Book reads: this week, fiction!

I am not sure why I chose this week's book(s) as such. In the emotional stress of this week, reading about the struggle and survival of the WW2  occupants (even if it was fiction) seemed a bit counterproductive to my mental health. However, I truly enjoyed these books and highly recommend them... 

So today's book post is from Jean Grainger. I read the first book and while it had an ending that you could leave with, I wanted to see the overall ending (that's the sequel). Reading the back of the book, I had a sense that The star and the shamrock were about 2 women that dealt with WW2 and the kindertransport. I came to find that while it starts out with these 2 women (cousins by marriage), the real meat of the story is, in fact, a "whodunit" type of story with a dose of romance in between. The key factor (the Jewish German mother who sends her kids to the cousin by marriage) only shows up in the beginning and at the very end of the first book while the second book is mainly her story with the cousin's life tossed in. The foster mother (Cousin Elizabeth) finds her self pulling up her bootstraps after 20 years of surviving (she lost her husband and consequently her child in the first world war) and taking in these 2 kids and helping them survive and thrive, fist in Liverpool and then in a little village in Ireland. You get the sense of how the Jewish refugees lived in this village and ultimately a sense of community between Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic that come together in the midst of this war. There is a German spy that touches on the IRA/Hitler connection and a love interest all tied together as well. The second book is about the biological mother (Ariella) of the 2 kids in the first book and her survival and escapes to her 2 kids as the destination. In this book, you see the struggle of its German citizens involved in hiding. You see the fear and divide but also its community pulling together, those people who helped and those people who hindered. This character also finds love within the family that hides her. 
These books, overall, are about the pull and push of its cultures and communities and ultimate win in this time spot of its 6 years.  


  

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