Really like this HF. I listened to it so it felt a little confusing at times but great writing and plot. I liked the shocking moments sprinkled in.

I had high hopes for this, seeing as it has such a high goodreads rating and the average on NetGalley is 5 stars. However, I'm in the minority. I've seen other people explaining the reason why this one was not a winner, so I'm not going to reiterate it too much, but here are my qualms with The Goddess of Warsaw (I DNF'd arounf 35%, so there might be some inaccuracies if you read further!)

First, I don't love that Lisa Barr is elevating Bina to "goddess" status with this title, personally. It feels like it's just another attempt to dramatize the story, which is already done PLENTY in the prose itself. This book is SO OVER THE TOP! The Holocaust was monstrous even without the additions that Barr is making. I'm a trained historian, I very much appreciate when fiction authors properly represent the atmosphere of the time period they're writing about. Every single strife and hardship falls upon Bina and her family that could possibly happen--I understand that fiction tends to have some coincidences for the sake of the plot, but what I read in this novel was even more than I expected.

Bina's lust over her brother-in-law is honestly kinda gross to me. Even if he wasn't her husband's brother, the narration of her desire for him is A LOT and just made me feel icky regardless lol. Then, the other kind of lust present here: blood lust. So much of it. SO MUCH. I didn't even get very far into this book and it was inundated with killings of various kinds. There are better ways to portray these occurrences that aren't so insanely dramatic. Bina also ended up with a very important role in the resistance without really much vetting at all? That is SO unrealistic and left me feeling like I got whiplash lol--she barges into the room and demands a place in the resistance so the lady in charge is like "here you go, have this super important mission even though you have no tactical background and your feelings for your brother in law are evident enough that I'm noticing them but I also trust them not to effect your performance" like I'm sorry, what??

Anyways, I'm happy for the people who liked this book, but I was definitely not one of them.

“The Goddess of Warsaw,” by Lisa Barr, is a WWII historical fiction book. I went into this book blind (yep, didn’t read the synopsis) due to the lovely cover. At first I thought this was going to be like “Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” but with a WWII slant - nope, nope, nope. The positives - this book’s pace moves. There’s lots of action. The fact that the book is divided into sections really helped with time jumps - and the backfill of information also helped pick up the pace. I don’t know how accurately the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was described - but suffice to say that it was a horrible event for all involved. I could see this being picked up as a movie of some sort - there’s a lot of material. What I found a bit, well, odd was that while there’s a lot of killing going on, there didn’t seem to be (especially with an event that occurs on US soil) a lot of punishment, which I found odd (I mean, there are always cover-ups, but - really?). I think the ending was a bit too nicely wrapped up but for those who like complete storylines, it was a good ending. I did find the lusting after a character a bit heavy-handed, but I got it … though I did skim those parts a bit. Overall, I found this book to be fast-paced, enjoyable, and engaging.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book. I really enjoyed Lisa Barr’s “Woman on Fire” from a few years ago so I was very excited for her new book, however, I was pretty medium on The Goddess of Warsaw. The setup is compelling - a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising goes on to become one of the most famous actresses in Hollywood and no one knows her origin story. For me the distribution of this book was lopsided - I felt the author spent too much time on the war years and didn’t dedicate enough time to the Hollywood years. I thought the part about Bina being a Nazi hunter was the most compelling plot point and it didn’t get enough time. I also found the movie conspiracy at the center of the Hollywood aspect of the plot to feel a little thin and it strained belief at multiple different points. The end also felt improbable and over the top, but I suppose that was the point. Overall, the second half felt rushed. I think true fans of historical fiction will probably enjoy this more, but this doesn’t count as a must read for me.

An absolutely phenomenal and topical read— definitely my favorite book by Barr yet. This had everything I needed in a historical fiction. I recently haven’t be drawn to pick up historical fiction because I needed more of an escape from my books. That said, this book was EVERYTHING. It had suspense, action, romance, heartbreak, and so much more. It truly transported me into the life of Lena Browning. Even more important, it was eye opening reading this story amidst the increased anti-Semitism occurring presently. This book will stick with me for a long time.

*Jewish rep
*WW2/Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
*Survival against all odds
*Forbidden Love
*Multiple timelines
*Femme Fatale
*Revenge

The Goddess of Warsaw is an exceptional historical fiction about one of the most horrifying events in recent history that many people are forgetting already or, even worse, denying. It's a poignant and compelling story of survival, featuring an incredible and complex heroine who had to make impossible choices to keep her loved ones and herself alive. And after surviving the Holocaust, she continued making dangerous choices to enact revenge on those who tormented and killed her people.

The Goddess of Warsaw was a difficult read at times. Seeing the parallels between Europe of 1930-1940s and the present time, with the explosion of anti-semitism and the dehumanization of the Jewish people that is so rampant right now, caused me a great deal of distress. (Lisa Barr also addresses these parallels in her author's note). Regardless, or maybe because of that, The Goddess of Warsaw is a must-read for historical fiction fans. I am glad I had a chance to read this book. It's going straight on my "favorites" shelf.

I loved Lisa Barr's previous book Woman on Fire, so I was very excited for The Goddess of Warsaw and it was so wonderful! I loved this book!

This is a book about a Hollywood legend, Lena Browning sharing secrets about her past that she's she's kept hidden for decades. Lena started out as Bina Blonski and grew up in a prominent Jewish family in Warsaw. She joined the resistance movement when her family was moved to the Warsaw Ghetto and was a spy and assassin. When the war ended she moved to the US and rose to fame in Hollywood where she kept her past a secret but she still kept fighting for revenge.

The beginning was similar to other World War II resistance books set in the Warsaw Ghetto. I liked getting involved in the storyline and trying to guess what Bina was going to do. But the real fun in this book was post War and finding out she was still fighting. I liked how this brought in Operation Paperclip. While since of this seems a little unrealistic, I still loved it. The ending of this book was so good!

This book was full of secrets, lies and twists! I love how Lisa Barr writes her characters and the plots. They are fun and different! I would have loved a little bit of an author's note at the end, but that's just because I'm a history person.

I highly recommend reading The Goddess of Warsaw!

What is the last book that you read that you couldn’t put down? The Goddess of Warsaw had a riveting plot line and I kept finding myself reading this whenever I had a moment.

Lena Browning is a legendary actress that is mostly retired in 2005. When a new and upcoming actress, Sienna, asks to play Lena in a biopic of her life. Sienna gets more than she bargained for as Lena launches into her true-life story. Lena was born Bina Blonski in Warsaw and was a wealthy Polish Jew when WWII started and destroyed her life. Bina becomes a spy, an assassin, a whore; whatever it takes to protect her family and fellow Jews while also exacting revenge on the Nazis. She rises to stardom in the 1950s and continues as a femme fatale in real life tracking down and executing Nazis living under cover in the United States. Will Lena ever be able to put the past behind her?

My thoughts on this novel:
• This was a very engaging novel – a real page turner. I would class this as an action-adventure historical fiction novel.

• Bina is blonde and able to pass as an Aryan woman. She uses this and her acting skills to help smuggle weapons and food into the ghetto during WWII.

• I didn’t feel the love triangle between Bina, her husband Jakub, and Jakub’s brother Aleks. I didn’t understand her undying love for Aleks. She first saw him as a teenager across the room and played hard to get. He instead dated and married her best friend, and she married his brother Jakub. I did feel like the end of the novel really pulled this part of the story line together.

• Luckily, the plot moved on from the love story and focused more on Bina as a femme fatale which I really enjoyed.

• This was a novel of revenge and vengeance through time. The timelines were WWII, 1950s, and 2005. I got a The Count of Monte Cristo vibe from this novel with Bina as Edmond Dantes.

• As a WWII novel mostly set in the Ghetto in Warsaw, there is a lot of tragedy, loss, and sadness in this novel. It did make me tear up at times, but the story kept moving and didn’t let me wallow in the tragedy.

• I thought the ending of this novel was perfect and really tied together the complete story and all the timelines.

• I enjoyed the author’s note at the end that explained the inspirations and real history of this novel. I had never heard of the Warsaw Uprising and it is an important part of history. This novel was a unique story different than other WWII fiction I have read.

• I also thought it was touching that author Lisa Barr’s own grandmother was a holocaust survivor. This was my first Lisa Barr novel, but I will be reading more of her work.

Favorite Quote: “What you don’t know, what Nazis can’t sniff out or tell by a tic or nervous gesture, is that I am nearly twenty-four years old, and I have portrayed practically every part imaginable: heroine, wife, lover, mistress, daughter, almost-mother, villain, maid, whore, seductress, smuggler, assassin. I am a woman born to become anyone other than who she really is.”

Overall, The Goddess of Warsaw is a riveting historical fiction adventure and a great tale of revenge.

I was so excited to be an early reader of this book. I literally squealed when I was approved. WW2 is not easy to be read about, but I learned so much. I loved all the courageous characters in this novel. The sassy main character being my favorite of all. This was unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I loved the way the book was organized and how things were revealed. Lisa Barr is truly a talented writer. Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader.

I had my eye on The Goddess of Warsaw ever since Lisa Barr first posted about it, so I was thrilled to get my hands on an early copy from NetGalley. This is one of those books that I wish had been published last summer, or at least eight months ago. Everything that happened is so incredibly relevant to present times that it's actually scary.

I love how badass Bina is throughout the novel. We need people like her right now! She went through so much and it wasn't all that pretty either. I couldn't even fathom imagine the horrors that she experienced or being as savvy as she was. Her story is captivating and I was glued to my seat every time I had a chance to read more of it. It's also gritty and some parts are hard to picture given the extent of what happens. There are a lot of powerful and touching moments throughout.

My only concern was that some parts of of the story felt farfetched. I'm sure stuff like what Bina experienced could happen in real life, but I was surprised she got away with so much without getting killed. Obviously she needed to be alive to tell it later and accomplish some incredible feats. And while the Holocaust is very much real, Bina is a fictional character placed in various situations that are no longer difficult to believe, given what is happening in the present.

Everyone needs to read this novel! It is both stunning and harrowing and I already can't wait for whatever Lisa has in store for us next.

(Trigger warnings below.)

Movie casting suggestions (due to the large amount of characters and lengthy time span, I only could come up with a few, but if you've read this, I'd love to hear how you would cast the ones I didn't mention):
Bina (past): Dianna Agron
Aleksandr: Julian Morris
Sienna: Kathryn Newton

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TW: Seeing people get murdered, blatant antisemitism

In The Goddess of Warsaw, New York Times bestselling author Lisa Barr tells the powerful story of fictional Hollywood icon Lena Browning, her — unknown to fans — life before/in the Warsaw Ghetto as Bina Blonski, her resistance missions as Irina Zieliński and her escape to America.

When we first meet Lena in the prologue set in 2005 Hollywood, it seems like an over-the-top portrayal of an octogenarian Golden Age actress, not realizing that Lena was playing a character - herself. It’s a well-honed craft she used to not only survive the horrors of Nazi terror over Jews in WWII-era Poland but to battle them, survive and exact revenge.

With master strokes, Barr paints a picture of guts, determination and an unwillingness to surrender amidst the despicable and heart-wrenching events going on all around Bina Blonski, whose blonde hair and blue eyes were key to her survival. With Nazis in Hollywood, Lena’s self-appointed mission to combat them continues.

Barr seamlessly weaves all of the threads of Lena Browning’s life together for an emotional climax and while the actress may have had a ‘no tears clause’ in her film contracts, they poured down my face.

I highly recommend The Goddess of Warsaw to readers of WWII-era historical fiction. I received an advanced reader copy of the novel from Harper Collins Publishers, courtesy of NetGalley.

For some, revenge is redemption…and sometimes it is all they have left.

Hollywood, 2005. Actress and current It GIrl SIenna Hayes is determined to make her mark by acting in and directing a film based on the life of legendary actress and femme fatale Lena Browning. Lena ultimately agrees, but she has her own agenda for this project and calculates that Sienna will be easily controlled. There is more to Lena’s story than just her brilliant acting career and love affairs, one that was filled with drama and passion, love and betrayal, long before she came to Hollywood. Lena started life as Bina Landau, the daughter of a famed Jewish architect in Poland and member of society’s who trained to be a actress….until Poland fell to Hitler and the Germans.. The Ghetto in Warsaw would become her home and many of those she loved would be killed or sent off in trains to death camps. Others, including Bina, would rise up and fight back against the brutal treatment of those aligned with the German occupiers, despite the heavy cost. In a world where no one can be trusted and allowing one’s mask to slip even for a second can result in death, Bina becomes a true femme fatale, a Jewish woman who uses her Aryan beauty and well-honed acting skills to infiltrate the non-Jewish Warsaw circles and punish those who aid the Germans and their anti-Semitic policies. After the war, when she has become Lena and has achieved stardom in Hollywood, Bina will again be confronted with enemies who escaped retribution and seek to revive their cause. She is a survivor and has done whatever is necessary to do so. As evil tries to conquer her yet again, she will take the last shot, have the last word,..she will not let fear win.
The Goddess of Warsaw features an incredible protagonist in Bina, a young woman betrayed and brutalized in the horror that is life as a Jew during HItler’s rule. She is married to a man who is focused on documenting what is happening while she feels compelled instead to take bold actions to prevent it, is in love with someone other than her husband, and is continually underestimated as a woman and actress who came from privilege. Just to survive that time in history was an amazing accomplishment, but she goes on to conquer another world while never forgetting those who managed to escape justice. The depiction of life in the Warsaw Ghetto, its squalid conditions, the betrayals committed and the bonds formed, all are rendered in stark detail. The characters, from those involved in the rebellion with Bina to those outside who seek to give them aid, and those who through fear or greed or poor judgement collaborated with the Germans, are nuanced and believable. For readers of Chris Bohjalian, Kristin Hannah, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Jessica Shattuck, The Goddess of Warsaw is a moving and chilling work of historical fiction whose powerful storytelling captured my interest from the very beginning and never let go. Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for allowing me early access to this amazing novel.

Forbidden love. Polish Resistance and Treblinka 1942. Survival and a Stradivarius. These elements are packed into Lisa Barr’s saga of the Warsaw Ghetto and the world of Hollywood in 2005. Lena Browning, an 85-year-old Hollywood star telling her life story to aspiring director, Sienna Hayes, lets the reader know, “There will be betrayal, deception, death, blood, and revenge.”
Lena’s past life as the Jewish blond, Bina Blonski, is revealed in Book 1, as Sienna records the gripping horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. This part of Bina’s life is intense and gut-wrenching, evoking primal survival instincts of fear, anger, resentment, and revenge. Readers get a feeling of short relief when Bina emerges in Hollywood, USA, becoming Lena Browning in Book 2, but then are immersed in the political world of Hollywood as Sienna and Lena prepare for the “final scene” in Book 3. Lena’s life is filled with truth, lies, and forbidden, but true love. Revenge or Love. Which one wins in the end?
Powerfully captivating, forcibly convicting.

Unfortunately this one didn't hook me in. I found the prologue to be a little off-putting as it sets up similar to Evelyn Hugo, but then even explicitly says this story is nothing like Elizabeth Taylor's, etc. etc. That plus given the current events, I found this one hard to dig into, so I'm putting this one aside for now.

The setup here is that in 2005, the 80-something legendary queen of the silver screen, Lena Browning, decides to tell the truth about her history to an up-and-coming actress named Sienna Hayes, who wants to portray Lena in a biopic she plans to direct. The big reveal Lena makes to the actress is that she grew up in Warsaw as Bina Blonski, a Jew. When Jews were herded into the ghetto by the Nazis, Bina’s blonde appearance let her pass as “Aryan,” get out of the ghetto and smuggle goods back in. She also joins a resistance group. There follows Bina’s tale of her wartime work, her postwar transformation into a movie star, and what she does about the fact that she can’t forget the many Nazi perpetrators who went unpunished.

In Chapter One, Bina is slogging through filthy, stinking Warsaw Ghetto tunnels with her husband and brother-in-law, while they are working on getting food and supplies for the sick and starving ghetto residents. And what is she thinking? She’s obsessively lusting after her brother-in-law, and in the most clichéd possible romance-novel way. Seriously. There’s also a flashback to 1939 (before the Nazis invade), when Bina is experiencing rapturous applause during a curtain call for Romeo and Juliet, with her having played Juliet. The antisemitic father of one of her acting compatriots strides down the aisle and begins berating her for being a Jew, including chanting “Jewliet!” at he. Are you kidding me? That epithet doesn’t even work in Polish. This is a real mess, and I’m only about 10% into this. But I’m determined to keep going.

Over and over, Barr seems to find the real horrors of the Holocaust not lurid or violent enough for the book. In reality, the Jewish Police were often corrupt, but Barr portrays the head of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish Polish as grotesquely evil, fat on food from bribes and theft, with bad teeth and a propensity for rape. That father at the theater reappears, and he practically slavers with lust for gruesome killing. When a Nazi mole in the resistance is revealed, he is a Terminator-level nightmare or relentless killing and has a Leni Riefensthal film fixation to boot. There are so many scenes in which every aspect is cranked up to 11. Women the resistance uses as honeypots, like Bina, are luminous beauties, with alluring bodies. When they and their compatriots exact their revenge, the scenes are operatically orgiastic in their violence.

All this lust, sexual and blood lust; to me it’s pandering, meant to titillate readers. And that’s a gross disservice to the real people of the time. It trivializes the real history. And Barr plays fast and loose with that history, too. I lost track of the number of real historical events she alters to make them more extreme. And don’t get me started on the role of coincidence in this story. Over and over, the wildly improbable happens, so that it can propel an ultra-dramatic plot.

Finally, the writing is not good. In the Prologue, set in 2005, Lena tells Sienna Hayes that everything about her known story is fiction. Within two pages, Hayes impresses Lena by saying her impression is that Lena’s Hollywood story isn’t who she really is. And Lena is somehow impressed by that. Even though she just told Hayes that herself? Bina/Lena’s internal monologues are embarrassingly juvenile and over-dramatic.

The one way I can imagine this working is if it were dramatized as some kind of Quentin Tarantino-esque over-the-top comic-tinged revenge fantasy. That could be a hoot. But as purportedly serious historical fiction, this is a bad joke.

If you want to read a nonfiction book about a young Jewish woman who passed as Aryan in Poland during the war, there is an excellent alternative to this book: The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust. You might also want to read a nonfiction book about the Warsaw Ghetto and its armed resistance to the Nazis in 1943.

Sienna Hayes, Hollywood's new "it" girl wants to direct a movie about Hollywood's Golden Age star Lena Browning; Lena agrees so long as she can tell her true story - not the one she's carefully crafted and lived under for all these years. Lena is really Bina Blonski, a Polish Jew who survived the Warsaw Ghetto by doing whatever it took which included spying, stealing weapons and using her Aryan looks to get what was needed to help the ghetto resistance. After the war, and in Hollywood Lena is not able to forget the horrors she faced nor the men who perpetrated them and so she uses her fame and power for revenge at every opportunity.

I found the first part of the novel hard to read because of current events, many scenes felt like a gut punch, but nothing @lisabarr wrote was superfluous, it was all there with purpose and meaning and showed how the seeds of antisemitism allowed the Nazis to flourish and eventually take over Poland. Barr brought the residents of the ghetto to life for the reader and depicted them with the respect and admiration that they all deserve but were stripped of by the Nazis. Lena was a great character and I loved following her story arc - her drive to fight not just for her own survival (which would have been understood under the circumstances) but her need to fight for the others in the ghetto, whether it was for their survival or their honor, and this made her very appealing regardless of her flaws. The second part of the book was my favorite because it was post Holocaust (I was ready for the break) and took place in Hollywood but still interwoven into the story was Lena's trauma of her time in the ghetto and the horrible abuse that she suffered and her need to continue to fight. I finished this novel Saturday night and had already told two people to read it by Sunday afternoon. This is definitely a worthwhile read!
4.25 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC to review

What a fantastic read! Lisa Barr is amazing!!!

The setting is Poland during WWII and all of the horrors and atrocities against the Jews by the Nazis is described in great detail. Bina is a bad-ass woman who does everything she can to protect those she loves and avenge those she has lost.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins Publishing for the chance to read and review this amazing book!!!

If you’re looking for a World War Two story with a difference, look no further than The Goddess of Warsaw. I found it to be an emotional read, as it focuses on the N@zi-created Warsaw Ghetto and what people did/had to do in order to survive. Bina Landau Blonski’s Aryan looks enabled her to “pass.” She was an acclaimed actress beforehand and used those skills to help her people. The book opens when she is in her 80s, a Hollywood legend under the name Lena Browning, so we know that she survived the Holocaust somehow. To find out how she got from the Warsaw Ghetto to Hollywood was a fascinating story, one that pulls no punches.

Lisa Barr has done an amazing job with subject matter that is often very hard to read about, especially the focus on the extreme hardships and brutality of the Warsaw Ghetto. (I remember reading Mila 18 by Leon Uris about this many years ago and it has stuck with me.) The portions of the book set in the 1950s in Hollywood and in 2005 were really interesting and form the heart of the revenge story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

"The Goddess Of Warsaw" is recognized as a significant contribution to the genre of historical fiction, providing a distinctive viewpoint on the Holocaust and its subsequent impact. The narrative serves not only as a source of information but also as an emotionally impactful experience. It is highly recommended for readers who have an interest in historical thrillers, narratives with strong female protagonists, and tales that emphasize human resilience. Authored by Lisa Barr, the book offers a combination of educational value and emotional depth, establishing it as an essential read.

To summarize, Lisa Barr's "The Goddess Of Warsaw" is a compelling and reflective piece of literature that adeptly intertwines factual history with imaginative storytelling to portray themes of bravery, endurance, and healing. The novel's meticulously structured storyline, vibrant characters, and touching motifs render it an exceptional work that promises to engage and enlighten its audience.

Lisa Barr is truly the “Goddess” of writing the most bedazzling and epic WWII historical fiction!

Thanks NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC! I’ve been this author’s fan ever since #WomanOnFire and this has been an honor to read.

Synopsis -

Lena Browning, a Hollywood legend is at an unending personal battle. In her previous life, she was Bina Blonski, a gifted actress and theatre artist, who hailed from an affluent Polish Jew family. When the Nazis destroyed her life and everything that she loved, she fought back in the only way she knew how, thanks to her Aryan looks. After a heroic combat to protect her home, the Warsaw ghetto, she has no choice but to escape to Hollywood, where she rises to fame, but doesn’t forget her past. Will she ever be done fighting?

Review –

The opening with Lena’s introduction was enough to suck me right in into this fascinating story. Think “Femme Fatale personified”! Oh how I could picture her former glorious beauty, the charm and sophistication she exuded, the kind of seductress she must have been, the fighter in her and of course the badass attitude and wicked charisma that helped her reach the pinnacle in the world of acting.

Rewind to 1940s Warsaw where we learn about the life of the enchantress that was Bina. Is she the same woman? Kudos to Lisa for characterizing 2 entirely distinct personalities out of the same woman, owing only to her circumstances.

There’s enough action, thrill, devastation, secrets, lies, betrayal and intoxicating love in Bina’s life to keep us captivated. Rest assured to feel a crushing gamut of emotions - rage, anguish, agony, utter helplessness and a heavy broken heart for Bina. While I was in awe of her mostly, I also wanted to give her a piece of my mind.

The ending was just goose-bump inducing and would certainly leave us speechless with a devilish, predatory satisfaction. How can this badass woman not make us feel anything less?

Can't wait to read more such strong femme fatale novels by the author!