✨ 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✨ B̷O̷R̷R̷O̷W̷ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

It's always weird to say you "liked" or "really enjoyed" a book about wartime and oppression, so let's just say instead that I was deeply moved at the story Alina Adams created in My Mother's Secret, and that I was blown away by the attention to historical detail and very interested in learning more about the JAR after finishing - because prior to reading this synopsis I had not heard of it. Once. Not even a mention.

The only aspects of the book that I "liked" rather than "really liked / loved" were Dialogue & Pacing - I felt like I was being told certain things about how the characters felt vs shown through their words, and sometimes the pacing felt the tiniest bit slow in places and too fast in others.

THAT BEING SAID, I finished this book over a week ago and can 100% tell you that those ^ two things, while true, are not going to be what sits with me long term when I tell people about this book.

I was drawn into the story pretty much from the very first page, and had a hard time setting this book down as I kept reading. Although it is dual timeline, the great majority of the book takes place in the Soviet Union, roughly from 1920-1945. I already knew a fair amount about the USSR during that timeframe, but reading about it in this book made some of it feel like I was learning everything again for the first time.

And as for the JAR (or Jewish Autonomous Region), I most certainly was. I am incredibly grateful for the author's detailed "Fact from Fiction" / Author's Note at the end of the book - I will for sure be going through some of the resources she listed to learn more on my own!

(And that, my friends, is the beauty of a well-written historical fiction novel.)