I enjoyed The Forest Of Vanishing Stars. The plot concerns a young German girl who was abducted by a mystical woman from her Berlin home and brought to the forest. As time goes on, the old woman reveals that she is teaching the young girl how to survive in the forest for a specific reason. When the old woman dies, Yona has lived in the forest for 20 years and has learned everything the old woman had to teach.
When WWII begins, more and more people come to this seemingly vast forest in order to escape the Nazis. Naturally, Yona meets them and tries to teach them how to survive in the forest. She discovers love and its heartbreak before she ultimately finds true love with a man who is worthy of her.
In a plot twist, Yona meets her true father who has become a high-ranking Nazi officer with the power of life and death over the Jewish people she has come to love in the forest .
I enjoyed this book a great deal. The plot and its plot twists were believable and it was obvious that a lot of research went into the writing of this book

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. I love historical fiction especially WW2 specific novels and this one was a very solid read! There were some heartbreaking moments and Harmel did a beautiful job.

Kristin Harmel is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! I so enjoyed The Forest of Vanishing Stars and have been recommending it to all my friends. The charactes were engaging and I was invested in the story from the very beginning. I knew nothing about this specific aspect of history and enjoyed learning about it. I did feel like the "magical" element of Jerusza could have been left out. I didn't really like that aspect, but it was not enough of a problem for me to rate the book any less than 5 stars!

The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel is an excellent book! I have read over a hundred books this year, and this is a top ten for sure. Following a young girl who is taken from her parents and raised in the woods, we grow with her and discover what it means to be alive. When she comes across some Jews hiding in the forest during WWII, she does everything she can to help them survive. Along the way, she will learn about friendship, companionship, and love. Very well-written. Very absorbing. Very intense. I adored the story and the people. I would love to keep on reading about them! Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book. #all_the_pages

I am a huge fan of Kristin Harmel and her latest book did not disappoint. It took me a bit to really get into this one. At first, I was unsure of what I was reading. It had a bit of a fantasy/magical realism element to it that I wasn't quite expecting. Once I got a handle on it though, I really enjoyed this book and learning about this cool part of history.

Fabulous book! I have read other books by this author which have been great reads and this one did not disappoint. The story line follows a girl taken from her parents to live in the forest with another woman who teaches her the ways of the world. This woman has premonitions of what things that can happen and conveys it to this young girl. This young girl, Yona, grows up to teach the jewish people that were hiding in the woods how to survive in Poland during WWII. It is historical fiction but having heard many stories of people that had this experience it wasn't far off from the truth. Interesting story from a different perspective of survival during WWII with a strong woman as the main character. A must read for all.

3.5 stars, rounded up
A unique take in the abundance of WWII historical fiction

A tiny bit of magical realism, a hint of romance, detailed information about surviving year-round in a forest, and fact-based stories of Polish Jews during WWII makes this novel an engrossing one. The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a survivor story of Yona, who learns the secrets of the forest from an old woman who kidnapped her and of the Jews she taught those skills too.

Some of the phrasing tends to be a bit trite, “Don’t forget to listen to yourself. No one knows what’s in your heart but you.” But the strong characters and continuous dilemmas overcome these occasional moments. Some of the connections seem forced – like Yona meeting her real father who is an SS officer. I particularly enjoyed how Yona knew how to find food sources in the forest.

The author’s notes on the historical elements of the novel are very interesting. I appreciated that during all the horrible times, an element of faith shines through Hamel’s writing. “Even in the darkness, that light burned. God was with them all along, in the big moments and the small.”

This book checked all my boxes, so why didn't I love it? I think the slow pace of the book made it hard to get absorbed into the story. I also didn't buy into the relationships that were happening. I did appreciate learning about the struggles of the people who were able to hide in the forest and learn to live day in and day out. I was a piece of World War II history that I wasn't aware of.

I loved this book. I truly cared for Rainey, Liam and Maverick. This book has everything--conflict between classes, high school drama, first love, and tragedy. Maverick, Rainey's little sister, has a heart problem and is mostly confined to home because of her illness, but she is a positive, loving and happy person and Rainey adores her. The feeling in mutual. Maverick is anxious for Rainey to find a boyfriend, but when Liam comes along and he is not from the same social class as Rainey and her fiends, problems follow. I am an avid reader, but I admit to being surprised by the ending. I did like the epilogue that tells how everything finally turned out. I will surely recommend this book.

I have read numerous books on the Holocaust & WW2, fiction and non-fiction. What I found most interesting about Harmel's book is learning about the Jewish populations that survived in the wilderness. A fascinating read.

At the age of two, Inge is kidnapped from her German parents. Rechristened Yona, she is raised in the wilderness by Jerusza, an elderly mystical Jewish woman. She tells Yona her parents were evil, and she teaches her about how to live in the wild. She is convinced that Yona needs to learn these things for a reason. Jerusza dies after World War II starts and Yona discovers groups of Jewish people living in the forest. She realizes her purpose in life is to help them survive. Will they be discovered by the Germans?

This was a fascinating historical fiction novel. It felt like a mystical or magical realism book at times. I looked it up as it seemed more like a fairy tale than a real story. What I found online and what is included in a great afterword to the book is that this was indeed a true historical event. Jewish people did flee into the forest and did have a large-scale settlement that was able to hide from the Germans until the end of the war, the Bielski Partisans. The Bielski Partisans are mentioned in this novel. There is also a 2008 movie called Defiance about the Bielski Partisans starring Daniel Craig. I need to watch this.

I loved Yona as a character. She felt called to help people, but she also felt a deep loneliness in life from her strange upbringing. I’ve always enjoyed survival novels and did like how her she is able to use her knowledge of the forest to survive herself and to help others. I like how she had to learn to live with people as well and I also enjoyed when she fell in love. It was also interesting that Jerusza implied that Yona was predestined for her role in helping others. Do you believe in predestination?

Favorite Quotes:
“We’ve all lost so much. When we find happiness, especially where we didn’t expect to, we must hold it close with all our might, don’t you think?”

“Every time a good soul dies, I think the world gets a little darker.”

“Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

“I’m broken, too. But sometimes it’s the jagged edges that allow us to fit together. Sometimes it’s the breaks that make us strong.”

“You have to remember one thing for the rest of your life: hardship teaches a person life.”

Overall, The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a unique and fascinating World War II historical fiction novel. There is a lot out there in this genre lately and it’s great to find new aspects of it.

Book Source: Review Copy from Netgalley and Gallery Books. Thank-you!

This was a story that I was really super eager to read and I'm so glad I did because it really blew my mind. it was a book and story very out of the ordinary at least for me I haven't read something so real, with a character that was very bold and strong like Yona.

This is the story of Yona a young woman who was raised in the forest by Jerusza a woman who thought her everything she needed to know to survive the ugliness of the War including the evilness of her own family.

Yona is trying to survive in the forest, she is now alone after so many years living with Jerusza who helped her to grow. while Yona is trying to survive the cold winter and the hardness of the condition of the forest she will come across several groups of people who were trying to escape the War. she was their only salvation nobody knew the forest better than Yona.

I love Yona's character especially when she encounters a few soldiers and had to fend herself, she was strong bold, and never shown any weakness this is probably the part that I really love. a heroine that was never weak or deter to do what was right to help others.

Yona broke many promises in order to help others, some of them even betrayed her in the worst possible way but still, Yona was an impeccable heroine. The secondary characters were good some of them were terrible, I really didn't like Aleksander and the other woman, he was a very weak character, very naive, he jeopardizes the safety of many for his terrible decisions.

Zeus's was one of my favorite characters, as he was also very intuned with Yona no matter what he was also strong bold and knew what to do in the forest, he was always a leader with a kind heart.

The Forest of Vanishing Stars was beautiful, a great book to lose yourself enjoy the adventures of Yona

Not my favorite by this author but still a good story about WW2 eith a German heroine who was raised in the woods away from
Civilization and helped other survive.

As the granddaughter of a WW2 Veteran, I have been interested in that era for years. I have read a lot of books on the topic. This one was so different than all of the others. It was a beautifully tragic story. There were parts that were very difficult to read, but overall, it was a wonderful book.

A cross between the movie Defiance and Where the Crawdads Sing, this is a book that reminds one that you are not defined by who your blood is from but by the choices you make. Born the child of a future Nazi officer, Yona is stolen away & raised in the woods by her kidnapper. Taught how to survive, Yona gains a kinship with the forest. A respect that it’ll provide safety in the ever changing times. When she comes upon Jewish escapees in the forest, she quickly discovers her purpose. Like most books in this time frame, this story is about survival. It’s about the strength of human resiliency. It’s about nature & the protection she can offer, should you choose to learn it.

I enjoy WWII historical fictions but this one is fantastic! I love Kristin Harmel’s ability to develop characters and a plot and this book is no different !! This is a time period that’s hard to read about but it is definitely a favorite for me! If you like HF this one is awesome!!

Thanks to NETGALLY for this great book on audio for my honest opinion

This was a fabulous read. I have found I really enjoy atmospheric novels and this did not disappoint. I could visualize the forest where so many were hiding and the life they lived there for a time. I could sense the fear always around them, worried about being discovered and the heroism of the main character determined to protect those she grew to love.

I have enjoyed several other books by this best-selling author and was looking forward to reading her latest, which is based on actual events and stories of survivors. I was intrigued by the opening pages of a scene set in 1922 in Berlin during Hitler’s early rise to power. Jeruza, an eighty-year old woman, kidnaps the young daughter of wealthy and political parents while they are sleeping. In describing how such an elderly woman could do so, the author uses magical realism and mysticism. This technique is unusual in historical fiction, and I found it very effective as the plot unfolded.
The woman changes the young girl’s name to Yona, which means “Dove” in Hebrew (because Yona has a grey birthmark on her wrist). They live in the Naliboki Forest in Eastern Europe in what is now Belarus. Jeruza teaches Yona many languages, how to survive in the forest, how to kill a man but also how to heal with herbs, and how to steal clothing, tools, books, and other items from neighboring farms. She warns Yona about the dangers of the civilized world, and to stay hidden from anyone else.
By the time Yona is 20 years old, the outside world is at war, the skies are filled with planes and bombs. There are Russian deserters escaping into the forest. When the now 102 year-old Jeruza is dying, she finally reveals Yona’s true heritage and that she has a special mission to fulfill. Later, when Yona encounters some Jews in the forest who are fleeing from persecution, she decides to teach them survival skills. They, in turn, teach her about friendship and being connected to community. By the end of the book, faced with a horrific dilemma, Yona has to make a horrific decision, which took me by surprise (no spoilers!)
Themes abound in this plot-driven book: survival; loneliness; resilience; heroism; love (romantic, familial, and community); loyalty; and betrayal. This book is perfect for fans of historical fiction and book clubs. Thank you to #NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An elderly woman steals a German two-year-old child and raises her in the woods. She teaches the young girl how to stay alive in the wilderness and to trust no one. After the old woman dies, Yona (now a young woman) fears she will never again experience human contact in her life. However, not too long after beginning her solo life, Yona begins to find Jewish families who have escaped the nearby ghettos and will surely die if she doesn’t intervene and help them learn how to survive in the wild. Risking her own life, Yona decides she must help these Jewish families survive.

This book was an inspiring tribute to all the real-life brave men, women, and children who successfully survived in the wilderness instead of being killed by the Nazis during World War II. I loved how Kristin Harmel weaved true historical facts into her fictional story of survival. The book was suspenseful, heart-breaking, and thought provoking. This book was different than a lot of other WWII historical fiction books that I have read because the Jews are being sheltered in the woods rather than in people’s homes. I found it very interesting to learn about the different strategies these brave humans used to survive in the wilderness. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I thoroughly enjoy Kristin Harmel's historical fiction books about World War II. Once again, she delivers a heart wrenching and totally accurate account of the thousands of Jews who hid in the forests to escape capture.