Always With a Book : Blog Tour & Review: The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff (audio)

Today, I'm so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff. Thank you Park Row Books for inviting me to participate.

Title: The Woman with the Blue Star
Author: Pam Jenoff
Narrator: Jennifer Jill Araya, Emily Lawrence, Nancy Peterson
Published: April 2021, Harlequin Audio / Park Row Books
Length: 12 hours 20 minutes / 336 pages
Source: Audio via library / ARC E-copy via Publisher

Summary:
1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents amid the horrors of the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous sewers beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.

Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. Scorned by her friends and longing for her fiancé, who has gone off to war, Ella wanders Kraków restlessly. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it’s a girl hiding.

Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds. Inspired by harrowing true stories, The Woman with the Blue Star is an emotional testament to the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive.

My thoughts: I have long been a fan of Pam Jenoff, and have been fortunate to meet her numerous times. As soon as I saw this book, it became an anticipated read and let me just say...as heartbreaking a story it is, it is fantastic!

It is unfathomable to think that this story is inspired by true events, and yet it is. This is why I continue to read books on WWII - this is the first one I have read from this perspective or even the first one I have read that even mentions anything about this. And I still have such a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that families escaped to the sewers in Krakow and lived down there not for days but months in the hopes to escape the Germans and being sent to concentration camps.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat, not because it's a thriller, but it just is so captivating. I was so worried about these characters and their fate. I also loved the friendship that develops between the two girls - Sadie and Ella. These girls show such strength and courage despite the circumstances they find themselves in, and while one is imprisoned in a sewer, the other doesn't have it all that much better.

While this book is set during such a horrific time in our history, there are so many parallels to be drawn to our current circumstances as we continue to deal with this pandemic. That feeling of being isolated from others, finding strength that you didn't realize you had, learning to be resilient and adaptable in uncertain times - these are all things that we have had to overcome and these are things both girls had to overcome as well. While not setting out to write a book that mirrors our current conditions, it's funny how it themes are universal in that way.

I loved this book and know it's one that will stay with me for quite some time. It's definitely not an easy read at times, but it's one that needs to be read and has such a great ending - one that shocked me for sure, but was just perfect for this book. I have enjoyed every book I've read by this author, but this is certainly my new favorite and I highly recommend picking it up!

Audio thoughts: I was able to grab this audio from the library and loved being able to alternate being the audio and print formats. The audio was narrated by a cast of narrators - Jennifer Jill Araya, Emily Lawrence, and Emily Peterson - all of whom are new to me, and I thought they all did a great job of bringing this book to life. They each brought a unique voice to their characters and infused just the right amount of emotion, tension and expression into their voices as needed.

About the author: Pam Jenoff is the author of several books of historical fiction, including the NYT bestseller The Orphan's Tale. She holds a degree in international affairs from George Washington University and a degree in history from Cambridge, and she received her JD from UPEnn. Her novels are inspired by her experiences working at the Pentagon and as a diplomat for the State Department handling Holocaust issues in Poland. She lives with her husband and 3 children near Philadelphia, where she teaches law.

Authors Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads