Imagine living in perpetual fear everyday because of your race. Imagine hoping that your family wasn't next. Imagine getting the opportunity to go and try to escape those that wish you harm. Eighteen year old Sadie Gault and her family are Jewish and have lived in Krakow, Poland for most of their lives. Their lives were pretty peaceful until the Germans invaded. They were forced to move into the Krakow Ghetto. Everyday got progressively worse for all the Jewish families.

One day while the parents of the Jewish children were at work, the Germans raided the homes of the Jewish families, taking children with them. Sadie heard the approaching soldiers and decided to hide in a trunk in her mother's room. It was only when Sadie heard her mother trying to kill herself that Sadie came out and showed her mother...she's okay.

Sadie's parents were afraid and tired of living like this and decided to come up with a plan to finally escape the hell they were living through. With the help of a sewer worker named Pawel, they created a hole and escaped into the sewer system under the most deplorable conditions. Unfortunately, tragedy struck and things for the family became harder for them. Until one day, Sadie decided to explore the tunnels and came face to face with another girl her age through the sewer grate. After that things take an interesting turn.

I must say this book was riveting; The writing was amazing. I will definitely be checking out more of Pam Jenoff's writing. Wow...just, wow. Huge thanks to NetGalley and Park Row books for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

“Because when people look back on the history of this time, at what happened, they should see that we tried to do something.”

Oh my heart. This book broke it to pieces and then gently put it back together, a little tender from the process but for the better. There were moments I wept, moments I smiled (despite the ever-present ache for these characters), and moments I even swooned a little. And most of all I fell in love with each of the major players in this story – their courage, their humanity, their hearts – and was struck by the parallels and juxtapositions between their tale and our current world.

The Woman with the Blue Star gripped me from the very first chapter and held me in rapt attention until the bittersweet end. I’ve read a lot of WW2 fiction, much of it written around the Jewish perspective of events and the variety of conditions in which they fought to survive. But I’ve never been introduced to conditions quite like these, and I am still recovering from the new awareness of such stunning situations and such brave resilience. The scene where Sadie and her pregnant mother realize that to survive, after already so great a loss, they must hide for an indeterminate time … in the sewers …. Y’all. I can’t even describe how my mind & heart & spirit viscerally reacted to this knowledge on their behalf.

That, because you are labeled with a blue star, forced upon you by an enemy who wants to eradicate you for your heritage, you must leave your comfortable and joy-filled lifestyle to be imprisoned in a ghetto where random arrests & killings are the norm. To then live for who knows how long in nearly complete darkness, with smells we do everything to avoid in our comfortable world. Sewage water all around you, soaking your clothing and shoes, seeping into your pores. Filth you can never escape. Forced to eat food that goes against your religion. Food dependent on the continued concern of a rescuer – and on the rescuer’s continued safety. All just to ensure you and your loved ones – and a remnant of your people – survive when so many others have not. I don’t think my safe, comfortable American lifestyle can truly comprehend the horror of such a change in circumstance. Even in the middle of a pandemic when circumstances have changed all around us, we are still so far removed from conditions like those Sadie, her mother, the family who escaped with them (and the actual, non-fictional others like them) had to endure.

Lest you think this book is heavier than you can bear, let me assure you that there is a thread of hope that lets in light to illuminate the darkness. In fact, those rays of light look an awful lot like sunshine flickering through a sewer grate to the murky blackness below. It looks like a hand reaching down to the pit – and a hand reaching up – in friendship and compassion. It looks like people of great courage enduring the unimaginable to conquer what seems to be an impossible opponent. It looks like sacrificial love, and it looks like the best of humanity standing strong even when the worst of humanity seems to be winning. Your heart may be bruised a bit from the reading of this beautiful story – it should be bruised a bit – but it will also swell with joy in the end. Because true Hope never disappoints us.

Bottom Line: There were so many moments in The Woman with the Blue Star when I held my breath, not knowing what would happen next or who would survive… or who was the modern-day woman in the prologue? Pam Jenoff expertly weaves together a multi-layered tale with a distinct skill that reminded me why I loved The Orphan’s Tale so much too. The smartly-written, shifting first person narrative connected me on a personal level with these characters, putting me in someone else’s shoes for a while, and their imprint will linger on my heart for a long time to come. This is a story not easily forgotten, and one that everyone needs to read.

(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book)

4.5 Stars

Sadie Gault had a dream of her future she looked forward to. However, the longer the German forces occupied her city, the quickly her dream crumbled like the buildings around her. But hope came from an unlikely ally she found in Ella Stepanek. A friendship that could save their souls, no matter how the odds stacked against them.

When I read books in a war setting, I want to feel the characters’ pain and suffering. This book is a bit mild on that aspect but it didn’t take away my enjoyment of the story.

Sadie and Ella might come from a different part of the city but desperation, survival, and humanity brought them together. I loved how they helped each other overcome their personal and shared adversity. I also enjoyed the addition of the supporting characters and the mild romance amid difficult situations.

The Woman with the Blue Star is a tale of friendship and survival. It would appeal to readers who enjoy Historical Fiction set in the World War II era.

A powerful and moving story of a two Jewish families forced to live in the sewers of Poland and a young woman who befriends one and helps them during WWII. Based on a true story, this is both heartbreaking and uplifting. It continues to amaze me all of the untold stories of perseverance and survival that occurred.

I would like to thank Netgalley for an ARC of this title. This novel is truly powerful and moving. I could not put it down. You get transported back in time, and you can feel every emotion these two young ladies are going through. I felt the fear, the love, and the sacrifice made by each woman all the way through. Pam Jenoff did a fabulous job of bringing these two women's lives to an astonishing real-life worldview. I would recommend this book hands down to anyone and will be using it as part of my reader's advisory at my branch. A must-read!

The Woman with the Blue Star, Pam Jenoff's latest novel was absolutely incredible! On a personal note, growing up in Israel, etched in my memory, is a woman's testimonial which was shared on Holocausts Remembrance day in our elementary school, about her survival of the war hiding in the sewers. I found this fact impossible to fathom, and, reading this novel, it all came sadly together. This book of an unimaginable journey of escape, hiding, family bonds, friendships, sacrifice and bravery was fabulous. Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for the e-reader for review. All opinions are my own.

Mediocre at best. I read this one on the heels of "We Were The Lucky Ones" by Georgia Hunter, which is a far more researched and compelling account of the occupation of Poland. Unfortunately, I found the characters to be flat, the writing to be elementary, and the title to really make absolutely no sense in relation to the story. I also didn't love the ending, which was very cliched and contrived. I think I just like my historical fiction to be more literary and less mass market. That said, it was a page turner and would work for someone who needs to get out of a book slump. Overall though, I think there are far better entries in this genre.

One of my favorite historical fiction books of all time!! I've been reading Pam's books for a long time and watching her evolve into writing this story has been so much fun!! I cannot say enough great things about this book. If you love WW2 historical fiction -- you need to put this on your TBR -- it's a definite must read for every historical fiction fan. Trust me the ending is worth the entire book!!

I have been reading a lot more historical fiction after taking a break last year, and this one is fantastic. Told from the POV’s of Ella and Sadie, this is one that should not be missed. Sadie is 18, living with her parents in the Kraków Ghetto during WWII, and when the Nazis come through and clear it out, she is forced to seek refuge in the sewers with her pregnant mother beneath the city. One day she looks up through a grate and sees a girl buying flowers. Ella is an affluent Polish girl living with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. Does she get along with her stepmother? Not at all. But she tolerates her, and one day while running an errand for her stepmother she sees something move in the grate in the street, and realizes it is a girl hiding below.

Ella and Sadie strike up an unlikely friendship and they become close, but their friendship is tested as the war rages on. This is where the book is just phenomenal, and I was holding my breath to make sure all would be ok. War is war and as such there is heartbreak and grief, but there are also moments of normalcy that Ella and Sadie clung to given they were still so young, and that just speaks to how well of a writer Jenoff is because I needed these moments as a reader as well.

This is a difficult and gut wrenching read for sure, but at the same time it is both inspiring and a true testament to the strength and resiliency of friendship and what we as humans can go through and still survive. The ending was spectacular, and overall just so well done. If you have not read Jenoff before, you really should fix that as soon as you can.

Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row Books for the advanced digital copy to review. This one is available now and it is not to be missed.

There seems to be no shortage of WWII stories. Pam Jenoff in her new novel, THE WOMAN WITH THE BLUE STAR (ParkRowBooks) tells yet another little-known historically based, story about what Jewish people facing extermination endured in their fight to survive evil.

As the Germans plow through Poland, Sadie Gault and her mother and father are forced to leave their home in the Krakow ghetto, where the Nazis have gathered up all the Jewish people. A simple man her father respected, a sewer worker named Pawal takes it upon himself to gather the Gaults and two other Jewish families and take them into the Krakow sewer system to hide. I can't even begin to describe their existence in the sewer system which Jenoff writes about masterfully. While down in the tunnels, Sadie looks up at a grate one day and makes eyes with a young Polish girl. This starts the very unexpected relationship of two women willing to do what's right for humanity, despite the danger of certain death.

As with all of her books, Jenoff's novels revolve around atrocities during WWII and the Holocaust, but offer a glimpse of hope, determination and respect for others. I believe her ability to focus on and make sense out of such a horrifying and sickening time in our history is her strength.

It is going to be really hard to review this book and not just force it on everyone I meet. Historical Fiction has always been a hit or miss for me, but The Woman With a Blue star was a great big hit. It is now on a list of books that are contending for my top 10 for 2021. I really love to pick out 10 for 2021.



I have to admit that I thought Krackow was the Polish name for Warsaw for the whole book. It is not. Once I did see that Krakow was a whole different city, things started to make a lot more sense. Such as the sewer open up near the river…I was like, what river?? Then I looked at a polish map and…felt kind of stupid, but there you go. It is never too late to learn stuff.

I couldn’t imagine how horrible the circumstances were in that they felt that the sewer tunnels were the best place to hide until they could get out of the city. As long as the German had control, German soldiers would shoot every Jew on sight. There was this one scene that really drove home about how bad it was under the Germans. The Germans found a Jewish woman and tried to arrest her, but when she saw she was cornered, she took her two kids and jumped in a river that most likely killed all of them. If a mother jumped, you know that it had to be equally bad if mothers thought the best course of action was to jump to their death.

This book also shows the power of friendships even when all the odds are stacked against them. I know many friends, and even I sometimes feel as everything is absolutely 100 percent a time. We think that if something or someone was evil, then there was no good in them. A Woman with the Blue Stars shows how many things exist in a morally grey area… I love to watch how Ella and Sadie’s friendship grew even though they were worlds apart. As e see things determining in Poland and how the Germans were flushing every Jew out into the camps, we also can see where love and friendship blossoms.

And yes, I said love. I am not going to say more than that, but after reading the book and knowing what I am talking about, feel free to hit me up. Needless to say, I was blown away when I read that. It is not often that I get the shock of reading things. I can usually tell what will happen because their author follows a trope, and most of them I have seen/read millions of times. Then there is The Woman With the Blue Star type books where the author comes up with a fresh way of seeing things, so when you are reading the Epilogue, it is so out there you spend all day making sure you read it correctly.

All in all, I LOVED this book. I loved it so much that I found Pam Jenoff’s backlist and will be working my way through them!

The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff

Set in WWII Poland, The Woman with the Blue Star introduces us to two young women from different backgrounds brought together by a chance meeting. The story unfolds in an alternating narrative between Sadie and Ella. Sadie lives with her parents in the Krakow Ghetto. They are faced with finding refuge and sanctuary with another Jewish family in the city’s sewer system. Ella lives with her stepmother who befriends and entertains German officers. After Ella meets Sadie through a sewer grate, they become friends, and Ella provides any help she can. This well-written and well-researched novel explores hardship, friendship, family, love, and resilience. I found this to be an incredible story of survival and sacrifice. If you enjoy reading WWII historical fiction, don’t miss this one!

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Pam Jenoff’s latest WWII novel is set in Poland. In the prologue there is a woman in her 70s who has traveled to Kraków to find some information to finally put together her story. She is trying to get up the courage to speak to another woman, a 90 year old lady sitting in the cafe. Although this sounds like it will be a dual timeline story, it is not. The prologue and the epilogue bookend this story with the present, but the rest transports us back to wartime and the friendship that develops between Sadie Gault and Ella Stepanek.

The story opens in 1942, with eighteen year old Sadie living in the Kraków ghetto with her parents. She looks a lot younger than 18, so her parents do not have her register to work. While the adults are away, the Nazis swoop in to find and take the children. Sadie hides and is safe, but many others were taken, never to be seen again. As this happens more often, Sadie's parents decide they need to leave the ghetto and go into hiding, just as the Germans are rounding up all the residents so they can close the ghetto. They head to the sewers, her father, her pregnant mother, herself and a devout Jewish family, the Rosenbergs. A sewer worker and friend of her fathers, Pawel, is their only link to the outside world. He brings them food and news until the day he doesn't come back. Ella Stepanek is dealing with a lot. Her father joined the Polish Army and never came back. Her stepmother is partying and collaborating with the Nazis. She tells Ella it is to keep them safe and provide them with what they need, but Ella is sick about it. She also loses all her friends because of her stepmother's actions. She is in the market one day, when Sadie just happens to look up and their eyes meet. Ella begins helping Sadie and they become friends, Sadie hanging around the market grate during the day is extremely dangerous for both of them, it only takes one person to notice something and alert the Germans.

This is a story based on true stories of Jewish people living in sewers during WWII, although the story itself is fiction. They were desperate for somewhere to hide from the Germans and not be sent to the concentration camps. I can not fathom what the Jewish people went through during this time to try and survive, some of them still being found. The characters in this story are well developed and elicited many emotions. These are characters who will be with me for a long time to come. I know when I pick up a Pam Jenoff book that it will be well-researched and extremely heartfelt. I read a lot of books involving WWII, and I am always looking for a new POV, one that shows me a new piece of what happened, and this one did just that. This is a story about survival in a horrendous place, sacrifice, the good and the evil of human behaviour, friendship, hope, and love. I recommend this book to those who read Historical Fiction, specifically WWII stories.

There's something about heartbreaking WWII survival stories that appeal to lots of readers. This one felt a little different to me, while still familiar with the WWII backdrop. It was told in two different perspectives: Ella and Sadie, one a hiding Jewish girl and the other a polish girl. They "meet" when Sadie spots Ella hiding in the sewer drain and become friends. This book felt much more like a survival tale opposed to a life during the war tale. It was beautifully written and heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

Oh my stars...this book was BEAUTIFUL! Heartbreaking but written so spectacularly. I can’t stop gushing about it!

These stories of survival during WWII never fail to annihilate me. This one in particular was a gut punch of emotion as people live in the sewer to escape the Nazis. And yet again, I’m struck at the strength they possessed and horrified at the lengths they had to go to just to merely survive. It’s a powerful story of courage and strength, loss and love. It’s inspired by true stories and while bleak, it also highlights the “helpers” who stepped in to help these families survive.

The Woman With The Blue Star is equally heartbreaking and hopeful. It’s a stunning book and the writing is extremely powerful. The sewer setting was unique and written in an excellent, sensory laden way. The characters were portrayed fabulously. I loved every minute of it and my life is better for reading it. 5 ⭐️

My thanks to @parkrowbooks for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff, grabbed me from page one, keeping me hostage until I finished reading it, later that day. I will warn you to keep a box of tissues nearby while reading this book. This is more than a survival story during the Holocaust; it is a story of connections, courage, remembrance and an unlikely friendship. It is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery in the face of evil.

Taking place during the 1942 Nazi assaults on the Jews of Kraków, eighteen year old Sadie Gault is forced to seek refuge in the dangerous tunnels beneath the city with her pregnant mother and another family. Peering through a sewer grate, Sadie catches a glimpse of a girl her age buying flowers. Ella Stepanek, an affluent Polish girl, is living well along with her stepmother, who has built close alliances with the occupying Germans. While on an errand in the market, Ella sees something moving beneath a grate in the street. When she looks more closely, she realizes it’s a girl hiding. Ella begins to help Sadie and these two become close, but as the dangers of war worsen, their lives are set on a dangerous path that will test them, especially in the face of overwhelming odds.

Ms. Jenoff wrote a tale, inspired by amazing true stories, that is an unforgettable testament to the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive. It is a journey of twists, turns, displays of bravery, and love that in unforgettable. I highly recommend The Woman with the Blue Star, a must read, to other readers.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

Departing from the typical historical fiction theme, The Woman with the Blue Star takes the reader underground and views life in a completely different way. Rather than fighting against Nazi Germany, Sadie and her family flee to the sewer to save their lives. The journey along the way is filled with plenty of loss, love, and friendship.

This book was thought provoking from start to finish, it was something fresh and new, and it definitely pulled at my heart strings. Told from two view points, the reader is given the view of life in the sewer as well as outside of the sewer fighting to help protect those living in the sewer.

The writing, as always, is fabulous and I genuinely enjoyed reading this.

I love a good historical fiction novel, especially those set during WWII. I was excited when I heard about this book because it was set in Poland, and I don't believe I have ever read another book about this time period that was set there. I always enjoy learning about a new place when I read historical fiction, which this book accomplished very well.

The setting was described very well. I felt like I was walking the streets of Kraków right along with the characters. There was such a sense of history in the feeling of the narrative, which can be difficult to achieve, that I thought Jenoff did very well.

As for characters, I have to say that both Sadie and Ella bothered me at first. They were both so very whiny. I understand that they were both dealing with really terrible and unfathomable circumstances that I am very privileged to not deal with, but I kept finding myself rolling my eyes at their seemingly ceaseless whining in the beginning of the story. After reading the rest of the book, I am glad to say that they both went through some significant, and much needed, character growth. I wanted to say this here because I'm not sure I would have pushed through with the book if I hadn't had to finish it for this blog tour. So, when you pick this book up, just know that the characters get much better as the book goes along! Don't give up on them! :)

Despite the beginning, I really liked the way that the relationship between Sadie and Ella developed. It was such a lovely demonstration of different circumstances in life yielding similar results: a girl very much in need of a friend. The give and take between the two girls was interesting and heart-warming to watch. I liked watching their friendship blossom as they both gained more maturity.

I found it so interesting that this book was based on a true story. The idea of having to survive in a sewer for months on end is both terrifying and inspiring. I absolutely cannot imagine myself enduring similar circumstances, but I guess anything is possible if you are given no other choice. The perseverance of these characters, and their real life counterparts, is truly awe-inspiring.

All in all, I found this book to be a good story of friendship, personal growth, and the triumph of the human spirit. The characters were not exactly to my personal taste, but it was still a really good read.

I gave The Woman with the Blue Star 3.5 Stars!

This story took all my emotions, tossed them in a washer—an old model, with an agitator—and left them to jostle around, spinning and clashing, so I came out soggy and spent, but somehow better because of it.

Set in Poland during WWII, we’re given the perspectives of two young women: one Polish, with status and relative security, and one Jewish, whose only way to survive is to live in a sewer. When their lives intersect by pure chance, both are faced with life-altering decisions.

The writing is beautiful, immersive, raw, and honest. While this story calls attention to the worst atrocities of modern humanity, it also emphasizes the power of friendship, love, and sacrifice.

Based on true events, The Woman with the Blue Star is a haunting read that will stick with you.

This was a powerfully written and emotion-stirring novel about the horrors of war and the ability to survive. I will be honest and state from the beginning that this was a hard book for me to read because the author did such a fantastic job of painting the setting and describing the events of 1942 Poland in graphic detail. As I read, I found myself captured by the story and the characters, but I was biting my nails and crying as I read parts of the story of Sadie and Ella, two unlikely friends. Sadie is a young woman, eighteen years old, when the story begins and has been moved by the Nazis to the ghetto, along with her family. Before the Nazis can clear out the ghetto and move all of the Jews there to concentration camps, Sadie and her family escape to live under the city in the sewers. Dark, smelly and filled with rats, the sewer was described in excruciating and heartbreaking detail. One day, as Sadie looks up through the grate, she sees another young woman. Ella’s father went to war and never returned, so she is stuck living with her stepmother who seeks to gain favor with the Germans by inviting them to parties at her home. When Ella and Sadie spy each other through the grate, an unlikely friendship begins and the story really took off. I kept waiting for the two of them to be caught and dragged away to some Nazi place of torture. What happens is what makes the story, so I can’t say much about the events following their propitious meeting. I can say that this story wrapped itself around my head and my heart and made me think long and hard about how thankful I should be for my freedom and the things I take for granted. This book was thought-provoking and well written as well as obviously well researched. It is an extremely emotional tale of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, the desperation of those desiring to survive and the friendship and hope that took place during these horrific times. Fans of historical fiction will not want to miss this book!
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”