the first few chapters were okay and I enjoyed the setup but I found the voice of the main character be whiny. also, some of the characters were confusing. I found myself getting annoyed at the characters, the covers cool though.

I love the genre of historical fiction but I found this novel by Carol Windley very confusing.
There are lots of characters in the story and although the writing style is excellent, the time line changes are a touch disarming.
Thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy.

I want to thank NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for allowing me to review this book and give my honest opinion. This is a book that i started and stopped and picked up again and then put back down, jumped ahead a few chapters, put it back down. It was very hard for me to get into and so much going on that I just didn't connect with anyone.

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review..

I have mixed feelings about this title. Some of the characters and story lines were interesting, but there was so much going on and sometimes I just felt like I didn't care anymore.. I did like but as the book progressed, you saw how the character's has crossed and connected together. Once finished, I could look back and find enjoyment in the book as a whole, even though I didn't always enjoy the process of getting there.

I found this book a bit slow to get into, so much so that I set it aside for a few months! I gave it a good go on the second attempt and am glad that I did. There are many things to like about this book. I enjoyed exploring Eastern Europe in the interwar and war years, I found myself looking up art and books that are mentioned and I really liked the characters, Rozalia being my favourite! However there are quite a few issues. The pacing of it is all over the place. Natalia's childhood goes on too long (to the point that I stopped reading on the first attempt as I couldn't see where it was going!) and the story only really picked up for me with the introduction of Miklós and Zita. Then after a teeny tiny courtship of sorts, Miklós and Zita are married! No mention of the wedding at all, where there had been lots of descriptions of other things! Surely the marriage of the two main characters was worth a visit? Then in about 2 pages the book skips 10 years!!
Which leads into Part Two and Anna. In the blurb of the book Anna is barely mentioned so I was a bit confused when the author starts off with Anna's story as it took me a little while to work out who she is! Again in this part some events are drawn out and some are skimmed over, which was a shame as I would have liked more detail about these events. There are a few coincidences in this part too which I managed to overlook but I can see how they could be annoying for others.
There are a lot of characters, some are important, some aren't and it all got a bit confusing trying to keep up with them all. Maybe a character list would be good!
I think that this would have been so much better if it had been written as a trilogy to allow more time to explain things as there were some events I really needed to know more about, for example what Miklós got up to in the war, Franz and Reina's resistance work, more on Rozalia (maybe Miklós' childhood), more about Anna's mother and how she became a doctor and why Beatriz abandoned Natalia in the middle of nowhere to gallivant off with Zita?! And that's just a few examples!
The author clearly did a lot of research for this novel but I am left shaking my head a little and sighing at what might have been!

I love WWII stories and was really excited at the opportunity to read this book. However, it was too all over the place! There were a lot of characters to keep up with and the story itself was not engaging. The story jumped all over the place … from one time line to another which made it very confusing to follow. I was sorry that the book was not as wonderful as I had hoped. While the author did a lot of research, she needed major assistance in getting that down on paper in a pleasant way that would make the reader care about the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic (Atlantic Monthly Press) for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Book Review 🇮🇳📚

Book- Midnight train to Prague
Author- Carol Windley
Genre- Historical fiction

📍Yet to publish
(Nov 2020)

🚆This book describes story of Natalia who goes on world tour with her mother. At one train stop she finds great revelations about her father, the one she assumed dead. She also meets a great woman Dr. Magdalena Schaeffer who later plays an important role in her life. The story elaborates her journey, how she meets her husband, his absence, the way she sustains and finds a good friend Anna. This all is narrated with both the the world wars as backdrops.

🚆Natalia is falsely accused later for being a spy and is taken into a concentration camp. Further story leads to the epilogue which you will have to wait till November to explore!

🚆I personally found some parts to be very descriptive. Also some irrelevant characters were focused more than necessary. Instead the author could have focused more on the main plot.
I personally love historical fictional books and the thing that I loved about this book was that it focused on all countries that were being affected by world wars including the lesser written countries like Hungary, Czechoslovakia etc.

🚆I really don't prefer giving ratings to books as I know it's not easy to write a book and someone has put their soul and efforts into it.
But somehow this one just didn't click with me.
The description was exactly how I like my books- some fictional story set in world war backdrop but I couldn't connect much with characters that kept dropping and the shifting time periods.

📍Thank you @netgalley for an advance review copy in exchange of my honest review.

I am conflicted about this book! It took me awhile to get into it and just when I did, part 2 arrived with new characters to get to know and figure out. It took a bit long for the connection between the characters to reveal itself. However, the writing is beautiful -- so many beautiful lines and things you could quote. I could feel the heartache and pain that the characters experienced during the war. And the ending was beautiful.

The Scars of War
This is a story of two girls Natalie and Anna. It is the story of their lives from before the war , during the war, and after the war. It is the story of their families, friends and acquaintances . It tells the story of their politics, and the many places they lived and traveled. If you like history and are into politics in historical periods than you will like this book. It does jump around from one place to another.

The story in the book was a good story, however, I had a hard time reading it. There were so many different characters and countries. I was very confused most of the time and not sure where I was in the book. Sometimes I had to go back a few pages to find out where I was in the story.

It was tedious reading in spots because of the Political aspects written in the story. I could only read a little at a time and put it aside for later.

The story did get better toward the ending if the book but to tell the truth I was ready to be finished by then, I did finish reading it because I wanted to find out what happened to Natalie and Anna.

I thought the book ended a bit abruptly. I wanted to like the book. It sounded like something I would like to read. I just couldn't get interested so it took me a long time to get it read.

I do thank Carol Windley, Grove Atlantic, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Grove Atlantic. 11-02-2020

Midnight Train to Prague by Carol Windley was such a quiet and gentle read but still captured a powerful message. It’s one of those books that reminds me that not everything needs to be about pacing, or plot climaxes, or impactful messages. There can be important lessons to be learnt in the quieter moments in life as well.

When I read the blurb, I thought I was in for a sucker punch to my gut because of the atrocities of the Second World War. However, Windley chooses to skip past the graphic, leaving that to our imagination. Instead, she focuses on the characters, their lives before the war, and their motivations as they navigate through the increasingly difficult times.

At first, I was a little thrown by the style and choices made by Windley. However, I realized that it made sense since it all ties back to the fairytale of Water and Salt. Plain old salt doesn’t seem like a great metaphor for love, but when we realize how vital salt is for life, we understand how important the unassuming things in life are.

Likewise, by not focusing on the horrors of war or the heroics of those who resisted or overcame, Windley illuminates the idea that it is the small things in life that gives us hope and keeps us going. Things like a hot bath, the soil bringing forth fruit, having a meal with family.. it is these things that stitch the fabric of our lives together and helps us through the toughest times of our lives.

Diversity meter:
Jewish voice

Natalia Faber is a teenage convent school girl in 1920's Germany whose selfish mother takes her out of school to see the rest of Europe with her. It is on this adventure Natalia meets Dr. Magdalena Schaeffer whose family interconnects with hers into the 1950's. She marries a Hungarian count who is a news reporter and by trying to find him during the World War II she ends up in a concentration camp. Windley focuses on the history of Hungary and the dire consequences of speaking out during the Reich and the political unrest after the war ended.

This free book was amazing! We must never forget what happened in the war with the Nazi's! If you love historical fiction, this is a must read. I loved the main character!

I wanted to love this book, but I did not. The story was confusing and there were just so many characters. I appreciated the opportunity to review this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

I tried with this book, I really did, but had to give up on it at 1/3 of the way through because I had no idea where the plot was going and there were too many plot threads that had begun never to be picked back up again. I was drawn in by the cover and title of this book (Prague is one of my favorite cities in the world), but unfortunately I was underwhelmed by the contents. I do not often read historical fiction, so perhaps this book simply was not for me. The author has a promising writing style but unfortunately the plot was too convoluted for me to engage with.

2/5 stars

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3465901248

I really wanted to like this book. However, as much as I persevered I ended up unable to finish it. The story was interesting and the locations were really well described. Unfortunately for me the characters were unlikeable and I just found myself not really interested enough to continue. This is the first book I've given up on part way through in a long time.

I hate to give this book a 2.5 star rating. It was just not my cup of tea. The way the story was told was very matter of fact. This would be an ideal book for those interested in more the history than the story. I had a hard time getting through the book. It had a very slow start and unfortunately did not get much better from there. I enjoyed the characters. Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book.

Midnight Train to Prague shows the journey of Natalia Faber through World War II and the struggles of experiencing the war and the aftermath of the war.

Throughout Midnight Train to Prague, we are shown Natalia’s life story where she grew up, got married, and then when World War II started, got thrown into the center of it. Her mother, Beatriz, raised Natalia alone and had brought her up to become a really strong character which I really liked throughout the book and it was great to see that while both Beatriz and Natalia had a lot to go through in the beginning and in the story, they both stepped up and fought for what they cared about.

I gave Midnight Train to Prague two stars finding that while the story was definitely a good topic to read about, but it didn’t intrigue me. I am a huge fan of historical fiction so I requested to read this out of my love for history but when I started to dive into this book, I felt okay about it. The story was good to read about and the writing style was interesting but there were some parts that were unnecessary for the story and when reading I found that there was too much going on. There were too many character point of views and while reading it, there was no distinction as to who’s point of view we were reading from.

I found that this book was just difficult to process and the way the writing styles seemed to not fit the book made it worse. And the way to book was formatted (the ARC that I received), there was a lack of quotations and the omissions of some things were quite irritating. I also found that Anna’s story was unnecessary and just, in my opinion, disappointing when the book ended with her thoughts.

The story itself could have had so much more potential if there were things that I wish I would have liked more.

Thank you again to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, especially those set during World War II, so I was really excited to read this, that is until I read the first page. Immediately, I knew this would be difficult to get through, and I was correct.
First, I extremely dislike stories written in the passive tense. The author is telling you the story and while she does use descriptive sentences at times, she is not showing you what is taking place. Because of this, you do not feel involved or immersed in the story. Secondly, the use of quotations in dialogue and the omission in other parts was bothersome. I can appreciate it in certain styles of writing but did not find this to be that type of novel.
This read like a history book; the characters were pawns in the story. Anna did this. Natalia went there. The Nazis moved in. This one fled Berlin. It is tedious, tiresome and lulled me to sleep. Written in this way, you could not fully appreciate each character, however none were developed enough to appreciate anyhow. I cannot say I liked any of the characters enough to sympathize, hurt for their pain and anguish or loss, or feel relief for them. There were far too many characters for a book of this length, and at one point the author is speaking of so many characters and relatives in one sentence that she makes a mistake of whom she is referring to. The story of Anna could be eliminated, I believe, in its entirety and was disappointed to see the novel end with her thoughts.
The story itself is very thin, and perhaps there lies the problem; I can see, however, where there could be a good story, but as written, this is not it. I think the author had far too grand of ideas and in including so many, the novel falls desperately short.
1.5 stars

I found this one difficult to follow and just wasn't as compelling as other WWII era novels.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I had issues with this novel. FIRST...I received a bit of a snarky email from the publisher essentially criticizing me for not being a "professional reviewer" and forced me to subscribe to their email digests since I was only an "avid reader". While I totally get where they are coming from, business wise, I am a history and English teacher and do read a lot of novels for myself, my knowledge, my students, my lessons etc. So yes, I am NOT a professional reviewer and don't rack up the likes on my 3-sentence reviews, it doesn't mean I don't promote or use the books LESS because of my online presence. Anyways...

This book was a bit all over the place. It lacked finesse. I had to re-read big sections because I thought I missed certain aspects of the novel and I was confused. There were just a lot of ideas, a lot of characters and they didn't meld well together. The passive voice didn't bother me, like some reviews mention, but if a writing style doesn't flow or doesn't have an ease to it, then yes it detracts from the readability of the novel.

Overall, while I love historical fiction, WWII, and Eastern Europe, this one was a bit of a mess and I am left disappointed.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.