You need to have the tissues close at hand for this emotional tear jerker. Nora’s and Arina’s story is heartbreaking. It’s a roller coaster ride of drama and sadness. The story was so well developed. An awesome read. Ms. Ryan never disappoints.

I adore Shari Ryan’s writing style and was excited to read this after recently finishing another of her novels. While the story was an important one to share about Dr. Mengele and the atrocities he carried out on many sets of Twins in Auschwitz, I felt this one was a little predictable. It did not have the usual “edge of your seat” writing that I am used to with Ryan and I could foresee how it was all going to end.
Not my favourite by this author but definitely worth a read.

The checked out the audiobook as well. It had great narration and really made the characters come to life.

Thanks to Net Galley and Bookouture for the advanced copy.

Wow! Any book by this author is just amazing!

It's about two twin sisters Adrina and Nora who are experimented on by the SS doctor in Auschwitz.

The emotions that come from this book are intense and kept me reading to see what happened.

The story has survival and second chances and hope at the end of these sisters journey.

Highly recommended.

This is my first book by author Shari J. Ryan and I am glad I had a chance to read the book and get to know her writing style, mainly because I like to read stories that are placed during WWII. I liked the story about twin girls Arina and Nora born in Hungary but ended up in Auschwitz where Mengele was doing his experiments. After their survival, they were separated and sent to France and the US not knowing what happened with the other members of the family.
The story is told from multiple POVs so we have a chance to see how both girls live their lives and what happens to them after the war. Will they find love, happiness, and peace in their soul...you will have to read by yourself.
I enjoyed reading it and will definitely read other works by Shari J. Ryan.

World War II is ranging on and so many lives have been changed and lost. Arina and Nora are twin sisters that, have never in their life, spent a day apart from each other. They ride the train with their mother and arrive at the horrible place of Auschwitz. They are quickly separated and their future is completely uncertain. When the war comes to an end, Arina and Nora age out of each of their group homes. They must overcome everything that has happened to them and do everything possible to reunite with each other. But first they must find each other and that will be the most difficult task of all.

I loved The Stolen Twins written by Shari J. Ryan. I am a huge fan of Historical Fiction and this author never disappoints. This heart-breaking and inspiring tale will have you flying through the pages. I didn’t want to stop reading once I began this fabulous story. I felt emotional heartache for Arina and Nora the horrible things they endured. This story is filled with the phenomenal courage, resilience and survival of even the youngest of children. This moving story is a tough book to read with an emotional storyline and I highly recommend it.

The Stolen Twins is yet another well written historical fiction novel by Shari J. Ryan. The execution of this story is one of her best to date in this genre, which I believe to be suited for Ryan perfectly. The central focus is with twin sisters Nora and Arina during the period of 1946-1949. The story is written in alternating POV between the sisters. While this is a work of fiction, there are similarities to actual events that took place during the Holocaust. Such accounts are heart-wrenching. but Ryan does a superb job balancing them with heart-warming and poignant passages that have stayed with me long after reading this novel.

The Stolen Twins is an extraordinary story that only Shari J. Ryan can create.

Many thanks to Shari J. Ryan, Bookouture and Netgalley for the arc.

I'm fascinated by anything to do with the Holocaust and it's always bemused me that Mengele deemed what he was doing to those innocent people acceptable.

Based on true events, Ryan seamlessly blends fact with fiction creating yet another historical masterpiece. Her writing bringing the story of Nora and Arina to life throughout the pages.

The Silent Twins is both heartbreaking, yet positive and their story will wreak havoc with your emotions.

Ryan is fast becoming one of my go-to authors for historical fiction.

Many thanks to Bookouture for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture!

It is rare you find a Historical Fiction based around World War II that can balance life post incarceration, life in camp, life during liberation and life after. However, The Stolen Twins has and has done so beautifully.

Without getting long winded or boring this book is able to tell the full life story of two twin sisters who survived the horrendous acts of Dr. Mengle. As heartbreaking as this story is it is one that leaves you with mass amounts of gratitude. Gratitude for freedom, love, loyalty, determination, family and faith.

This is a story that leaves you wanting to do and be better not only for yourself but for the world as well.

Near the end of WWII, identical Hungarian twins Arina and Nora have been swept away from their parents at Auschwitz, and to begin with, all they have is each other. Until they are spilt up by the treacherous Dr Mengele who loves to experiment on twins, especially as he has found a difference in them. One twin fares better than the other when the camp is eventually liberated.

They are sent in different directions not knowing if the other is alive. The story then moves onto life after Auschwitz for the girls, they fall in love and try to live some sort of life, reliving nightmares, and dealing with physical disabilities but a part of them is empty and missing the other.

The courage, love, and strength between the twins is extremely strong, they never give up looking for each other even when the other is halfway around the world.

The Stolen Twins was a book I couldn’t put down. I needed to know if they found each other. Once again Shari J. Ryan has excelled in her ability, this time to write such a detailed account of the horrors of Auschwitz and those at the hands of Mengele with such a powerful force and emotion.

Totally worth 5 stars! It has to be on your historical World War II fiction to be read list!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nora and Arina, fifteen-year-old twins, were living a contented life in Hungary with their parents. All of their lives were turned upside down when the family was taken to Auschwitz in 1944. As soon as the train arrived to this terrible destination, Nora and Arina, as well as the other children, were separated from their parents. Soon they heard a German soldier shouting for twins. Their lives would never be the same again.

An SS doctor named Josef Mengele was performing experiments on Jewish children, especially those who were twins. This often heartbreaking story, told from both Nora and Arina‘s perspectives alternately, is shockingly based on a true story. These girls went through adversity that was utterly brutal at times. However, they were both strong girls, and this touching story turned into one of hope. The story shifts back-and-forth between one and the girls were fifteen and seventeen years of age. Together at the age of fifteen, this was not the case when they were seventeen. Nora’s case was especially difficult, as she was born with a stutter, and the brutal doctor performed a devastating experiment on her that left her worse off than imaginable.

Arina was able to get the United States, but what she wanted more than anything was to be reunited with Nora. Plagued with guilt over what happened with her sister, Nora experienced strong feelings of doubt, fear and anger. Meanwhile, Nora struggled in the worst way imaginable after the failed operation, but what kept her going was the hope of finding Arina once again.

Shari J. Ryan writes the most effective and compelling stories that are based on one of the darkest times in history. Reading the author’s note at the end of this incredible book will help readers understand her motivations in writing such incredible stories. Desperate for Nora and Arina to be reunited once again, as well as Ryan’s powerful storytelling, kept me turning page after page in this book that left me and complete awe. In fact, this emotional story was also one of survival, with sweet bits of romance threaded through the pages, leading to wonderful epilogues at the end. Thank you Ms. Ryan for providing another incredible story, one that will be with me for a long time to come.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Please enjoy my YouTube video review - https://youtu.be/hcQ6PYHLQRA

The Stolen Twins by Shari J.Ryan had a name change after I read this heart breaking and incredibly moving story. Previously, it was titled We Only Had Each Other which I do think suits it better but despite the name change for whatever reason this occurred, I still found this to be a book full of raw emotion, loss, horror and incredible courage in the face of the utmost wrongs enforced upon the innocent. The story is centred around twins Arina and Nora who live in Hungary and how their lives were torn apart by the war. The chapters alternate between each twin and within each chapter the story moves back and forth between the past and the present. Admittedly, I found this swapping between timelines within a chapter instead of separate chapters quite disconcerting and frankly confusing at first and therefore it took me some time to get into the rhythm of the story. But when I did I became fully engrossed in the plight of two sisters with a deep bond who were separated through the actions of the cruel Dr. Josef Mengele, otherwise known as the Angel of Death.

The story opens in May 1946 as Arina is on board a ship going to America. For more than a year she had been nothing but a number and a statistic but now she is an orphan, not knowing the whereabouts or final outcome of her twin and parents. Arina has been through many horrors and as she is still a minor with several months to go before she turns 18 she is sent to an orphanage in Chicago. From the outset the reader can see that both guilt and anger eat away at Arina. Guilt that she didn’t do enough to stay with her twin and that she has to remain in a world without the person she loved the most. She questions what gives one person the right to life over another? I thought this quote from Arina summed up perfectly what many people decades later still think. ‘I’m still left wondering how an army of people can wake up one day and decide to hate everyone who doesn’t mirror their blonde hair and blue-eyed genetic profile. There are cruel human beings who won’t accept anyone different from themselves’. She is consumed by anger that the entire process and the devastation and abject barbarism occurred in the first place resulting in the loss of her family. The twins may have had different opinions and personalities but no one can deny the bond they shared deep down that one man was determined to break.

Arina had had a happy childhood with her twin sister Nora and parents Danica and Henrik living in the town of Debrecen in Hunagry but being Jewish now the Germans have invaded their lives are under threat. Innocently, they say ’We have no choice but to be brave and believe everything will be ok’. But when the Nazi’s take all Jews from their homes and send them to ghettos and work camps they know things have taken a serious turn and there probably will be no way back to their normal reality. Following time in a ghetto, they are shipped to Auschwitz and separated from their parents.

Nora and Arina are selected by Mengele and taken to a separate scientific laboratory. Measurements are taken and experiments begin. A nightmare which will always be unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. I still can’t comprehend how a doctor was allowed to study and dissect humans for his own personal gain and to solve his questions regarding genetic anomalies. These were innocent people the twins story just being a drop in the ocean as to the hundreds of pure and honest people whose lives were eradicated. They were nothing only lab rats and playthings for the amusement of others and because of Nora’s imperfection she paid the ultimate price of bring mutilated and savaged. Arina hides her real emotions deep down and puts on a front of sorts to those who try to help her. Initially she refuses to engage in the therapy sessions that were organised for her. Miss.Blum tries to get her to open up which eventually she does in short outbursts of rage and the story that unfolds is one of bestiality and bloodthirstiness filled with unlawful inhumane practices.

I appreciated how the author did not spare any ghastly details which in turn conjured up the most heinous of images in my head whilst reading. They weren’t added for shock value or to add dramatics to the story. Instead, they needed to be there to make the reader conscious of the experiments carried out by Mengele if they had not been so before. At some points I simply couldn’t fathom what I was reading and how things were carried out with such a blasé attitude with no regard for the final outcome or due care given to those experimented on. This was certainly an eye opener of a read for me in more ways than one.

Loneliness is a theme that features heavily throughout the book and perhaps for Arina this is the strongest emotion she feels. Loneliness isn’t a curable disease. It’s a life sentence’. Dale who is in his late teens and works doing odd jobs at the orphanage feels a connection to Arina and tries to alleviate some of this but as the questions remain in her mind and erode away at her she can’t fully connect with him or try and look forward to a future when she is old enough to leave the orphanage. She needs solid answers but will she ever get them?

I thought it was brilliant how we also got Nora’s side of the story and at the same time we knew how Arina felt in relation to what occurred at the camp and in the weeks and months that followed liberation. The guilt and self-blame become a huge burden for her and to be honest I could really see why she held that viewpoint and in a way maybe she had to endure these emotions for a long time in order to even to begin to process what she had been through. As for Nora, due to her having a stutter, is the twin whom even more cruel and deprived experiments are carried out upon leaving her incapacitated. I felt Nora removed herself from what was going on. Not physically but almost spiritually that she was like a spirit floating above her body seeing what was happening but not fully realising it was her. She isn’t filled with rage and anger as Arina is but I think Arina is so gung ho like this because she wished it had happened to her instead of she being the one separated and left alone without more detailed inflictions. Nora is the character you really feel the utmost sympathy for although sympathy is really too light of a word for the emotions she stirs within you. I won’t say too much more regarding Nora as her story is inspiring and you should read this heart wrenching yet important book for yourself.

Once I got used to the back and forth within the chapters I found the book to be well paced and very well plotted. I particularly liked the last quarter of the book which could have descended into things becoming too far fetched and just too coincidental but in my mind they didn’t. I was eager to see how things would unfold as you find yourself shouting at the pages and characters for certain things to happen that you are desperate to occur. I liked how we got a good solid ending with a few twists and turns. No doubt about it The Stolen Twins, was an eye opening read and certainly a worthy addition to the World War Two historical fiction genre.

The Stolen Twins by Shari Ryan is a most heart breaking and powerful historical tale that consumed me from the start.
The story is set 1944-1947 in Europe and the United States. It is told from the alternating points of view of Hungarian twins Arina and Nora, in both the first and the third person. The tale swings between 1944 and 1946 until the earlier time catches up.
As we hear the girls stories, the reader is horrified at the cruelty and of man’s inhumanity to man.
The main body of the tale is set in Auschwitz as we witness the horrific actions of Dr Mengele. As Shari Ryan describes the scenes, we recoil in horror, knowing that the reality is far more horrific.
Even in Auschwitz there were pockets of kindness as fellow prisoners risked their own lives to show kindness.
To survive, one needed a lot of luck and also hope, hope that one day it would all end and hope that loved ones would be re-united. Without hope, the people perish.
After the war, life continued to be hard. The stories from Auschwitz were so awful that people even wondered if they were true. “Reliving these stories no one will ever believe.” Finding out that reality was far worse than the imagination, created feelings of guilt in those who had not believed.
There was survivor’s guilt too. Why were they alive when so many had perished?
The bond between the twins was strong and it was beautiful to see. They held on to hope that there would be brighter days ahead and that there was goodness out there.
The Stolen Twins was such a powerful read. It is a tale that needs to be told in memory of the six million innocents who perished and also in memory of the survivors.
I will leave you with a powerful quote:
“We deserve nothing that happened to us, but that doesn’t mean we are going to let our past define our future.”
I received a free copy from the author via Net Galley. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.

Twins became Dr. Death’s playthings as he conducted all kinds of heinous experimentations on them at Auschwitz.
Ryan pens a chilling account of twins Ariana and Nora Tabor and how they both suffered.
I liked how the author threaded the story together, creating individual identities for each girl and bringing them back together.
The worst part is reading about all the experiments, it will put one‘s teeth on edge.
The book is an example of although having seen the worst jaws of hell humanity offered, life still can be redeemed and loved again.

Yes, many died at Auschwitz. I just wish authors would write stories of the triumphs beyond the liberation. Interment affected everyone and everything. This writer is known for historically based Holocaust stories, and I admit I have never read her work prior to this. It's an important genre considering the call to ban the actual history, but IMHO this book is maudlin. It will probably be a money maker for the author but I didn't like it.

[ Disclaimer:I received this book from NetGalley and chose to read and review it]

The Stolen Twins by Shari J. Ryan is an utterly heartbroken and emotional WW2 historical fiction.

The story travelled mainly between the POVs between the Jewish Hungarian twin sisters Nora and Arina in the WW2 time and 2 years after the war. Nora was born with stutter and she had never been separated with her elder twin sister Arina even for hours. However, the war had changed them.

The twins and their parents were unsurprisingly sent to Auschwitz. Dr. Mengele was interested in experimenting the twins topic and since then...the lives of Nora and Arina had totally changed. The separated twins had strong faith that each other were still surviving.

After the war, Nora and Arina were sent to different parts of the world. One in Europe, another in the US. Living under the trauma, it was always hard to imagine their lives. The author Shari wrote the story in a gripping and emotional way, which made me finished in one sitting and trying not to cry...

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. All opinions are my own.

I was a little worried that the Stolen Twins would be more graphic about the disgusting experiments done to twins, but the story over shined the gruesomeness.

I really enjoyed that this was a not often seen aspect in WW2 fiction, the rebuilding of lives and the emotions involved. It's a wonderfully written book that was able to incorporate 4 points of views without being confusing, and I confuse easily.

I have no words, but I’m going to try to give this review. Holy crap. This book will be in my top 5 books of all time. I will never forget it.

This book is so beautifully written. The prose is just extraordinary. Each character was so unique and well written, with emotions that felt so real.

The story was horrific, yet told so beautifully. As an avid reader of Holocaust historical fiction, this is one of the best books I’ve ever read on the topic; the details are horrifying, but somehow the book is written in a way that gives the reader hope and feel love for the characters.

The ending was absolutely perfect. No spoilers, but it shocked me and it wrapped up the book so well. I could not have written a better ending myself.

The ONLY thing I will say about this book is that, with the two perspectives, both having two timelines, it was slightly hard to keep track of who was when was what, but I did get the pattern eventually and both timelines and perspectives were necessary.

I recommend this book to every single person ever. This topic is so important to read about if you can, we mustn’t forget about this time in history. Check your trigger warnings, as this book is extremely heavy.

I will also be posting my thoughts on my TikTok account shortly, @iammadeofbooks so stay tuned for that.

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this book.

When Nora and Adina Tabor accompanied their parents on the cramped train, it wasn't through choice. It was 1944 and after thinking they were safe, suddenly all the Jews from a small village in Poland were headed to Auschwitz, not knowing what their futures would be. On arrival, Dr Mengele (although they didn't know who he was at the time) called for any twins in the crowd to come forward. Nora and Adina had been born fifteen minutes apart, Adina the eldest. What was ahead of them would be two years of horror, neither knowing if the other was alive, nor if their parents were either.

On liberation, the Russians were kind and all survivors were put into the safe hands of the Red Cross. But the emaciated and wounded who made their way out of Auschwitz were both mentally and physically scarred. Would they find any of their loved ones alive? And even if they had survived, would they find one another again?

The Stolen Twins originally titled We Only Had Each Other (which I think suits it better) by Shari J. Ryan is another heartbreaking yet heartwarming, poignant and incredibly moving historical novel which thoroughly engrossed me from the very beginning. The horrors that Mengele butcher who called himself a doctor, performed on Jewish children - his experiments - were shattering. Both Nora and Adina were outstanding characters, strong and courageous in the face of adversity; Helena was another such person. I knew that Mengele performed experiments on twins, but I hadn't read a story about it until now. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good twin story! This one is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Arina and Nora Tabor are Hungarian Jews caught in Hitler's net in 1944. They are sent to Auschwitz along with their parents. Dr. Mengele is looking for twins and their mother makes a snap decision to send the girls to the research building. Did she make the right decision? Two years later the two are separated by an entire ocean and do not even know if any of their family members survived the camp. How can that be? Will the two find each other and learn about what happened to their parents? What will they do once they have turned eighteen and are sent away from the orphanages that provide food and shelter? The experiences of these two young women are a reminder to show compassion to our neighbors. While I was entertained by this story, I must say that I felt there were just too many coincidences bringing about an very happy ever after.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Loved that the author was brave enough to write about such an infamous and cruel person. Usually I adore her books and make sure I have boxes of tissues with me while I read, however, I couldn’t connect to the characters in this one. I’m not sure if it was the dual timelines plus dual point of views but it was a hard read for me.