatening to jump from the roof, but you talked her down. You've got nothing to do with this tragedy. You're clearly being framed. So why do the police keep picking holes in your story? Even your lawyer doesn't seem to believe you. It soon becomes obvious that you're keeping secrets. But who are you trying to protect? And why?

The Woman on the ledge is an original thriller and a definite rollercoaster of a read.

Tate is an actress who needs to perform the role of her life. 

When she meets Helen at a party being held at the high rise building she works in, she is on a ledge at the top of the building, considering jumping, but Tate manages to talk her down.

The following day a woman falls to her death from the very same building and Tate is unsurprised when the Police come knocking at her door. 

When she is arrested for a murder she didn't commit, she knows that all the evidence (albeit circumstantial) points to her. As she is questioned by the Police and they find holes in her story, she worries that she may have failed in her role. But they are forced to release her on bail.

And that's when things start to get even more interesting.

Just when I thought I'd worked out what was about to happen, I was thrown in a new direction. There are so many holes in Tate's story that you wonder why the Police let her go, but then she begins to clarify things to her solicitor and we learn that things are not exactly what they seem.

Combined with flashback from when Tate and her friends were fourteen, we begin to see the bigger picture and gain an understanding in to why certain things that seemed to make no sense at all, now make perfect sense.

I think that's about all I can say without giving too much away, but this is a very very clever book, and I am looking forward to reading more by this author. 

The Woman on the Ledge is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

x Vicky-Leigh x

Review - The Secret Pianist by Andie Newton

The Secret Pianist by Andie Newton

Publisher: One More Chapter [Harper Collins UK]

Release date: 12 January 2024

Back cover blurb: Sisters. Traitors. Spies. When a British RAF Whitley plane comes under fire over the French coast and is forced to drop their cargo, a spy messenger pigeon finds its way into unlikely hands… The occupation has taken much from the Cotillard sisters, and as the Germans increase their forces in the seaside town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Gabriella, Martine and Simone can’t escape the feeling that the walls are closing in. Yet, just as they should be trying to stay under the radar, Martine’s discovery of a British messenger pigeon leads them down a new and dangerous path. Gaby would do anything to protect her sisters but when the pianist is forced to teach the step-daughter of a German Commandant, and the town accuses the Cotillards of becoming ‘Bad French’ and in allegiance with the enemy, she realizes they have to take the opportunity to fight back that has been handed to them. Now, as the sisters’ secrets wing their way to an unknown contact in London, Gaby, Martine and Simone have to wonder – have they opened a lifeline, or sealed their fate?

The Secret Pianist is another brilliant historical fiction novel by Andie Newton. Loosely based on real life events around the use of homing pigeons by the British Security Services during WW2.

I had a vague understanding of pigeon usage by the British during WW2 but had no idea of the extent or real purpose of the operation.

When an RAF Whitley plane is forced to ditch its cargo of pigeons over the seaside town of Boulogne-Sur-Mer rather than the intended drop zone it sets into motion a series of events that have unexpected consequences and not just for the British.

When Martine Cotillard finds the pigeon, her sisters think she is mad for wanting to use it, they know that she has been involved with the resistance, but think it is too dangerous to get involved to a much deeper level.

But Martine isn't one to take no for an answer, and so Gaby and Simone reluctantly agree to send a message. They are scared of the Germans that have invaded their lives so brutally, and are determined to do anything that they can to fight back.

At the receiving end of their message is Guy, the intelligence officer in charge of the pigeon operation who sometimes has a hard time convincing his superiors of the usefulness of the birds. He is delighted to receive the message containing important information that could help the Brits and help him validate his operation.

And so begins a whirlwind adventure with three sisters at the heart trying to save the country that they love from permanent invasion. But will they succeed, and why is the novel called the secret pianist.. well that's a secret of course, you'll need to read for yourself to find out, and you will definitely enjoy doing so!

The Secret Pianist is available to pre-order now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

x Vicky-Leigh x