*Dual timeline / Dual first person POV
*25% Auschwitz / 75% Life after
*Feels YA, not adult.

I so badly wanted to love this one.

For me, this story felt like it was told by someone who has heard all the terrible stories; but hasn't actually lived them. I wanted it to hit deep down. I wanted it to hurt. But unfortunately, I really struggled with the overall emotion and connection with this book. Much of the dialogue felt robotic and unnatural, as if the characters were reading from a script. The content was very light and definitely felt like it was written for younger readers.

The twins themselves are very loveable and it was very easy for me to wish for a happy ending for them both.

However, the second half of the book is heavily segmented. You are given a few pages for aged 21, a few pages for aged 23, a few for 24, and so on. This formatting felt jarring and rushed, like we were just skipping past as fast as we could so we could get to the ending.

I think this book would be better suited to younger readers who are just starting to learn the atrocities of war. This could be a good opening for them.

What a great read this was. I thought that I knew all that there was about Auschwitz. and how wrong I was. This was a harrowing read describing what Dr Death (Mengele) did in his genetic research and how this particular set of twins settled. I was captivated and loved the way that it was written. I have to admit that for the first few chapters I kept going back to get the characters really clear in my mind and that helped me understand more. Shari Ryan has done an immense amount of research into this topic which is very obvious when reading the story.
I cannot give enough praise and only wish that I could give it more stars as it is well worth more than the 5 I have given, I loved it and the emotional ride ended so well which i some ways I was not expecting it to be such a pleasant ending.

Oh my word ... what a story!! I don't think there are any superlatives that captures adequately how I felt about this book and how good it was ... I was breathless and on pins from the very first to the very last word.

The story is told from the viewpoints of Jewish twins Arina and Nora and from multi timelines from their life with their parents in Hungary, through the horrors of being twins at the hands of the monster that was Mengele in Auschwitz and their road to rebuilding their lives in France and the USA.

It is a powerful story of survival, loss, resilience, hope and the power of love; I was absolutely rivetted and devoured it in quick time and have no problem recommending this to those of you who love getting totally immersed in a wonderful book that will have your emotions in tatters and my thanks must go to Bookouture and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Stolen Twins.

Can I give a book more than 5 stars? Shari J Ryan always blows me away with her historical fiction stories. They are emotional and heartbreaking. Each one focusing on a different topic from those times. The Stolen Twins was a story filled with tears, heartbreak and survival.
Get those tissues ready because this story will leave you emotional throughout. I couldn’t put it down. Twins Nora and Arina are separated from their parents at Auschwitz and subject to the horrors of the camps and medical experiments. This story follows their journey from the camps, to surviving, and trying to navigate the world after.
These two young women define what it means to be strong and how to survive against all odds.
This story is powerful and emotional. It’s a must read by those who love historical fiction and those that want to open their minds and hearts. It’s a story about rebuilding and survival. A standing ovation to Shari for another winner!

VERY EMOTIONAL, BUT I COULDN'T CONNECT WITH THE WRITING

This was without a doubt an emotional rollercoaster. The story is raw, heartbreaking and hopeful. But I was constantly thrown off by the writing, which took me out of the emotions and into annoyance more than once.

👍 What I Liked 👍

Emotions: This book had me crying more than once. I cried from sadness and I cried from happiness. Arina and Nora's stories are so heartbreaking - everything they went through not just at Auschwitz but also afterwards; readjusting to life, coming to grips with the things they had gone through, the losses they had suffered, the lack of understanding from their surroundings. It cut straight to my heart.

👎 What I Disliked 👎

Writing: What bothered me from the start was the writing. It was definitely not to my liking. It felt super highbrow. So many weird sentence constructions, that felt way too long and complicated to be gripping. It felt as if Ryan was striving for intellectual, sophisticated and flowery, but to me it came off as trying too hard and all together unrealistic. It just rubbed me the wrong way.

Dialogue: The dialogue also suffered massively from the highbrow writing. Honestly, most of the dialogue didn't feel real or plausible. Nobody - especially not teenagers speaking a foreign language - speak the way they are depicted as speaking in this book. It made it hard for me to connect with the characters. It just didn't sound like the way two teenage girls would talk - even if they had been forced to grow up way too quickly.

The Stolen Twins is gloriously poignant in the very best way. Shari Ryan's words once again had my heart in my throat as she gives us a most incredulous story of twin sisters and the hell they endure at the hands of Josef Mengele and his horrific experiments. This author has a true gift in how she portrays this most difficult time in history, giving survivors a strong and vibrant voice no matter what they may have experienced. And with Arina and Nora Tabor, she not only gives them the strength to survive but the grace in order to digest and come to grips with everything thrown in their paths to true freedom.

I loved the back and forth between the past (1944/45) and present (1946/47) as we get the full story of how Arina and Nora were taken from their lovely little lives in Hungary and placed in Auschwitz with their parents. How they were unceremoniously ripped apart from their beloved Mama and Papa, placed together where the 'Angel of Death' could perform surgeries and other catastrophic tests. It's all so surreal, it still amazes me that this occurred. But all of the torture and mishandling of Nora, in particular, is not what I would say is the crux of this book. What is that center, is the struggle for both sisters to reenter the world, one that is vastly different from what they once knew. To figure out how to be the Arina and Nora of before and find a future where they can find peace and each other once again.

With so much at stake with every turn of the page, I appreciated Ryan's ability to give each sister the gift of love in the form of a man whose touch could soothe even the worst of days. How Arina was brought out of her bitter state by someone who simply wanted to understand her while Nora found real love with a fellow twin and survivor when she never seemed all that interested in the opposite sex in her former life. Each brings a respite to all that these sisters have suffered through and offers a way to fill the hole in their hearts where their family used to be.

I very much enjoyed this book and how it felt as if we are right there with Arina and Nora at every step of their incredible journey. I was overcome with emotion more than once with what transpired yet I found myself still able to find the beauty in this author's prose as she guides us through the girls' past and present with great care. Feeling what they feel, hating the world they were forced to abandon, wanting to give up hope that life could be bright again, and finding love and incredulous luck just when they least expected it. Secondary characters, both helpful and not, added greatly to this story. We get to witness the very worst and the very best that humanity can offer these two wayward women and Ryan offers a realness not often found in books like these.

Although hard to put down, I will say I would have liked perhaps one or two more chapters before we are thrust into the future, 10 years down the road. I simply felt as if with Nora, specifically, we as readers experienced so much with her speech and leg issues. that a bit more in both her and Arina's POV wrt the aftermath of what was proposed for her could have been relayed with more detail.

But overall, this is a powerful page-turner for sure with Ryan offering up her research perfectly in giving this time in history a much-deserved view once more. I am forever curious about the Holocaust and the need to make sure current and future generations never forget all that happened during that troubling time in history. Shari Ryan continues to be a leader in this historical genre with The Stolen Twins another beautifully written and compelling tale.

4.5 stars.

I love anything in this genre and Shari Ryan knows how to write them well! This was a great story of love and sacrifice, and one you will not want to put down!

A beautifully written, heart wrenching story of twin sisters Nora and Arina and their story. You WILL cry, so be ready and have tissues at hand. Can the sisters survive to tell their story themselves? You’ll have read and cry your way through to find out.
It’s well worth the read!

As a rule I tend to stay away from novels that tug at the heart strings. I like supernatural horror, a who done it or a dose of historical fluff. But this book intrigued me from first sight. The art work on the cover, the title (old and new) and the blurb. I knew i had to read it no matter how sure I was that it would be a tear jerker.

And this book did not disappoint.

A fantastically written story of human courage overcoming the horrors humans can inflict. While this book doesn't go into forensic details of the horrors and crimes of the Death Camps, it doesn't hold back on some heart breaking and stomach turning evils war.

Set in different time periods and covering several stories, Shari J. Ryan weaves together tales of love, survival and hope with a well rounded group of characters and well written story telling.

Grab this book for a weekend read along with tissues and a glass of wine or two

The Stolen Twins is a gripping and heartbreaking story of young twins that survived the inhumane suffering of Auschwitz and the search to find each other and life after liberation.
Normally something written this beautifully would have me devouring it in days, however I found that every page and every line had me filling with so many emotions I could only manage a few chapters before having to have a short break. The Stolen Twins will have you reaching for a box of tissues and riding an emotional roller coaster like never before. A powerful story which will stay with you and one highly recommended, if I could give more stars I would.
Thank you, Shari J Ryan, for being the voice of the stories that should never be forgotten.
I would like to thank Bookouture, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this complimentary copy for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Wow - what a book! I’ve read a lot of historical fiction books about Auschwitz and The Holocaust, but never one about this specific topic. I became very invested in the storylines of Arina and Nora, and felt a lot of emotions whilst reading this book. I teared up several times, and it takes a lot to make me cry when reading a book! This book was really hard to put down as I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened at the end. I loved all of the main characters, and this was close to being a 5 star read for me. There’s something about this book that stopped me from rating it 5 stars, but I’m not sure what that thing is. Overall I loved this book, and I highly recommend it.

OMFG, I cried. Absolutely brilliant book. I really enjoy reading books about the concentration camps, but I have never actually read one about the experiments Dr Mengele did. This brought home what the Germans really did to the Jewish Polish Hungarian communities throughout WW2. I cried and sobbed my heart out throughout most of this book.
Brilliantly written, really grabbed me and pulled me into the world of writing.

I couldn’t put it down ! A beautifully written book about strength , courage and love in dark times. A must read when you need the reassurance that love triumphs over all.

This unique book follows two twins as they are separated in the Auschwitz concentration camp. They don't know if the other is alive, or what happened to them after they were separated. The story follows each girl after the war as they transition back into daily life, as orphans.

I really liked this book because it gives a glimpse of how holocaust survivors had to go back to daily lives. Usually WW2 books show the during. This shows the during, the after, and a glimpse of before. Wonderful story!

Breathe….. wow I haven’t read a book like this since Mischling. The Stolen Twins by Shari J. Ryan is a book, based on a true story. that will rip your heart apart and then put it back together. Reading about children during the Holocaust is one of the most difficult topics for me to date and then add to that, that the children are twins being experimented on by one of the biggest monsters of our time, Joseph Mengele.

“Why isolate people? We’re all people, just people. I can ask myself this question a thousand times a day, but we all know the answer. It’s because we aren’t people of Hitler’s master race. We are Hungarian Jews, not Aryans.”

“There’s no way to control the pain from slipping in and out of our lives, but we must find a way to protect our hearts.”

Arina and Nora’s spirit, and determination are awe inspiring. Elek might be my new favorite human on the planet along with Helena and Dale. These three compassionate people brought an incredible amount of love and hope to Arina and Nora making their lives worth living.

The entire time there is nothing you will want more than a happy ending for Arina and Nora, but will they get it?

This book captivated me from the very first word to the very last. Though it is an extremely difficult read it is a must so that we never forget this horrific time. You must have Kleenex at hand through the entire book.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Shari J. Ryan for continuing to write books about the Holocaust. It is so important. This is the first book of yours I have read but it won’t be my last. This book will be ready to read February 14, 2023.

A tough read in spots but know that there's light ahead. Nora and Arina, twins, find themselves in the clutches of Dr. Mengele, who was beyond evil. Both twins suffered and then were separated. At the end of the war they find themselves in different countries on different continents, each alway wondering what happened to the other and to their parents. No spoilers from me but know that Ryan has written an emotional novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of WWII stories.

Heartbreaking account of twins in a concentration camp. Arina and Nora were brought with their family to a concentration when the girls were 14. As the guards came through looking for twins, their mother offered them up, thinking it would give them a chance to live. The girls were separated from their parents and sent to live in the prison hospital where they endured torture at the hands of Dr Mengele. I enjoyed the present day as well as the past retelling of their story, being saved and what came after and the difficulties they faced, along with finally finding love.

Thank you @netgalley and @sharijryan for this #gifted book!
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Title: The Stolen Twins
Author: Shari J. Ryan
Genre: Historical Fiction
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Synopsis: “Our future is a question mark. Whatever we are today could be something completely different tomorrow, and there’s no way to change that.” Arina and Nora have always been close, best friends in fact, and some would even say they are closer than most because they were born with the beautiful bond of being twins. But beauty fades when they are transported to Auschwitz, and instead of a blessing, their bond becomes a curse. Medical experimentation has torn their lives apart and left them hopeless and separated after the war. What became of each other? What hope is there? What will become of their future?

Analysis: Medical experimentation is a sensitive topic to write about, but Shari J. Ryan does it so well. She brings in the harrowing trauma that many twins faced in the Holocaust and builds a beautiful story of hope in the face of tragedy. Her characters, Arina and Nora, deal with the full spectrum of emotion from anger, resentment, and despair to happiness, healing, and hope. I loved the dual timeline and perspective that showed how each twin processed everything differently. This is a sobering read, but a bittersweet tribute to all those who lost almost everything.
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Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

An interesting and sorrowful look at the experiments done by Doctor Mengle and the emotional scars that were left by the children that lived.

Oh this book! It was hard to get through but what book about Auschwitz isn’t? The twin experiments were something else, I can’t believe the inhumanity that took place. But now living in 2023 I feel like we get closer and closer to it everyday which is sad. These stories are important to try and prevent history from repeating itself.