The Girl in the Photo is the third book in the Hanni Winter series by Catherine Hokin and what an outstanding series it has been so far. It just seems to go from strength to strength and each new book pushes the story on very well whilst also maintaining the tension and mystery throughout. Hanni is a standout character who has been through so much but still harbours many secrets close to her chest and now some of those are edging ever closer to the surface. If they find the light of day will the relationship that she has worked so hard to build with Freddy come crashing down or is the love they have for one another strong enough to withstand the onslaught of new information that is about to come to light?

I have loved this series since book one The Commandant’s Daughter as it’s really different from the usual World War Two stories I have read. It goes beyond the war and focuses on the effects it had on people and how their actions during that time had such a lasting impact. I loved that within the first two books there was a mystery running alongside the main plot and it added even more excitement and intrigue to the story. Here I felt the story became more personal as what has been haunting Freddy really comes into play. I kept waiting for the mystery element to appear but it didn’t and I must confess to being slightly disappointed as I thought it had added so much to the first two books but then I pushed that minor gripe aside and really it’s my own selfishness wanting this as the storyline here was so strong and didn’t need any extra frills. We really got to the heart of what had been driving/haunting Freddy for so long and in doing so Hanni’s own secrets start to come to light and I knew it would be interesting to see how their two lives would intertwine even further and become affected by everything that was unfolding and developing.

The book has a beguiling opening. It’s 1944 and a young girl is in a room with other children in Theresienstadt, a place where death, horror and illness lingers around every corner. There are no toys or luxuries in the room and the threat of being taken away into the unknown and the worst occurring is ever present. The little girl knows she is called Renny and she spends all her time waiting. She knows her mother is gone but she believes she will be back. We then move forward to 1950 and in Berlin Hanni is celebrating the opening of her photography exhibition which has been a huge success. Hanni’s exhibition gets tongues wagging as it has photos of Theresienstadt. These images are tackling her past but the finer details she has kept secret from Freddy, the love of her life. She has long held secrets and silences and kept a curtain drawn around the life she had before and during the war.

When Freddy sees one of her photos he can’t believe his eyes. He is almost sure it is long lost sister Renny. He never gave up hope after all these years that he would find out exactly what had happened to her. Seeing this photo instils a spark in him that had lain dormant but never fully extinguished. He now knows that she was still alive in 1944.This leads to further questions -is there a chance that she is still out there somewhere? Why did Hanni never say she was at Theresienstadt and what else has she been keeping from him? His job as a detective has led him to have a keen eye for detail and he is determined to try and discover what happened to Renny.He wants the truth and will use any means necessary to get it? But at what cost will it come to his relationship with Hanni?

I found in the previous books and even throughout this story the further things developed that Hanni had numerous chances to tell him the truth and it became frustrating that she seemed to back down when opportunities presented themselves. She doesn’t fight hard enough to make him listen in order to share the truth and specific facts that have needed to be aired for quite some time. She really needed to trust Freddy enough to face up to herself and who she was and trust him enough that he will still love her when she reveals the truth. But I felt she knew that she was in too deep and that Freddy was very hot headed and carried such a lot of hatred and given the history of the whole situation both on their own individual levels, as a duo and just the general background and circumstances to Freddy being left with no members of his family she knew she was threading a very thin line. Was she just too comfortable in her new found happiness? Yet, the guilt and what she witnessed and experienced not to mention the connections between her evil father and the story as a whole she was caught between a rock and a hard place. But still I thought if she loved Freddy enough she would make that sacrifice but whether that occurred it remains to be seen?

I found the development of the story was just perfect. A very balanced opinion of all people involved in the core plot of the book was presented and as a reader I swayed back and forth as to the right thing to do and the further I delved into the story the more tense and dangerous things became which only increased my anxiety over the whole situation. For I desperately wanted a positive outcome that would work for everybody. That Freddy might be one of the lucky ones to find a lost relative from during the war and that Hanni could unburden herself without all the revelations destroying what she had worked so hard to build up.She had tried to put the past behind her but the past always has a way of catching up with you whether you wish it would or not.

Freddy embarks on a dangerous journey to Theresienstadt and beyond and I admired when Hanni finally got the courage to go with him whilst knowing that the information and silences she harbours will have a very detrimental affect on Freddy when they break free at the surface. For surely they must? I thought this quote summed up perfectly the emotions Hanni was wrestling with throughout the book-‘ His happiness matters more to me than mine, mine matters more to him than his’. Hatred, lies, murder, neglect, deprivation, pain and suffering all become apparent the further Freddy delves into the story of what happened to his sister. There were so many twists and turns that began to occur that to go into any specific detail would ruin the book but suffice to say I was glued to every page and swayed between joy and sadness as we raced towards the conclusion. What I will say is that Catherine Hokin is brave in the fact that readers want a certain resolution or outcome and in order to get there she is not giving her characters an easy time of it. She could sew things up all nice and neatly but instead hardship and raw emotion exist side by side right until the very last word. I was heartbroken and in a way bitter at what I was reading in the last quarter but upon reflection things needed to end the way they did to allow time, breathing space and reflection before we move on to the conclusion of Freddy and Hanni’s story in book four.

The Girl in the Photo is another brilliant book from Catherine Hokin. She has really found her voice with these Hanni Winters books. As I said I wanted more mystery/murder but then I realised the first two books provided this as a precursor to the main event which we got in book three. The overall plot right from the very first word of book one to the last of book three has just been so carefully and beautifully executed. Catherine Hokin, has taken her readers on a fabulous journey, one which you will want to go back to the beginning and start all over again for both Freddy and Hanni really get under your skin as they have such incredible and powerful voices.I really felt as if the author took control of everything and I would have gone in whichever direction she was leading.

There are no lulls or boring sections placed in the story as mere filler. Instead every word and action is so relevant in what are compelling, memorable and riveting stories and The Girl in the Photo is no exception. I am delighted there will be a final chapter to conclude Hanni’s story as things were left on such a cliff hanger and really I don’t want things to end the way they appearing to be at the moment. The web of lies and deceit still exist and need to be resolved and there have been many dangerous and unpredictable complications which have set us up nicely for the conclusion which I am very much looking forward too. If it’s anything of the calibre of the series so far myself and many readers will be in for a real treat.

I absolutely love the cover of this book! I’m not particularly maternal, but it makes me want to scoop the child up in my arms and protect her forever. The Girl in the Photo is my first Catherine Hokin novel and although it’s the third in a series, it absolutely doesn’t matter if you haven’t read any of the others. However, I guarantee that once you’ve read one, you’ll want to read more.

It’s 1950, and five years after the end of the Second World War. Hanni and Freddy are happily married until something happens at Hanni’s first photographic exhibition that will change both of their lives and something that will force the truth to come out.

There are many characters in The Girl in the Photo that you will despise and only a few you will grow fond of. Catherine Hokin makes this decision easy for you as she throws herself into her characters and brings them to life on the page. I travelled along with Hanni and Freddy and it was so easy to feel what they were feeling. I wanted to be with them every step of the way to help them in their quest.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Girl in the Photo by Catherine Hokin.

I need to read the rest of the Hanni Winters series, I really enjoyed reading this book, but feel I've missed so much of her past and growing up.

The story is hard hitting and the ending a tear jerker, I needed the tissues to hand for this one.

Beautifully written and well researched, with some credible characters.

Many thanks to Bookouture for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The third in the Hanni Winter series and oh soo many emotions! Thank you to Bookouture for having me on the tour and for this review copy. I have enjoyed every book in this series and this one was no different.

In this installment, Freddy and Hanni are married and Hanni has a gallery opening for some of her pictures. Everything is going beautifully until Freddy comes face to face with a picture of his king lost sister. That’s when everything becomes real and Freddy becomes encouraged that she actually is alive. The search is on and Hanni’s horrible father makes an entry into the story. Can they find Renny alive or will Reiner mess things up as he always does?

So many thoughts on this novel. I loved it and I hope there will be another story. It was perfectly written, the details allowed me to envision the characters and setting exquisitely and the story kept me interested and wanting to read. Catherine knows how to tug at your heartstrings and keep you wanting more. Highly recommend this series, love, murder, mystery and remembering the most horrific times in our history, it’s a must read! Five stars!

Wow, what a book The Girl in the Photo is! Book 3 in the Hanni Winter series but can be read as a standalone. Hanni and Freddy are married and set out to find Freddy’s sister who he had originally thought was dead. Hanni is a strong woman who knows her own mind, even going against her father. She knows he was wrong! You will need tissues.

The Commandant’s Daughter and The Pilot’s Girl are the first two books in Hanni Winter series by Catherine Hokin. In this third book, The Girl in the Photo, more of Hanni’s tragic story is told. The war is over, and Hanni was among countless people who experienced unspeakable horrors while trying to survive. Now married to Freddy, Hanni is excelling in her photography career.

Hanni and Freddy are at her first photo exhibit, and Freddy spies a photo of a young girl that takes him on a path of near obsession. Why? He tells Hanni that the girl, at about four years of age in the photo, is his sister Renny. Freddy is determined to find Renny, and this means returning to the concentration camp that holds terrible memories. Fred strongly believes that by returning to the Theresienstadt camp it could possibly be the successful first step in locating Renny.

As Freddy gets closer to locating Renny, Hanni is forced to deal with her painful past. Hanni has had very good reasons for not sharing the depth of events from her life of years ago with Freddy. In fact, this has led to Hanni having kept a huge secret from him. This is where this stellar read becomes heartbreaking, as Hanni is forced to reconnect with her father. What is worse is that she also crosses paths someone truly despicable from her past, and this could bring her life crashing down.

This amazing book had quite an impact on me as it tells a story that I will not soon forget. I imagine there might be one more book in the series. Lovers of historical fiction will get to know Hanni and feel her pain, all while she strives to hold onto a thread of hope as they read all three of these compelling stories.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Please enjoy my YouTube video review - https://youtu.be/wq_mimIGqRI

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this gripping novel

hanni winters has come a long way since the war ended.... but her one love of photography has never ended and this is her first exhibition with some startling results

her husband freddy is excited for her and has abstained from seeing any of her photos until the exhibition

but as the night goes on... startled shouts as someone claims to know the identity of one of the children in the photo from one of the worst places hanni had ever been Theresienstadt Concentration Camp...and as she makes her way through the crowds its to find her husband in front of a photo crying.... he has recognised his sister in the photo

and what follows is an extraordinary hunt for his sister with no known whereabouts their only hope is to go back to Theresienstadt and try and find the trail of his missing sister and all the time hanni's world is about to come crashing down before her

gut wrenching to read but so gripping

I’m not sure where to start, The Girl in the Photo was a brilliant read! Totally engaging, full of courage and grit and of course forbidden love. The setting in post-war Prague is beautiful, the way it’s written you will be right there in the picture with them.

The main character Hanni Winter is very strong and courageous. She knows right from wrong even if it means going against your own father. In this third book, we see Hanni and Freddy married, with Hanni presenting an exhibition of her photography work from bygone years. At the event Freddy recognised the little girl in one of the photos – it was his lost little sister.

Now we see Freddy and Hanni by his side travelling to Prague to find his missing sister. The journey is fraught with danger, whilst Hanni desperately tries to keep her secrets from him.

You will be totally absorbed in this one the plot is fab, and the ending, well, I can’t give away too much but you will be crying your eyes out!

If the cover of this book doesn’t break your heart, then reading the book will shatter it.
I was a nervous wreck while I read it because I had a bad feeling. I wrung my hands and kept asking why, why wouldn’t you tell him?
I knew Hanni was risking everything by being evasive and not telling Freddy her backstory, but she was gambling on many things.
Hokin doesn’t sugarcoat personalities or the dialogue so be prepared.
Sometimes things are just not fixable, no matter how much we wish for it.

This is the third book in the series. I hadn't read the previous two, and it did definitely hinder my understanding of this story. It would certainly help to read the series in order.

Hanni is a photographer, and has put on a exhibition. Husband Freddy has a massive shock when he recognises a child in one of her photos - it is his sister Renny, who was taken off to a concentration camp years before, and whom he thought was deceased. Can Hanni and Freddy discover is Renny is still alive, and bring her back to their family? Can Hanni explain exactly how she took the photo, and will she reveal her huge family secret to Freddy?

I struggled with this book, sadly. It's a period of history I am very interested in but I found this book to be quite unnecessarily wordy. I also didn't feel any kind of emotional link to any of the characters which made it harder to read. Perhaps if I had read the books in order it might have made a difference.

The Girl in the Photo is the third book in the Hanni Winter series, and she is now married to Freddy and about to embark on her first photography exhibition. Little does she know that this momentous event will have such a drastic impact on her life and will see all her hard kept secrets come to light.
The opening chapter sees a young girl left in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp by her mother when she is forced on to a train never to return. The wife of one of the officers takes a shine to her and when the war ends and they are forced to flee she takes the girl as her own. When Freddy sees the picture of this girl in Hanni’s exhibition he immediately recognises her as his little sister Renny and he is determined to find her. In a hope to contain her past Hanni has no choice to accompany Freddy on this dangerous quest
Freddy has always felt guilty that he somehow survived the war when his family didn’t so to find out that his sister may still be alive is something he has to investigate. He is so blinkered in his quest that you can see that he has no real thought to his safety or that of Hanni. He even ignores the advice of close friends who think crossing into Russian territory is a dangerous game that could result in disaster with nothing to show for it. Although we know the reason for her reluctance to look for Renny, she is determined to support him no matter what it may cost her or how the trip back to places she had hoped to have put behind her may make her feel.
You always know in the back of your mind that Hanni’s secrets will come back to haunt her and put her new life in jeopardy and that her father will be the cause of this. She is not the only one who wants to see her father brought to justice and it is these unknown forces that really put her in danger. Despite all her lies I still feel sorry for Hanni as her life implodes just when she and Freddy should be celebrating and moving forward. That being said I can also understand Freddy’s reaction as the wife he thought he knew turns out to be the daughter of the enemy. Only time will tell if they can ever come back from what he sees as the ultimate betrayal.
With two headstrong and stubborn characters this is a series that is really starting to grab my attention as I now have more unanswered questions and I cant wait to see if Freddy and Hanni will reconcile and build a future and if Hanni’s father will ever answer for his past crimes.

Wow, what an emotional rollercoaster. From the moment that we joined the Hanni Winter series, we knew that her past would catch up with her. While she might have been an unwilling pawn in her father's evil ways and not directly responsible for anything that he has done, she hasn't been able to expose him or admit who she really is. Now, she is left with no choice but to finally face up to everything and admit who she really is. Facing the very real possibility of losing everything in the process.

I don't really want to give too much away here, the book was a great read and I wouldn't want to spoil anything. It left me on the edge of my seat and I really wanted everything to work out for Hanni and Freddie. I will say though, that we don't end this book with everything wrapped up in a neat bow. There's at least one more book to come and Hanni and mostly likely Freddie have much more to face.

These books are great reads. Set after the second world war they deal with the long shadow that the evil that occurred in that period cast. It's easy to think that Nazi Germany fell and everything was sunshine and flowers from that point on, but of course, that was far from the case, the scars were deep.

I can't wait to see what happens next for Hanni and I hope that things are finally going to be alright for her.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

An emotional lovely book to read with a story and characters that break your heart, I will be recommending this book to friends and readers.EXCELLENT 5*

Very moving book from start to finish.I haven't read the other books in the series but now want to. Hanni is hiding her past a secret from Freddy her husband who was a survivor of the holocaust. Her love for photography and photo's taken when she was younger will start the ball rolling where she doesn't want to go. Will her husband still want to bw with her when he finds out who she and her father are.
Very compelling storyline.

Post WWll Berlin, Hanni is having her very first photography exhibition. She is excited to show her work to her husband Freddy, he recognizes his little sister in one of the photographs. Freddy starts to try to find his sister, but is not aware of Hanni's past and how she was able to take the photo. The truth may tear them apart.
While the premise of this story is great, I did have a hard time with it. It could be because it is the third book with Hanni, and I did not read the other two. Maybe if I had read them I would have gotten a better idea of the characters. I thought it was hard to follow at times, that there were some important things missing and that it jumped from one thing to another at times.

Thank you to Netgallery for the ARC of this book.

Enjoyed it and would give the book 2.75 stars, almost three. This was the best book in the series so far and I liked this one so much more than the first book in the series. I usually love historical fiction books about WWII, but this series has been a bit of a struggle. I think it's the characters. I don't love Freddy or Hanni. I knew from the start that all of Hanni's lies would eventually catch up with her. They would hurt Freddy the most. I'm pretty sure Freddy will eventually forgive her, but she will need to regain his trust. I don't know how Hanni keeps all her lies straight. Not sure how Freddy and Hanni were able to be in Czechoslovakia without drawing any attention. My favorite part of the book was reading about Renny and Freddy's search for his long lost sister.

Recommend giving the book a try. I loved the author's previous book, but this series hasn't been my favorite. I will read the last one in the series, because I need to know how everything ends. Hopefully the evil Reiner will finally be taken down and brought to justice. Freddy and Hanni will reunite their family and he will know all her secrets. Look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bookouture through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is an emotionally charged, suspense filled novel of a post-war search for family. Freddy is married to Hanna, an award winning photographer in Berlin. While both have connections to Theresienstadt prison and transfer center located in Czechoslovakia, neither has revealed their entire story.

Suddenly, a single photograph taken by Hanni, sets them off on an extremely dangerous search for Freddie’s sister.

Catherine Hokin has crafted a complex story with plenty of twists and turns. The main characters are so well developed the reader can feel their pulses. The setting is alive with great sensory imagery.

I have only read this book by Hokin, (Hanni Winter Book 3) and the abrupt ending suggests there will be Book 4. I certainly hope so because this was a highly intriguing story with so much potential for more.

Another good read from Catherine Hokin, this book follows the life a young child left ibn concentration camp,
when her mother sent away as many Jews were. Her life changes for ever, and she is never quite sure why she does'nt fit in to her family she doesnt real;ise this is not her family, until her brother sees a photo of her taken as child, that proves she was alive at a later date. He decides it is worth trying to find her which he does.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is a new to me author but I will be looking for more of her books. It was easy to read, was well written and the Characters pulled you into to the book
Harrowing but absorbing

I absolutely love historical fiction books but unfortunately I really did not enjoy this book. I found the plot weak and couldn’t engage with any of the characters.