This book definitely ranks in the top for WW2 memoirs. I am not sure where these women got their bravery from! I am constantly aware reading these types of memoirs just how brave so many had to be as well as sacrifices they made along the way. But they knew they had to stand for what is right and just and in fact did so!
I am glad these memoirs exist for future generations to know what was happening in the world and how brave our ancestors had to be.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

historical-figures, historical-places-events, history, family-dynamics, fan-atic, bravery, British, rescue, opera-stars*****
Ida Cook (1904 to 1986) was a British campaigner for Jewish refugees and a romance novelist as Mary Burchell. Ida Cook and her sister Mary Louise Cook (1901–1991) rescued Jews from the Nazis during the 1930s. The sisters helped 29 people escape, funded mainly by Ida's writing. In 1965, the Cook sisters were honoured as Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel. Between 1936 and 1985, Ida Cook wrote 112 romance novels as Mary Burchell and in 1950 she wrote her autobiography, We Followed Our Stars.

Bear all this in mind as you read about two ordinary young sisters in England who determined to do some very outrageous things in the 1920s, such as saving up from their ordinary jobs to go to see a fantastic opera singer in NYC by taking the latest steamship there and back! They continued to do so repeatedly until Hitler began destroying people and countries.
Once the need to help people escape their terrorists, the sisters devised and implemented plans to help where they could with no thought for themselves.
This a great and memorable tale written by a simple and unassuming woman. Don't miss it! And it would be nice if you bought one for your local library as well.
I requested and received a temporary ebook copy from HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada)/Park Row via NetGalley. Thank you!

The Bravest Voices definitely one of my favorite books of the year, the story of Ida and Louise Cook written by Ida herself has really moved me and made me feel many things that I really didn't anticipate.

The Bravest Voices is the story of two sisters who helped immensely during WW2 doing the impossible even risking their own lives to save many families who were in danger, smuggling jewelry, fur, everything they could so the families they rescue will have a better life in another country or place where they will be welcome and safe.

Ida shows us from the beginning, how it all started, how their love for the opera was the main reason they started to save jews. Ursuleac and Krauss were a huge key for this to happen, two opera singers of that time that we get to know more in this book.

The friendship between Ida, Louise, Ursuleac, and Krauss was amazing, I feel like during those times people were kinder and more trusting than now at days. I admire how Ida and Louise save money for many, many years just to be able to watch their favorite singers across the ocean. and that's what they did, they saved, they travel, and they help many in need.

There were many opera singers helping Ida and Louise but nothing like Ursuleac and Krauss I really became a fan of them just by reading the story, I even started playing their music in the background to get to know more about these two characters that were so important in the lives of many Jews.

in The Bravest Voices, we get to learn about each family how they were able to be saved by Louise and Ida, what they had to do. The hardest part was the waiting, how many had to wait for years and even months to be able to escape because everything had to be planned very carefully not to make any mistakes.

one of the things that I really love about this book is the stories we get to know that usually, we don't get to hear about WW2 especially if the story involves women.

the part that really broke me was when Ida says it was the first time she was really considering murder because of the things she was hearing on daily basis, I really felt her so much at that part, when I read those words, I was asking myself "how can you be helping all those people and not feeling like you wanted to kill someone" the evilness of the Nazis was something I have never understand, and I'm grateful for Ida to show that vulnerability but at the same time that strength when it came to those evil people.

we also get to learn more about the stories of people who couldn't go out in time but later they were able to meet and tell their stories to Ida and Louise.

I can write more and more about this magnificent book but I really don't want to give more away, this is a book that will change your life, that will teach you how everything is possible and if you have a kind heart and the will to help others everything will be even better in your own life.

Thank you Ida and Louise for your courage and your bravery and for your love of Opera.

I was not familiar with the Cook sisters or their role in helping people escape Nazi Germany, but I found Ida Cook's memoir (of the years from their youthful discovery of opera, through the efforts to save those who tried to escape Hitler's Germany, through their personal experiences of the Blitz) a touchingly human experience of courage and resilience.

First published in 1950 as Safe Passage, republished in 1976 as We Followed Our Stars, and again in 2021 as The Bravest Voices.

In the 1920's the sisters discovered opera and were dedicated fans of both conductors and opera singers. The first of the book deals with this era of saving meager salaries to attend performances. I'm not an opera aficionado, but the love of these two young women for the music and for the performers was impressive.

The second section deals with how some of their operatic friends became involved with aiding escapes from Nazi Germany in the late 1930's. Austrian conductor Clemens Krauss and his wife his wife Viorica Ursuleac first introduced the sisters to the dangers of those trying to escape before being killed or put in concentration camps. The sisters used the excuse of attending operas to get in and out of Germany to arrange safe passage for refugees until war broke out. Krauss scheduled operas that aided their efforts.

After war closed the borders, and it was no longer possible to aid refugees, Ida describes her own families experience with the Blitz. At one point she mentions the bombs hitting the book centers and the books and burning pages spread over London. It reminded me of the photograph of a boy reading books outside a bombed book shop during the Blitz.

Ida Cook also wrote Harlequin Romances under the name Mary Burchell, and I'm tempted to see if I can find a book still in print.

There is a certain innocence in this book and a freshness of voice that kept me engaged. I may never fully appreciate opera, but Ida Cook's descriptions of different voices intrigued and surprised me.

I truly enjoyed this book which gives another view of WWII experiences.
In 1965, Israel s Yad Vashem named Ida and Louise Cook Righteous Among the Nations. Ida died in 1986 at the age of 82, and Louise in 1991 at the age of 90. In 2010, they were posthumously honored as Heroes of the Holocaust by the British Government.

NetGalley/Harlequin
History/WWII. Jan. 19, 2021. Print length: 256 pages.