I really enjoyed this! An interesting account of Norway during the second world war. Not a place I have read much about! Nice to see the daily life of the Norwegians during the German occupation of their country. A very different story to most other WWII books I have read!

This was the third in a trilogy, which I did not realise when requesting the Galley...however I found it did not matter at ALL that I had not read the previous books! Everything still made sense and it worked as a standalone, although of course some things (eg. Leif!) would probably have been better with the background. But I have to say I am glad to have not read the first two, and as much as I liked this book I will not be going back to fill in the gaps, because in one of the previous books Mari's beloved dog was killed and I definitely do NOT want to put myself through that heartbreak!

I wish I'd had the chance to read earlier books in this series before jumping into Mari's Hope, but this still made for a really enjoyable story that I think will be well-enjoyed by middle grade readers. I've been on the hunt for anything tied to WWII that would work for this age group, and I love that this one also shows life in a less often represented country. We all need a little more Norway in our lives!