“In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”

Kristin Hannah is a brilliant & talented writer. This is an incredibly captivating & atmospheric historical fiction. It is about 2 French sisters during WWII and their inaction, action and reaction to the war in order to survive and protect those they love.

Vianne is reserved, patient and has an inner courage she was not aware of. Her husband mobilized to be a soldier in the war and becomes a war prisoner while her intimate home is occupied by a Nazi officer and later a brutal SS officer. Her younger sister, Isabelle is angry, rash, brave, passionate ….a rebel who ultimately finds her calling in the French Resistance. The lengths a parent will go through to save their children. The heros they find inside themselves in order to persevere.

Hannah’s writing is extraordinarily vivid and gorgeous. The first 80 or so pages were a bit slow but once the story got going, I was entirely invested. I lost my soul and my heart was wrecked end. This story will stay with me for a long time. I cannot fathom the horror and torture people, families, children went through during WWII. Often the unspoken stories of women in wars are left in the shadows while we praise and remember the men’s hardships and bravery. Hannah brings to the forefront two strong women protagonists (and other strong women and girls as well) and let us not forget that women have also endured, sacrificed, fought and loved during these extremely dark and horrific times. From the deepest darkness comes love…because it is the only thing that can prevail.

“I know now what matters, and it is not what I have lost. It is my memories. Wounds heal. Love lasts. We remain."