THREE SISTERS • Heather Morris • Pub Date: October 19, 2021

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Caveat: I opted to listen to the audiobook, post-publishing date.

Abridged Synopsis: This is the third book in The Tattooist of Auschwitz series. Each book tells individual stories based on true survivors and events in history. This story follows the inspirational lives of three sisters: Livia, Magda, and Cibi. As young girls they beat the odds, surviving years of imprisonment in Nazi Germany's most notorious death camp, Auschwitz. But surviving the camps was only the beginning of their fight for freedom. As the sisters try to build a life for themselves after the war, they must face the ghosts of their past - and some secrets that they have kept from each other - to find true peace and happiness.

It will never feel right to rate or review a book like this one. Having stories like these immortalized is a gift. We should never forget the horrors in our history, else we are doomed to repeat them. But what I especially praise this story for is giving readers EVERYTHING - not just the pain and suffering about life in a concentration camp.

We have all heard about the atrocities that occurred in Auschwitz/Birkenau (and other camps like it) during WWII. But what was always skimmed over was what happened next. There were so many displaced; so many grieving; so many suffering, haunted years after their bodies healed. The story of the three sisters did not shy away from what went into building a life after the camps, after losing their home, and so many loved ones. And equally as important? Readers got to share their journey towards healing and joy as they built not just a life but an entire legacy.

The only thing I missed from this beautifully well-written book was...something new. While Morris clearly did her research, Morris brought nothing new to an over-saturated genre. This book was also less intense and a little less impactful than Morris' prior works. But this does not diminish the importance of recording stories like these, and the impact that the sisters had on me.

Thank you St. Martin's Press ​and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.
In this emotionally charged narrative, Heather Morris skillfully portrays the stories of three sisters, showcasing their hardships, love, determination, and unwavering strength. The author's personal touch is evident as she delves into the lives of their parents and grandfather, providing a poignant backdrop. The raw emotions and familial connections left me deeply moved. Heather Morris continues to impress, and I eagerly anticipate her future works. This series has really touched me!

The Three Sisters by Heather Morris was a heartbreaking yet inspiring story, which is on par with Morris' latest novels, "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" and "Cilka's Journey". While Tattooist focused on a love story and Cilka focused on a single person's story, I found the story of sisters to be moving and compelling. In my opinion, there is just something about sibling relationships that persevere through tragic events that tugs on the heart strings a bit more. I also enjoyed the little easter eggs when we come across characters from the other novels. It really took me by surprise and tied the whole lot together. I listened to this on audio and would not recommend it. I found myself missing some details and had to go back to listen several times. I read the other two novels, and found that I could take my time going through them with a bit more focus on detail and, therefore, appreciated the stories more. However, I still highly recommend "Three Sisters" for anyone interested in historical fiction as well as to those who have read the other two novels that compliment this one.

It's been awhile since I read the first two novels so maybe I didn't remember as much as I should have but this one didn't grab me as strongly as the others. It was a nice conclusion to the trilogy and I really enjoyed the afterwards by various characters of the book.

Great book by a great author. Her research shows. I've enjoyed her othe work. Each book just gets better and better. Please make a movie or tv series out of this.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book. My reviews can be read on my GoodReads account here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1335387-kelly

Another excellent read by this author. It was such a good read full of historical information. This is a book I highly recommend.

One day, Cibi, Magda and Livia’s father sits them down and makes them promise to stay together and always look out for each other. While he probably didn’t sense what was over the horizon with WWII, he did sense that he didn’t have long for this Earth. Years and years later, when the soldiers come to their house in Slovakia for all the teenage girls, the oldest, Cibi, is away learning to survive if she gets to Israel. The next oldest, Magda, is taken away to the hospital to hide out. The youngest should be safe, but when they come for the older two, they take Livia. Before Magda can get out of the hospital, Cibi follows her sister and they both end up in a concentration camp.

Three Sisters is the third book by Heather Morris about people who were in concentration camps. The book comes out Oct. 5, 2021. I was able to get an advanced copy from NetGalley. Morris wrote The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey. This is a book that would be work pre-ordering!

The book shows how Cibi and Livia survive and, yet, two years later, their sister Magda is sent to join them. Each does what it takes to live, but also to help their sisters. Lale from the Tattooist of Auschwitz is briefly mentioned in the book and Cilka is alluded to in passing. When the sisters feel like all hope is lost, they cling to the promise their father had them make and stive to keep it at all costs.

The book is based on the story of three real sisters who did survive the Holocaust. There are interviews with them or their children at the end of the book. I was left again in awe of what people can survive. Evil must always be stopped to prevent anything like this from ever happening again!

Three Sisters is an amazing novel— poignant while somehow inspiring hope (which sounds like an oxymoron, I know). After loving her The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey, I had high expectations for Three Sisters, and I have to confess that Heather Morris totally demolished those expectations.

Cibi, Magda, and Livia promise their father, shortly before his early death, to always stay together. When Livia is sent by the Nazis to Auschwitz, Cibi goes with her to protect her or die with her in order to fulfill that promise. Magda is ill at the time and is protected by a Christian doctor who has her hospitalized to avoid the Nazis’ rounding up of teenaged children. Magda is released from the hospital and lives at home with their mother and grandfather for two years in the ever increasing Nazi atrocities before they, too, are transported to Auschwitz.

The novel describes the horrors these sisters and other concentration camp prisoners faced, and it is absolutely heart wrenching. However, Morris doesn’t just end the book when the sisters survive the camps and death marches and return to Slovakia. Instead, she continues their story as these three amazingly brave and strong sisters pursue full and happy lives full of love and family in Israel.

This book had me in absolute tears at many points; however, the end of the book left with me hope and amazement. Morris does such an artful job of telling the three sisters’ story, and it is authors like her that are crucial to telling these painful and difficult stories so that these atrocities are never forgotten and never again repeated.

Thank you to Morris, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Wonderful ! Historical insight and the story of survival and sisterhood. Makes a reader want to know more about the WWII era and the time after when the sisters settled and moved forward with their lives.

This book is the third installment of the Tattooist of Auschwitz. It is recommended that you read the first two installments first. The book is a true story of 3 Slovakian sisters, and their struggles to stay alive. A true story, and very compelling read.

Loved this book! Beautiful writing and characters and such an amazing true story! It hooks you in from the very beginning and keeps you wondering what will happen until the last page.

𝗠𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝟯.𝟳𝟱 ⭐️ / 𝟱 ⭐️

Three Sisters is well written. While it is a work of fiction, it is based on a true story of three sisters and their experience from going through concentration camps to their lives after they got out. The first two books by Morris has a very special place in my heart; however, there was a slight disconnect for me with this book, and I can’t quite pinpoint what it is. It does not negate the fact that the content and quality is well-executed. You can always tell Morris does an excellent job with her research and making sure to stay true to the sisters’ experience. My heart goes out to them and their family.

Three Sisters

by Heather Morris

I present to you a review for a book that will transport you unwillingly from Slovakia into the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. The horrors are especially difficult to read about because this novel was so well researched including interviews with primary sources, two of the three sisters who are protagonists in Heather Morris’ Three Sisters. The third sister had passed away before the author began this project. Unlike some survivors of the concentration camps, these sisters talked about their experiences to people who wanted to hear, especially their family members. These relatives were a treasure trove of information about the camps, the Nazi selections of individuals, hiding from the SS, and the kindness and treachery of nonJews.

Family, of course, is very important to Cibi, Magda, and Livi, the three sisters. Their father makes them promise to always stay together and support each other. Their grandfather gives them the mantra of “hope and strength” which they carry with them through the worst of times. Later they can joke about bad conditions by comparing them to the deprivation they experienced in the camps.

Three Sisters is a hard book to read, but another worthwhile reminder to not allow this history to repeat itself. Ironically, the last part of the book which was about happier times brought the strongest emotional response from me. This reaction is a tribute to Heather Morris as a storyteller who, despite the tragic subject matter, brings her characters to life in such a way that you feel like you really know them and you understand them as much as is possible as an outside observer.

I recommend this book. I know these characters will stay with me for a long time.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Women’s Fiction

Notes: by the author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Publication: October 5, 2021—St. Martin’s Press

Memorable Lines:

As the plaintive cries of their families fade, new voices—angry, hate-filled voices—greet them as they make their passage through the town. Their former friends and neighbors are hurling rotten fruit and stale bread at their heads, yelling their joy that the Jews are finally leaving. Cibi and Livi are stunned by the taunts, the full-throated bile being dispensed from snarling mouths.

…they will never forget their desperation to put something, anything, in their stomachs. These days they savor every mouthful, but, more than that, they cherish the freedom to move around the city as they choose, no longer under the watchful and penetrating gaze of a kapo or worse, an SS officer.

Cibi thinks about the space in her heart where God used to live and wonders, for a second, if the peace she feels in her sisters’ arms is a sign that maybe He never really left.

It took me a long time to be in the right mindset for this book. I started reading it a very long time ago, but couldn’t get into it until yesterday. I spent most of yesterday and today reading it, and I’m glad I did. This book made me miss my sisters more, and cherish the memories that I do have with them. Above all, it’s a testament to the love of sisterhood, and the perseverance that comes with knowing your place in the world.

What family will do for family. Amazing story of three sisters during World War II. Hard to put this book down. The horrific things that they had to go through to find each other again. This was a really good story. Highly recommended.

This was a wonderful addition to the Tattooist of Auschwitz series. I love how Heather Morris takes real people and pull you into their lives and having you invested in their story. The Meller sisters experience the horrors of Auschwitz and Birkenau. The love these three sisters have for ach other and other family members is so touching. While much of the story covers most of what other historical fiction WWII books I’ve read. It was interesting to see what they experienced and how they were treated following the end of the war. But these amazing sisters were able to survive, find love, and fill their lives with children and grandchildren.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

I have loved the prior two books in the Tattooist of Auschwitz series. The author, Heather Morris, continues to tell a very powerful story in this third book.

This book follows three Slovakian sisters, who made a promise to their dad to stay together and always look out for each other. In order of age - Cibi, Magda and Livi have to endure horrors as they are sent to Aushwitz in 1942 for being Jews. They are split up in the beginning, as Magda stays back with their mom and grandfather. after she was hidden in the hospital.

Their story is real. Morris does an amazing job of telling their story and I definitely recommend reading the author's note and afterword. It's hard to review a book on such a topic because the journey was so incredible. However, I did think from a book perspective, it dragged on a little longer than I thought was necessary. Still it was such an amazing journey that these sisters went on and I'm so thankful that the author shared their story.

This would be find as a standalone book. A few characters from the first book are mentioned briefly.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

Three Sisters is the hauntingly beautiful real story of 3 sister survivors of the Holocaust. It follows Cibi, Magda, and Livi Meller as they promise their father they will always look out for each other. All 3 sisters survive the most horrific abuse imaginable and go on to get married and raise families, while staying close to each other. It really is a great story that shouldn’t be missed.
There are times when the story gets to be too much but these women survived it so it’s up to us to read it and be so appalled by it that the Holocaust is never repeated again.

This book is another one is a recent string of arcs that never ended up on my kindle. I don't know what the problem is, but I can't review it. Sorry. I am hoping to read and review this on my own later.