This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I thought that this book was really well done. I enjoy historical fiction every once in a while and stories set during World War II really appeal to me. I am always on the lookout for something a little different and the premise of this story grabbed me right away. I love the fact that this book is based on a true story and was eager to see how a woman was able to hide within a PoW camp. Once I picked up this book, I was hooked right away and didn't want to put the book down. I am so glad that I decided to give this book a try.

At the start of this story, Izzy is a farm girl in Czechoslovakia and Bill is a prisoner at a work camp that has been assigned to assist at her family farm. They are drawn to each other from the very beginning and fall in love in moments when they are able to steal a bit of time together away from everyone else. They marry and escape only to be captured a short time later. This is when things start getting very dangerous for both Izzy and Bill.

I felt for Izzy and Bill from the start. They both just wanted to be together but a war that they could not control had the potential to take everything from them. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for Izzy to live in fear of being discovered and how difficult it must have been to hide her gender in the living conditions within the camp. Bill was in constant fear for Izzy and was willing to do whatever it took to protect her.

This was a really powerful story. The descriptions in this book were very well done and I was able to form a mental image of what the conditions in the camp were Bill, Izzy, and the others that were in on their secret. Everything from their constant state of hunger to the physical pain was vividly described. I felt like I was there with them as they fought to take another step and leaned on each other for support.

I would recommend this book to fans of historical fiction. I thought that this was a very well done and powerful story. I will admit that I would have loved to see a little bit about what happened to each of the characters after the story ended but I realize that most of the people being released from these camps would never know the fate of those they had come in contact with during their incarceration. I would not hesitate to read more of this author's work in the future.

I received an advanced review copy of this book from Penguin Publishing Group - Berkley.

Jim Dale again and I loved every minute of this one. On to the next. :)

Not to my taste.

Tale the first features a h and her bestie getting caught up in the mists of time and finding themselves in Scotland long before indoor plumbing was invented. Add to that, the convenience of the H and his band of merry men being on a rieving mission to steal his would-be bride (steal her and marry her in some random priest's hut as opposed to a formal arrangement between families. Gotcha). I mean, I suppose it wasn't bad, but it's hard for me to get past the 0-60 aspects of it. But then there was that position where we're beat over the head with the fact that her buttocks and labia are skyward (that's what it said. :shrug: )

Tale the first reminds me of a book I read sometime last year. I'd swear the book author read this and decided to improve upon it. Basically the H is a dragon, the h is trying to get something from him, and as he discovers quickly, she's his mate. Irritants - that 0-60 aspect, coupled with bdsm.

Tale the third is an alien abduction, with the H being a dragooni or something like that. The h spends several days in an induced sleep while getting "prepared" for mating while she's awake. The impression I got was that the H (and with this sort of thing as a norm, I'm using that term v. loosely) was boinking her while she was drugged out of her mind. Then expected her to be all warm and fuzzy about things when she woke up. Frankly I would have been out for blood. Also, this is a menage.

I loved reading this series 9 years ago.  Now I'm listening on Audible, and it is an absolute pleasure to revisit and go on the adventure again.  Jim Dale is the narrator, and he is phenomenal.