Liz Tolsma: What I Left For You

By Kelly Bridgewater

A Family's Ties Were Broken in Poland of 1939   1939 Helena Kostyszak is an oddity—an educated female ethnic minority lecturing at a university in Krakow at the outbreak of WWII. When the Germans close the university and force Jews into the ghetto, she spirits out a friend's infant daughter and flees to her small village in the southern hills. Helena does everything in her power to protect her family, but it may not be enough. It will take all of her strength and God's intervention for both of them to survive the war and the ethnic cleansing to come.   2023 Recently unengaged social worker McKenna Muir is dealt an awful blow when a two-year-old she's been working with is murdered. It's all too much to take, so her friend suggests she dive into her family's past like she's always wanted. Putting distance between herself and her problems might help her heal, so she and her friend head on Sabbatical to Poland. But what McKenna discovers about her family shocks everyone, including one long-lost family member. 

 

My Thoughts:

What I Left for You by Liz Tolsma brings light to a small culture that has been erased by the Nazi's during World War II. She does a wonderful job at creating a story to show the lengths a mother would go to find her child again. Even put her own health at risk. Tolsma shows the horrors of a concentration camp with truth and grit. She does not shy away from the horrors inflicted on the bodies of these innocent people. The plot is not that much different than a lot of the World War II novels that I have read. Yes, Tolsma based it on true stories, and there are tons of them, but it is hard to be different when the plight was felt by so many of these people. The setting was definitely different with the small, uneducated people being forced to move and forget their heritage. Overall, What I left for You by Liz Tolsma was a World War II novel that tugged at the heart, but ends in a happily-ever-after meeting.

I received a complimentary copy of What I Left for You by Liz Tolsma from Barbour Publishing, but the opinions stared are all my own.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Liz Tolsma: What I Promise You

 By Kelly Bridgewater

A Family’s History Is Lost to the Ravages of WWII in Southwest France

1942

Noémie Treves, a young, pregnant Jewish woman, had her entire world shattered when she is arrested and taken to the Camp de Rivesaltes transit camp in Southwest France. No sooner does she arrive, though, than she assists in helping two young girls scheduled for transport escape to a nearby maternity hospital. The matron there befriends her and changes her name to help hide her. But nothing goes according to plan, and Hannah finds herself doing the unimaginable to save one precious life.

2022

Caitlyn Laurant is haunted by recent events in her life and hopes becoming a nurse on the mission field will help her forget. While in training, she and her friends travel to France where her grandfather was born. What should have been an easy search for his birthplace turns into anything but and reveals secrets that no one alive has ever heard.

 

My Thoughts:

What I Promise You by Liz Tolsma goes into World War II France and the Concentration camps. It is bad enough with all the horrors that men, women, and children had to suffer while being tortured in those camps, but can you imagine being pregnant at the same time. No energy. Cravings. Sickness. Trying to eat enough good food to keep your baby alive. Those are hard enough for mothers in the modern age. Let alone be in a concentration camp where they are trying to kill you. Tolsma does a wonderful job at creating a storyline that tugs at the heart of the reader and makes them empathize with Noemie. Every World War II story that I have read does show a new level of the disgust and hatred of the German Nazi’s. At least, in Tolsma story, there was not a lot of cringe-worthy moments. A safe, yet unique story. The plot features a modern young lady who through she wanted her life to go way, but through the help of another character, she realizes maybe that is not where God wants her to go with her life. A touch of romance. A surprise yet fulfilling ending to the story. Overall, What I Promise You by Liz Tolsma showed another element of World War II that I was not familiar with, but at times, the story does move quite slowly for my taste.

I received a complimentary copy of What I Promise You by Liz Tolsma  from Barbour Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating:   3.5 out of 5 stars

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