I have been reading Libba Bray's Books since I was in my early 20's. This book is probably one of my absolute favorites by her.

It was said that if you write to the Bridegroom's Oak, the love of your life will answer back. Now, the tree is giving up its secrets at last.

In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom's Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too-but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.

In 1980s West Germany, American teen transplant Jenny feels suffocated by her strict parents and is struggling to fit in. Until she finds herself falling for Lena, a punk-rock girl hell-bent on tearing down the wall separating West Germany from East Germany, and meeting Frau Hermann, a kind old lady with secrets of her own.

In Spring 2020, New York City, best friends Miles and Chloe are in the first weeks of COVID lockdown and hating Zoom school, when an unexpected package from Chloe's grandmother leads them to investigate a cold case about two unidentified teenagers who went missing under the Bridegroom's Oak eighty years ago.

I missed Libba Bray so much and this book was a fantastic welcome back!

The way the three generations weaved together to tell one big story that talks about the responsibility to ourselves and others when we face/see injustice was very well executed.

This book was a fantastic read and I highly recommend.

An engrossing generational story from a shining star of the YA realm. Three connected stories set in 1940s Nazi-occupied Germany, 1980s Berlin (both East & West), and 2020 NYC weave together a tale of bravery, heroism, and sacrifice. This is a departure from Bray's supernatural series so those fans may not be enthralled, but her strong storytelling remains gripping. Characters from 20th c. are white, but current storyline features more diversity.

I really enjoyed this book. The pacing for each of the three stories was great because just as you're immersed in one story, it flips and you catch up with the others. I enjoyed the timelines and was invested in each character. I liked finding out the connection between all three stories at the end. The characters were fully developed and every time I thought I had a favorite character, it changed with the next change in timeline. I fell in love with these characters and I wish I could read more about them. The relationships between characters made me feel hopeful and warm inside. I really liked the interspersed German and I played a game with myself trying to guess what it said with my little German language knowledge and the context before the text translated the phrases.

Time is a slippery thing in Under the Same Stars, which takes place across three decades and encompasses three sets of protagonists connected by a massive, magical German oak. The Bridegroom’s Oak in the Dodauer Forest allegedly unites soulmates if you write to it, but has also been blamed for the disappearance of three teenagers. This is a dark, redemptive, and beautiful tale that weaves its secrets carefully.

The book begins by following Sophie Muller and Hannah Schmidt, two girls trying to cope with the beginning of World War II and the nightmares therein. They are separated by their parents ideals; Sophie is Jewish but hiding that fact, while Hannah’s family supports the Nazi party. Both girls are in the Hitler Youth, but they slowly but surely come to learn what being loyal to the Nazi party means. Sophie’s family goes to Lodz, and Hannah’s falls under suspicion for lacking patriotic fervor. Hannah becomes more and more disenchanted with Hitler and fascism as the war goes on. When the girls are reunited, they create their own resistance movement, printing their own antifascist paper. The two girls – along with Oskar Gerber, a fervent Nazi who has been trying to court Hannah – mysteriously disappear from the Dodauer Forest during the winter solstice.

Then we follow Jenny Campbell and Lena – an American transplant and a German punk rocker - living in the divided Germany of the 1980s. Lena writes doggerel dedicated to her never-ending rebellion and pushes back against the bourgeois – which include Jenny’s parents. Jenny starts to realize she’s not straight as she falls in love both with Lena and her music and ideals. She joins Lena’s band and plays the violin in it, and together they experiment with drugs, girls, boys and alcohol in a very teenaged way. Lena’s big dream is tearing down the Berlin wall; her brother is an East German smuggler and being in contact with him is dangerous. Jenny, meanwhile, is obsessed with the mystery of her neighbor, Frau Hermann, who is rumored to be a witch but is actually a psychologist. Jenny agrees to carry Frau Hermann’s letter to the Bridegroom’s Oak and from her, learns more and more about Sophie and Hannah’s disappearance.

Finally, Miles and Chloe – two bored American teens stuck in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic – decide to investigate the mystery of The Bridegroom’s Oak, spurred on by a package Chloe receives from her grandmother containing a grainy article about the case. Chloe is rich and Miles is not, and while the disparity bothers him sometimes, he has a big crush on her and hopes that their investigation will bring them closer. The story of Hannah and Sophie’s heroism inspires Miles to take part in activist activities, including protests against George Floyd’s murder, instead of simply supporting them from a distance. All the while, the question lingers; did Sophie and Hannah really magically disappear on the night of that fateful Winter Solstice? Or did they blend into the chaotic World War II world and manage a getaway?

You know the threads here have to connect somehow. Readers will be happy to know that Bray does indeed knot all the ends together in an inventive way. Under the Same Stars has less magical realism in it than other of Bray's novels which, here, works well. Everything feels brutally real in the best ways.

I deeply loved the 1980s sections, but Bray manages to make the story of Hannah and Sophie unique among World War II fictions. They are brave and flawed, and reading about their lives is a privilege.

The 2020s narrative feels the most teenagerly, but the problem of Covid, the terminal illness of Chloe’s grandmother, and Miles’ feelings about his self-described cowardice and being the biracial kid of two moms all provide narrative tension. All three plotlines dovetail well together, and while you may suspect where the story is going, the mystery of Hannah and Sophie is genuinely surprising.

This is a handsomely written book – touching, brave, and nervy, and strongly anti fascist in these trying times. Teenagers will like Under the Same Stars - and adults will like it just as much.

Following three interconnected timelines, two teens work to unravel a long standing mystery surrounding an oak tree in Germany. Full of tension and emotion, this novel is sure to hit readers hard in just the right way. Each timeline carries its own unique story and characters, but the overarching theme is about history repeating itself and what we can do as individuals to make sure that doesn't happen. The beautiful prose and emotionally fraught stories will endear the readers to the characters and make the reader hooked to find out what happens next and how the timelines are related.
This is a timely historical fiction novel that I would recommend to anyone looking for a fresh take on a WWII novel. Whereas most WWII novels are isolated in that time period, Libba Bray ties those events into modern day and show us how history is woven into our modern tapestry. This novel is an impressive feat and one of my favorite reads of the year- definitely one of my most impactful reads of the year.

The format of this book, moving back and forth through time and narrators, keeps the story engaging and fresh, and the connections between the three narratives are slowly revealed, keeping suspense but also offering the reader the opportunity to make guesses or assumptions about who's who and what connections there might be. The callback to the early days of the pandemic brought back my own memories, while the earlier sections, set in 1940 and 1980, provided an interesting examination of German culture and resistance that I was not as familiar with and was therefore delighted to learn more about through the narrative of the young people living in each era.
The only part of the book I found dissapointing was the interspersed "fairy tale" about the hare and the doe; it seemed to be giving "clues" about the larger narrative, but didn't seem necessary. There was a somewhat tenuous connection between the Kleinwald narrative and the fairy tale, but it wasn't developed well enough to engage me in this fourth story in the book.
I would recommend this book to high school students, and given the vareity of narrators and "main characters" in the text, I believe it would appeal across genders.

I wasn't sure I was going to finish this one. Around 60% in I was kind of bored and forcing myself to keep reading, and ALMOST put this away as a DNF. But, at 61% the book took off and I was racing to finish it because I needed to know what happened.

There are three storylines occurring throughout the book. The one that intrigued me the most was taking place during WWII and obviously you don't know until the end how they truly all connect. The second one is happening in the 80s when the Berlin wall is in place. I don't know squat about that time period as I was just an infant, but I did a bunch of googling when this book was done so I could learn more. It certainly opened my eyes to more horrific things that humans have done to each other. The third storyline is taking place during the pandemic and highlights a lot of the racial issues that were forefront during a time when panic was high for so many reasons. While this was the least interesting, it was necessary for the three to connect. Honestly, though, I'm so tired of reading about the pandemic.

I'm glad I pushed through and finished this one. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this.

Under The Same Stars
By: Libba Bray

5 Stars

This was a book with so much. It was about war and loss. Tragedy and redemption. Magic and fantasy. Death and survival. This book was told with multiple timelines that bring the reader, me, on an amazing journey and adventure. This book was written well and captivates the mind and soul as well as the heart. I love the relationships of Hanna and Sophie, Lena and Jen. Each timeline converged into an amazing story at the end. As a whole, this book was very well done. It brought past and present and did it in a descriptive way. It was simply amazing.


*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Review

well, i read my most-anticipated book of the past several years, and i have thoughts!

as a libba bray stan of almost two decades, i can say that this book feels very different from all of her others. it doesn't feature any actual magic, but there is this dreamlike, fairytale quality woven throughout that i loved. this book's central message is that magic might not be real in a literal sense, but love and resistance and community *are* magic.

the three timelines were very ambitious, and i think some worked better than others. my favorite of the three was definitely jenny's story, set in west berlin in 1980. the one that really didn't work for me was the 2020 timeline-- i think we're just not far removed enough yet from that time to have many meaningful reflections on it. the characters in the 2020 story also felt the least fully formed. i really think the main purpose of that timeline was to tie everything together, which it definitely did. i enjoyed finding the ways in which the timelines and characters were connected. i correctly put together a lot of the mystery elements before the characters did, but i still had fun on the journey of piecing the whole narrative together. i will say that i loved the last chapter and definitely teared up a bit.

all in all, i think this is worth the read if you're a libba bray fan and/or historical fiction lover! it shares themes with a lot of her other work, and her social commentary is always appreciated.

i received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I send so many thanks to Libba Bray, the publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I picked this book entirely because of Libba Bray and how much I loved the Diviners series. I think she writes solid historical fiction pieces and, so, I was eager to get my hands on this one.

This book intertwines a story over three timelines: Germany during WWII, Berlin during the 80s and the underground punk scene, and winter 2020 during the COVID pandemic. And, I have to be honest, it just didn't work that well for me.

While I loved Hannah and Sophie's story in WWII and Dallas' story discovering the underground punk scene in Berlin, I didn't think the pandemic era story fit as well. Libba Bray did connect all three timelines but I think the whole tagline of "you have to understand the past to understand the future," wasn't the strongest.

I would have enjoyed either timeline on its own.

At the end of it all, Bray's writing is superb. She builds solid tension and foreboding when appropriate, as always. And this one prompted me to go down a wormhole regarding punk in Berlin in the 80s. I had no idea that punks helped to eventually bring down the Berlin Wall.

Overall, 4/5 stars for this one!

A wonderful book that balances multiple generations across history. I loved the different perspectives with the common thread woven through.

I’ve become a lot better at DNFing books that aren’t working for me, and for that reason I’m calling this at 32%. I really didn’t want to because I know Libba Bray is good at writing a slow burn plot — The Diviners was proof of that — but this ended up being to slow for me to want to stick with it.

This book takes place over three time periods, and they were all dramatically different in quality for me.

Starting with the 1930s one isn’t easy because this gave me absolutely nothing. I decided to DNF this book last night and it’s less than 24 hours later and I can’t tell you a single thing that happened in that period.

The next timeline, and my personal favorite/the reason I made it as far as I did, was the 1980s timeline. It was the only one that had compelling characters, romance, and mystery from the beginning. Even that one wasn’t perfect for me though and I still struggled sometimes. Mostly because of the German. Obviously it makes sense for there to be sentences in German since that’s where it’s set but it’s really difficult to be immersed in a story when I’m spending more time on my Google Translate app than my Netgalley app. Luckily a lot of the sentences are close to their English meaning and so I could guess what they meant, but the longer sentences? Let’s just say my screen time on the Google Translate app is going to skyrocket.

Lastly there was the 2020s timeline and to put it plainly — I hated it. I’m talking immediate dread sinking in when I see that date at the top. I was wary going in because I personally can’t stand reading things set during quarantine, but I figured I could get past it if the rest was good. It wasn’t, in my opinion. One of the things that bothered me the most was the humor. The characters in the Diviners series were funny and had amazing banter, but none of that was present in this timeline. The teenage characters actually said sentences like “Oh snap! She just got told!” and infinite other cringeworthy things that teenagers would probably never unironically say. There was also a lot of hashtags used, not in social media posts either but in regular texts and Zoom call messages which was insufferable. There was also a scene that spanned multiple pages where characters shared their political views, and while they did play into establishing Miles’s character, the whole thing was presented so heavy-handed that I finished the chapter feeling like I just got out of a government class.

Overall, I definitely want to revisit this at a later date because I do have hopes it will get better, but as of right now I’ve lost my will to keep trying. Two out of three of the plot lines weren’t enjoyable for me, the humor was beyond unfunny, and all the sentences I didn’t understand made this one a miss for me. From an enjoyment standpoint this is a 2 and a half but because I didn’t finish it it doesn’t feel completely fair to be rating it, so I’m just marking it as finished for now on other platforms.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

~🄾🅅🄴🅁🄰🄻🄻 🅁🄰🅃🄸🄽🄶: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ . 5~

I'm a big fan of interconnected stories set in different time periods that all come together. In this book, you've got the story of two young German women in 1940s Germany, a young American woman in 1980s Germany, and a young American man in the U.S. at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. How do all of their stories come together in the end? You will have to read it to find out, but I found it very satisfying to put the pieces together and realize how there have always been people fighting for what is right.

I have read nearly every one of Libba Bray's books and have loved them all. This is no exception. Three distinct stories -- one about two girls growing up in Nazi Germany, one about two girls living in West Berlin in the 1980s, and one about a girl and a boy in 2020 who are connected to both of the earlier stories. All the stories are tied together through a magical/mystical fairy tale. This is a book about family, duty, love, and the power of the human spirit to adapt and survive.

The strength of this story is in the characters. Each is distinct and fully formed and each character elicits an emotional connection from readers. Sophie and Hanna get caught up in the dilemma between duty and obligation to an immoral cause and doing the right thing. Their moral conflict is touching and the aftermath of their decisions are heartbreaking. In 1980s West Berlin, Jenny and Lena are caught in similar dilemma -- follow the rules, listen to your parents, or follow your heart -- again their choices have heartbreaking consequences. In 2020, Miles and Chloe are trying to navigate Covid lockdowns and Chloe's grandmother's serious illness to solve the mystery of two missing girls and how that might be connected to Chloe's grandmother. By the end, all is clear, the connections are made, and I was in a puddle of tears -- of sorrow, relief, and joy. This is my idea of a perfect story -- humorous at times, heartbreakingly sad at others, and ultimately satisfying.

NOTE -- Libba Bray is known as an author of "young adult" books. Her books may be about teenagers and have teen appeal, but this book is rich enough in prose and emotion to be an "adult" book. Highly recommended for teens and adults.

ONE ADDITIONAL COMMENT -- There is some profanity and mild sexual content here and a definite LGBTQA theme. This could get this banned from many school libraries in today's climate. That would be a travesty.

This was a little slow to start, but once I was in, it was hard to put down. I've been avoiding anything set during 2020/pandemic lockdown, and that timeline did feel the least fleshed out. This book is not a romance, but all three timelines definitely contained a romance, all of which I found to be compelling. The characters were well drawn, the mystery was pretty tight, the plot construction was good. All in all this was a very solid book. For me, there were just a small handful of images and metaphors that I felt have already been overused in fiction, and I was disappointed to see three of them in one book. I would still recommend this, particularly to adults who read YA. I will be interested to see how teen readers respond. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was such a beautiful story! I don’t read a lot of historical fiction but this captured me completely. It is YA but I feel like it would appeal to many people. I would for sure recommend this and add to our library 100%!

I'm surprised to share---I think this book will work really well for fans of Kristin Hannah. The vibes and the prose are there.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for the ARC.

This book is so good. The characters are imperfect and compelling. The story is structured well, with each section thoughtfully exploring the ideas of connection, collective responsibility, and personal growth. There are so many beautiful sentences worthy of study. Libba Bray is a great writer, and I'm so fortunate to have been able to read this early. The book works as a standalone, but I'd love to spend more time with these characters.

I'm a huge fan of Libba Bray's work, and was very excited to receive the eARC for Under the Same Stars from NetGalley and the publisher! The three separate timelines (1930s/40s, 1980, 2020) are woven together well, and I appreciated the diversity of the teen characters' backgrounds/personal identities. As always, her attention to detail and commitment to historical accuracy do not disappoint, and teen readers looking for multiple POV/multi-generational historical fiction will snap this up.