This book begins in 1942, in Poland. Helena, a Christian Jew who works at the university with her friends, Jerzy and Risa. Risa, a Jew has been imprisoned in the ghetto and is about to have a baby. Helena and Jerzy risk arrest to visit her. They get there just before she dies but not until she asks Helena to take her baby. Removing the baby is a risky adventure but she is successful and raises Teena as her own.
The story bounces back and forth between WW2 and current day where we meet McKenna. Her grandmother asks her to find information about a sister she never knew she had. The relationships get a little confusing at times since there are so many unknowns. McKenna travels to Poland to investigate her ancestry and in the process learns more details about the occupation and “re-homing” of the Lemko people. McKenna enlists the help of Filip to track down information.
This book is a history lesson with love, faith, and adventure all thrown together. At times its joyful and uplifting and at other times heart wrenching, sad and tragic.
The stories of both women are very intriguing and I found it hard to put down. There are a lot of questions that come up. Who are McKenna’s ancestors? Did her grandmother really have a sister? What happened to Helena and Teena?
There is a glossary in the beginning that helps with the ethnic vocabulary and the author includes the historical basis for her story.
This is from the publisher’s website:
“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.”
I highly recommend this book, especially if you like faith filled, history based romance.
** A word about ARC books. Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs) are a preview copy and are not a finished product. They may differ from the final published work and may include additional editing.
