I have enjoyed several of Kelly Rimmer's books and when I saw it was available for request from #NetGalley, I couldn't wait to request this book. The only other book I have read about WWII and the Nazi occupation of Poland was in "All The Things We Cannot Say." I had no idea about the Jewish ghetto and the people trapped there. Elzbieta is a girl with a secret. She meets Sara, who lives in her apartment building and gradually begins helping her visit the ghetto and helping the people trapped there. She meets Roman, a boy trapped behind the wall, who is willing to do almost anything to defeat their German captors. I found myself reading chapter after chapter to find out what happened next.

The Warsaw Orphan is an incredible story about the heartache and devastation of WWII. This book follows the lives of characters living both inside and outside of the ghetto in Warsaw. Roman and his family are trapped inside the ghetto while Elizbieta and her family are just outside. Both families experience unimaginable pain while they wrestle with their inner desire to fight back. I fell in love with the characters and loved getting to experience both the highs and lows of their tremendous lives. Unlike many of the other WWII novels, I have read, this book offers the unique perspective of someone living inside of the ghetto. Get ready to experience the heartache and the joys alongside the amazing characters in this book!

Should I even be surprised that Kelly Rimmer wrote yet ANOTHER masterpiece?! I was worried at first, because I didn't think anything could possibly top "the things we cannot say," but alas...
My favorite thing is how this story existed in the same universe as "things we cannot say." I loved character development of minor characters from the previous book. So cool. Attention to detail, the research, the slow-build yet fast-pace... all of that made this story come to life. I usually take my time with historical fiction but I got through this in 2 days... could not put it down. Kelly, keep writing, girl!

If you're a fan of historical fiction, this is a book you will want to check out. it is not an easy read, but it is an important one.

I was familiar with some of the details in this book, but the author did a wonderful job of detailing the horrors associated with living in the Warsaw ghetto without the basic necessities of life, including food and water. This is an emotional tale. The reader can feel the characters anger, fear, and desperation. It is obvious that a lot of research went into this book. the political information was a bit overwhelming at times, but it did serve its purpose in the story.

Rimmer does it again with a great WW2 novel set in Poland. It follows Tomaz's sister from the previous book The Things We Cannot Say. I just felt like the last few pages could've been better and I really wanted an epilogue.

Rimmer delivers an intense story. A small enclave forms a family unit through external losses, pain, and war. The Warsaw Orphan runs the gamut of WWII in Poland: the ghetto, transports, resistance, Soviet payback, and communistic takeover. All the main characters play powerful roles and readers will feel the intensity of emotions. I thought, initially, the author was too ambitious with the range of time and events, but it all works. Although historical fiction, it depicts a terrible time in Poland’s history. The struggle to survive and also rebuilt courses through the narrative. Don’t miss this one.

A part of history I knew of, but I learned so much more.

Ms. Rimmel detailed the horrors of living in the Warsaw Ghetto with no food, no water, or the necessities of life.

Elzbieta and her family are well off if you can say that, and she begins working with Sara a nurse and social worker who lives upstairs. They also have been smuggling children out of the Ghetto.

Roman lives in the Warsaw Ghetto and is tired of what is going on but most tired of his family having to starve and dig through the trash for morsels of food so he begins to help with the cause.

We follow these characters throughout the war and after.

You will feel the terror, the anger, the desperation, and at times some hope that the characters are dealing with.

THE WARSAW ORPHAN is very heart wrenching but very well written, researched, and educational.

The political information became a bit much, but the story line still held my interest because I wanted to see how the lives of the characters turned out.

If you are a fan of historical fiction during this time period, you will be drawn in as well. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for sharing the story of Emilia, Tomasz' little sister from "All The Things We Cannot Say". If you haven't read anything about the Jewish ghettos established by the Nazis, you need to know some of what happened in Warsaw. I found myself cringing at the depravations and degradations that the Jewish people endured while trapped in those ghetto prisons. If' it's hard to read about, I can't imagine having to live it. The story of Emilia and her relationship with Roman, who lived with his family in the ghetto, is heart-wrenching and uplifting. I was just reading a fictional account of life in Warsaw during WWII and I was horrified, encouraged, sad, happy, etc. A gamut of emotions observing the indomitable human spirit in the face of unspeakable cruelty. Read it!

This book is scheduled to be published June 1, 2021. Be watching for it. Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Books for an advanced copy. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

This review is posted to Goodreads.

war-is-hell, world-war-2, Poland, historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, based-in-truth, family, family-dynamics, friendship, Warsaw, real-horror, childhood-trauma, children-in-peril*****

The beginning is so stark it could be a documentary. This is a truth-based representation of the ugliness of that time and place and the desperately hopeful actions by the few motivated by hope in a time of inhumanity. It is the tale of two teens from opposite sides of the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto and how, despite their own hardships, they were able to make a difference as the spectres of the death camps loomed. The descriptions are all too clear and the horrors all too real. Never again.
I requested and received a fee temporary Ebook from HARLEQUIN/Graydon House via NetGalley. Thank you.

One often associates the Holocaust with the Jewish people in Germany and not so often with those living in Poland. The Warsaw Orphan is a touching story of two teenagers, Emilia and Roman, who are brought together by fate in the Warsaw Ghetto when Emilia convinces her parents to allow her to help Sara, a nurse who is working underground to rescue Jewish children. The cruelty of the German and Soviet soldiers, the loyalty to friends and family, and the will to survive are all dealt with in a manner that makes this story and its characters believable. This is a story of loss and love. The author has created a work of historical fiction that is suitable for younger teens to adult readers.

The Warsaw Orphan is a gripping story of survival during the Second World War, The first page captured my attention until the last page of the book. I would highly recommend this book as Kelly Rimmer is an excellent storyteller.

5 stars. Kelly Rimmer has written another great historical fiction set in WW2 Poland about the unbreakable spirit of humans under extraordinary circumstances.

The Warsaw Orphan is a heart wrenching story about two teenagers growing up in Warsaw, Poland in the 1940s, trying desperately to survive the severity of the Nazi occupation. Fourteen year old Elzbieta is a girl living just outside the ghetto. She meets Sara, a nurse living in her apartment building. Soon she learns from Sara about what's happening inside the ghetto and is compelled to help. That's where she meets 16 year old Roman. They instantly bond.

Inspired by the real life Polish nurse, Irena Sendler (Kryzyzanowska) who smuggled thousands of Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto, this story is filled with love and hope. I've read many WW2 books but this one has a different bent as we see what life is like through the eyes of young people. In short, life becomes more and more fragile as the war drags on especially inside the walled off ghetto. I won't reveal all the horrors but living in cramped quarters, starving and foraging for foodscraps become everyday realities. If you ever get the chance to visit Old Town in Warsaw you will see it has been restored but the sewer covers are still there - where resistance fighters crawled to make their escape. The hardships endured there should never be forgotten.

As the world currently confronts a global pandemic that forces us all to remain isolated and masked I think about those that lived through WW2, like these characters, and my own relatives.. It's really not that difficult to mask up and stay your distance! There's no comparison to what Roman and his family, and others in the ghetto had to face daily.

Have your tissues at the ready. This one is not an easy read but it's worth it.

Many thanks to Kelly Rimmer for another winner and to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. #NetGalley #TheWarsawOrphan

Wow. Anger, tears, heartbreak, horror. And finally, hope. Ronan, a teenager, lives inside the Warsaw Ghetto. He is able to work and tries to provide food for his family. Sara, a nurse, lives outside the ghetto, and she has a passion for helping children. Elzbeita, also a teen lives outside the ghetto. She is not Jewish, but she too has secrets. These stories come together in the weeks before the uprising. Ronan helps in the organization of the uprising, then when the ghetto is destroyed he is involved in the last ditch effort to take Warsaw itself. I strongly recommend this book both for adults and teens as we need to remember the horrors of World War II.

Even the hardest heart could hardly fail to be moved by Kelly Rimmer’s The Warsaw Orphan. It is the kind of book that can grab you from the very beginning and keep you reading as quickly as you can until it is done and even then, it leaves you with lots of food for thought. I had the pleasure of reading it recently in advance of its publication.

Many novels have been written about the rebellion which took place in the Warsaw Ghetto starting April 19th, 1943. The first one that comes to mind for me is Mila 18 by Leon Uris. I most recently re-read it while touring Warsaw and was able to see the places in modern day Warsaw that Uris was describing. It is a powerhouse of a novel, and Rimmer's book moves me in a similar way. Her novel, however, covers a broader time period. It begins in the Warsaw Ghetto and the reader learns what life is like from the voice of Roman, a young boy in his mid-teens who lives with his mother, step-father, younger brother, and infant sister in the ghetto. Roman was baptized Catholic at the wish of his Catholic father and was not circumcised. He could have passed quite easily as “Aryan” and stayed out of the ghetto, but his family meant everything to him and so he stayed and did his best to help provide for them.

Throughout this novel we follow Roman and his participation not just in the rebellion of April 19th to May 16th 1943, but also in the later Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944 which was led by the Polish Underground Resistance Army, but on through the end of the War and the arrival of the Russians. One can take walking tours of the Old Warsaw area even today (It underwent massive reconstruction in the post war to make it as close in appearance as it could to what the Germans had destroyed.) and see the sewer covers where resistance members were able to escape using the sewers as a means of transit away from the Germans.

As I am writing, people globally are becoming increasingly angry and upset about the many ways in which the pandemic is affecting our lives. What we are facing now is nothing compared to what Roman, his family and so many others faced while living in the ghetto, where even a tiny scrap of bread could make the difference between life and death. Life for one, and death for another. As Roman described it: “If my time in the ghetto had taught me anything, it was that life might deliver blessings, but each one would have a sting in its tail. God might deliver us fortune, but never without a cost.”

Outside the ghetto, life moves on in its own fashion with both the good and the bad happening. It was still under Nazi control, but the ghetto was walled off and for your average Polish resident it was possible to look the other way and pretend that life really wasn’t so awful. Rimmer next introduces us to “Emilia”, a young adolescent living in Warsaw with her foster parents Truda and Mateuz, far from the tiny village where she was raised by loving parents. She was exposed to the horrors of war far too young and was forced to change her name and move to Warsaw in the hopes that her family history would not follow her and cause her to lose her life. Emilia is a curious girl, but wartime conditions mean that she has to stay pretty much confined to their apartment and as with young teens even today, this is a very hard thing to do. Emilia rebels in many different ways – not with any intent to harm, but out of frustration. Mateuz realizes “It is one thing to keep her safe, but surely our goal should be to keep her safe and sane.” (Oh, this could so easily be written for today!) And so Emilia is given the freedom to visit the courtyard for a brief time each evening.

Unbeknownst to Truda and Mateuz, she has made one friend, Sara, a nurse and social worker whose apartment is on their floor. Instead of going to the courtyard, Emilia goes to see Sara. It gave Emilia one small thing that she felt she could control. Ultimately, her visits were discovered. Over time, Emilia’s relationship with Sara leads her into the ghetto – almost as a student doing a co-op work experience, but not your typical work experience at all. It is horrifying and leads Emilia to connect with Roman and with many other children in the ghetto but there is something about Roman that seems to speak to her and they somehow forge a bond that will connect them throughout the rest of the war.

As a reader, I felt completely drawn into everything the author exposed me to through the eyes and voices of Roman and Emilia. I felt as if I was right there watching things happen. Their lives became more and more difficult as time passes and yet they went on. At the beginning of the book Roman is quoted as saying, “The Human spirit is a miraculous thing. It is the strongest part of us – crushed under pressure, but rarely broken. Trapped within our weak and fallible bodies, but never contained.” This was a huge take-away for me with this book.

Roman and Emilia face horrible things, torture for one and rape for the other and Rimmer captures the essence of what so many women through the centuries have sadly experienced as they live with the aftereffects of such horrors. I could go on and on, but one needs to read the book and discover it for themselves. There is so much deep content here and the book would be a wonderful one for book club discussion.

As advance reader, I typically have access to the author’s note and some historical reference. This was not present in the ARC which I read but I gather that it will be there in the published novel. I look forward to reading it as I feel it adds an extra level to my enjoyment and understanding.

Many thanks to #NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House and the author for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

This was a well-written book based on real events. However, due to the horrific truth of life in the Warsaw Jewish ghetto during WW2, it was so depressing I could barely make myself pick it up again. A word of warning: you need to be in an emotionally stalwart place to endure this. The whole book is basically a description of one catastrophe after the other.

Also, I never truly connected with the characters. Emilia was just an average girl who did the best she could in the circumstances. As for Roman, I found him intensely unlikeable. I get that he was grief-stricken and lashing out because he was powerless to change the situation he found himself in. But in my opinion, men of this sort (with their aggression and barely suppressed anger at the whole world) often resort to domestic violence in later life, when they are safely married. Ugh. The ending did address the issue, but I'm not sure if I buy this neat resolution.

All in all, this was a good WW2 book, but it was hard work for me to finish it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for giving me a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

A book which tells the story of WWII Poland from the view of characters living in two different parts of Warsaw
A good book for historical fiction

This book was hauntingly amazing and beautiful. It will stay with you long after you read it!!

Full review to come on my blog on June 1st. www.sleeplessreadmore.wordpress.com

I will be going back to read All the Things We Cannot Say to see if the character development from the first one gives me a better background in order to get the full effect of this book. There was something lacking. I can’t really say what, it just felt like this one was so much like several others I’ve read about the saving of the children and unfortunately it never took hold enough to draw me in and to get me completely engaged. Maybe reading All the Things will give me the missing pieces.
If you enjoy WWII books and have not read about the brave souls that risked their lives for saving the Jewish children, this may be one you will find entertaining.
I want to thank Harlequin along with NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC. This one receives 4 stars.

In the spring of 1942, young Elzbieta Rabinek is aware of the swiftly growing discord just beyond the courtyard of her comfortable Warsaw home. She has never given much thought to what goes on behind the walls that contain her Jewish neighbors. She knows all too well about German brutality--and that it's the reason she must conceal her true identity. But in befriending Sara, a nurse who shares her apartment floor, Elzbieta makes a discovery that propels her into a dangerous world of deception and heroism. Using Sara's credentials to smuggle children out of the ghetto brings Elzbieta face-to-face with the reality of the war behind its walls, and to the plight of the Gorka family, who must make the impossible decision to give up their newborn daughter or watch her starve. For Roman Gorka, this final injustice stirs him to rebellion with a zeal not even his newfound love for Elzbieta can suppress. But his recklessness brings unwanted attention to Sara's cause, unwittingly putting Elzbieta and her family in harm's way.

I had read Things We Cannot say by Kelly Rimmer but did not realize that this book was a continuation of that story until I read the author's comments at the end of the book. It is based on the real life heroine who saved thousands of children from the ghetto during WWII. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this awesome book.