I'm not sure how I feel about this book It feels wrong to say I enjoyedit but it kept me gripped at times it was hard and intense to read. Yes I know it happened but it's not easy to read about the suffering, it reminds me that there is still suffering in this world due to acts of war
The characters we well written and the emotion was very real
Im glad that the two main characters were happy together at the end

I must admit, reading this book left me rather frustrated. The premise is certainly intriguing: a small German town in the mountains, a young boy and a young girl. They are beautiful, they are friends, and secretly, they are in love. He is the son of a Nazi sympathiser, she is Jewish. Star-crossed lovers – I should have loved this, shouldn’t I? And yet… I could not bring myself to care for the characters. Not for Pascal, even though I understand he was indoctrinated and, in many ways, manipulated by his father into joining the Nazis. Not when he was so proud, so enthusiastic, so naïve. Not really for Naomi either, still harbouring feelings for him despite everything. And yet, I could see how hard it must have been for her.

Perhaps that is the very heart of this book: the question of forgiveness. I simply struggle to understand Naomi’s decision.

That said, the novel does provide an unusual perspective, offering the voice of a Nazi character alongside the horrors endured by Naomi, Matthias, and all those persecuted by the regime. It is not a comfortable read, nor an easy one to love, but it certainly gives the reader much to reflect upon.

Gripping storyline from the get go. No dull parts or slow sections i found.
I hoped for a different storyline on one characters father for his actions but overall the ending was one version i had hoped for, but you do get to find out about anothers which i loved knowning.

An emotional read. I enjoyed reading this view of WW2, exploring it from both sides.
I am looking forward to reading more.

This was such a a great book. I can not imagine what it would be like to have your best friend become a Nazi while you are a Jew. The growth that both of these characters had to go through in order to survive is amazing. I love their story even when at times I could not believe the stupidity. It's amazing how you justify things in order to keep your beliefs. This was such a hard story I'm so glad they got a happy ending they definitely deserved it.

This is a sweet and tragic WWII read.
Two neighbor kids growing up together and destined to marry are slowly torn apart when Hitler begins his indoctrination.
The book characters fall into every group. Hated Jews, the resistance, a wide eyed young man’s naïve beliefs, a hard core Nazi, and a battered wife.
As the years go on, eyes are opened and survival is a must. Some make it, others do not. But out of the destruction of so many rise strength and new life.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

Heartbreaking WW2 book about whether love can survive between a Nazi and a Jew and how their lives and families are completely torn apart. I loved the character of Noemi and how she was so strong after everything that was thrown at her, Pascal was much harder to like but he won through eventually. A compelling story that I found hard to put down and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys that genre of book

Catherine Hokin's The Secret Locket is a harrowing and emotionally charged World War II novel, against the vicious background of Nazi Germany in 1941. Its core is the love triangle between Noemi, a Jewish girl, and Pascal, whose father goads him into joining the Hitler Youth. Their lives are shattered by war, and they must make unimaginable sacrifices to survive.

As Noemi's parents are deported to Dachau, Pascal's desperate gamble to smuggle her on board a train begins a decades-long odyssey of searching for family and closure. The locket he presents to her serves as a powerful reminder of their bond, a glimmer of hope in the face of crushing hopelessness. The author masterfully weaves the threads of loyalty, betrayal, and the power of enduring love. Pascal's quest for disillusionment with the Nazi government and his desperate search for Noemi provides layers of tension and redemption to the book.

This is an emotional and heartbreaking page-turner that will be enjoyed by readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Nightingale. It's a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the unbreakable hope that love can win through even in the most difficult of times.

Catherine Hokin’s new book, The Secret Locket, is a dramatic, unforgettable novel that opens in Germany during World War II. As the novel opens, our female protagonist, Noemi, is seen attempting to board a cattle train to escape her hometown. Her parents are captured and taken to Dachau. Noemi’s childhood friend (and first love), Pascal, is recruited to join the Hitler Youth because his father is a Nazi. Pascal helps Noemi escape her hometown, but before she leaves, he gives her his mother’s silver locket. They profess their love, and they promise to find each other again.

The novel is written in dual POV from Noemi and Pascal, which I enjoyed. It was interesting to see that Pascal mostly blindly followed his father and then the Nazis, until he began to struggle with the real truth of what was going on. Noemi’s character progression is even more impressive. She embodies the essence of struggle and hope, of faith and love. She is also existing in the chaos and horror of war. The details of war are described in vivid and unflinching detail. However, there are also moments of tender kindness and humanity. This novel plucked at my heartstrings the entire time I was reading, and I know I will think about it for a long time after.

The Secret Locket is a book I will be recommending to others. If you enjoy historical fiction that is informative, engaging, and emotionally impactful, you will love The Secret Locket. Thank you to Bookoutoure for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book follows Noemi and Pascal, childhood sweethearts from different backgrounds, whose love is forbidden and dangerous. Noemi is Jewish, Pascal's father is a rampant Nazi who gets him to join the Hitler Youth. Pascal is blinded by Hitler's charisma, and still thinks he is good. It isn't until the war starts and he sees what is happening, especially in the camps, that he tries to change things. Noemi's parents are both taken tot he camps and all their property and businesses are basically stolen by Victor, Pascal's father. When they are sure that she is in danger, Pascal and his mother help to smuggle Noemi out of town, and before she leaves, gives her his mother's locket to remember them. She joins the partisan fighters and manages to survive the war. Can she find Pascal, and does she even want to?

The prologue begins the book with a scene that sets the tone for the story, and pulled me in to read whenever I can to see what is going to happen to Noemi and Pascal. I enjoyed getting to know this pair as youngsters, and seeing what a great relationship they had. They climbed mountains and went on treks together as best friends, until it became a bit more. Noemi was a smart, resilient character, who was ready and willing to fight for what was right. When she was younger, she wasn't naive like Pascal, but didn't know what to do about it. As she grew up during the war, she was no longer shy and afraid to act, especially while in the resistance. Pascal loved his father and trusted him, blindly following Hitler. As he realized what was going on, he tried to stop some of it, but was sent to Dachau for his "Crimes". One of the places that Pascal ended up was Doli Pivski in Yugoslavia. I had never heard of this massacre before and it was terrible. There are so many German people who wanted to help, but didn't know what to do, as they didn't want to die or put their loved ones in danger, so I could see some of Pascal's issues. This was an emotional book to read or listen to. There is so much heartbreak. Although the tragic happenings in the concentration camps were always there in the background, that was not the focus of the story. You read about the Ghetto uprising in Warsaw and the battle for the city, which is something I have read about, but I learned a bit more. This is a book about the war and it's many victims, but it is also a story of friendship, family, fighting for what is right, and resilience. Throughout the book, the locket shares hope, hope that the friends might find one another, hope that they would survive the war, and hope that they might be able to start over.

I really enjoyed this book it was a different perspective on the War, seeing it from both sides the Jewish side and the German side.

It dealt with how the Jewish could see what was happening in the village that they lived in, how everything that they owned ended up being taken away from them. The German perspective it was as though from when they were young they were brainwashed by their Father and wanted to follow the example they set.

This book deals with the hardship and how the ones who were against the Germans fought back to get their freedom. The romance in the book was good you always knew what the outcome would be. Also how the enemy changed his mind with how the Jewish people were treated and tried to help them. There was also sadness in the book.

The book was a fantastic read and certainly would recommend it.

Our main characters are FMC Noemi and MMC Pascal, starting in the days leading up to WWII and their time surviving the war. This is definitely different than most WWII novels I have read as it shows both the Jewish and German view points. Noemi is hidden while her family is rounded up and then her experience as a member of the resistance is followed. Pascal is raised by a father who believes in the Reich and it follows his experiences as a solider in the German army. This novel gave me a perspective to think about- what about the soldiers who became disillusioned during the war and did what they could to lessen the damage they were doing- as it’s not a topic I have read too much on.

Catherine Hokin is a new-to-me author, so I wasn’t sure what to expect in the pages of this book. If I’m honest I picked it up based solely on the book blurb. It sounded so interesting, and because of my fascination with WWII novels, I knew I needed to read it.

Hokin grabbed my attention right from the start and didn’t let go. I loved that we met Pascal and Noemi in their youth and then follow them through the years. Even more, I love that they were from opposite sides of the war. It allowed for a wonderful dynamic, and a fresh look at how the war affected families. I especially enjoyed seeing Pascal’s POV – he was so naively following Hitler and his father, and yet had a friend who others called “poison”. Hokin did a wonderful job of showing how he saw the way Hitler and his followers were treating others, and how Pascal struggled with right and wrong. It was really eye opening if I’m honest. I think we as society just assume that Hitler’s followers agreed with him in every way, and had a good understanding of his goals. But Pascal’s character reminds us that perhaps there was a little disconnect, misunderstanding, or communication. Perhaps there were those who assumed the regime meant one thing even though it meant another.

Noemi’s journey was equally as captivating. She went through so much, things I never would even imagine. And yet she stayed strong. She really is someone we can learn from and look up to. I actually thought perhaps there would have been a love ending that was a little different then what we see (sorry no spoilers!), but I was happy with how the story ended. It provided so many lessons for us to learn.

The Secret Locket is for historical fiction fans looking for a different kind of WWII book. It is hard to read at times (just because of the way people were treated), but so informative, inspiring, and a book to remember. Highly recommend!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I was not required to write a favorable review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This story is was truly amazing and I
could not put it down. Make sure to put it on your must-read list this year. Noemi is Jewish and she’s in love with her childhood friend Pascal, who joins the Hitler youth, then the German army. She is separated from Pascal and he believes they will be reunited one day.
Catherine Hokin doesn’t shy away from the atrocities of war but also showcases the goodness of people. This will rip you up and put you back together. Many thanks to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
#TheSecretLocket #CatherineHokin #NetGalley #Bookouture #BooksOnTour #BookLove #Bookstagram #NewBook #ILoveBooks #BooksSetInEurope #BooksSetDuringWWII

📆 single, linear timeline.
👀 dual, 3rd person POV
🐢 -🐇 medium-paced
💬 "By the time Noemi and Matthias entered the ghetto, the people shuffling through its filthy streets were little more than a collection of broken pieces loosely held together with skin."

Holocaust fiction is one of my favourite and most read genres, and Catherine Hokin is one of my favourite authors of this genre. 'The Secret Locket had everything I've come to
expect from one of Hokin's stories. A lot of pain and heartache, but also love, courage and hope. This genre isn't always easy
to read, but I think it's so important that we never forget, as long as the fact and fiction stay distinctly separate.

Noemi and Matthias might be fictional characters. But it's important to remember that people like them really did exist. People who lost everyone and everything, and yet were brave enough to fight back, to risk their lives living undercover and saving others.

And people like Pascal must have existed too. Young people who grew up with Jewish friends and neighbours, who were then indoctrinated to believe they were the enemy. Young people who didn't know what to believe, their younger selves who knew, and maybe loved, Jewish people. Or their leaders, parents and teachers who told them those friends and neighbours were to blame for everything that was wrong. Did they really know what they were
signing up for, and how easy would it have been to say "this is wrong", if it were possible at all. Can anyone say with 100% certainty what they'd do in the same situation? I'm not sure I can. I like to think I'd do "the right thing" but when you've been taught something by all the adults around you, how would you know they were wrong?

The Secret Locket also captures that love isn't perfect. It's complex and hard and flawed, it has to be worked at. That said I don't know how I'd feel about Pascal if I were Noemi. Could you forgive someone for the mistakes they made as a teenager or young adult? Mistakes that cost other people their lives? I found that as well as being a beautifully crafted story, this book has made me think deeply about how much our pasts shape us, and how much I would forgive someone I loved.

It had been a while since I’ve sat and read a historical fiction so it made a change and was a switch up to my recent reads.

This was so detailed, beautifully written and flowed so effortlessly. It was one of those novels that while reading it I wished I was watching it too because I feel it would make a perfect film or mini series, I love a book that is immersive in that way.

I really liked the central characters Noemi and Pascal, and following their story with all its emotional highs and lows was always gripping and really touching. It’s clear to see how much time, research and heart went into writing this novel, and it was just a pleasure to read.

I would say it is perfect if you enjoyed The tattooist of Auschwitz - another that I really loved, for a similar feel and emotional sucker punch of a read.

A tense opening to Catherine Hokin’s new book, The Secret Locket, sees our female protagonist, Noemi, scrambling to get on a cattle train as she tries to escape her home town of Unterwald in Bavaria. Her parents have been taken and her life is in danger and the place she has called home since the day she was born is no longer safe for her. But what will the future bring for her considering it’s only 1941 and many more turbulent, threatening and cruel times lay ahead?

This brief prologue gave the reader an instant snapshot into the life of Noemi, whose family were Jewish, but then we are taken back to part one which is set in 1934.There were four parts in all.Each with their own distinctive voice and with plenty of events happening in each. Splitting the book into parts worked very well and each the phase of the war that Noemi was existing in was portrayed very well and in fact each part melded together in a brilliant way. There could have been a danger that they would have become separate entities and the story as a whole could have become disjointed but that didn’t happen at all.

The writing throughout the book was excellent and the pacing was brilliant. There were no filler in chapters or subplots that were unnecessary. Instead we follow Noemi, as she goes from a shy and reserved young girl who loved her hometown and her parents and enjoyed her friendship with Pascal whom she spend every possible minute with to a woman hell bent on revenge. In the early 1930’s the tide is turning and Hitler has come to power as head of the National Socialist party and Pascal’s father Viktor has literally brainwashed his son and many of the towns people. Jews were viewed as a plague who would pollute German blood. They were a contagion who lost Germany World War One and therefore weakened the German nation. All of this is untrue of course but Pascal can’t see this and his attendance at the Nuremburg rallies and his membership of the Hitler Youth inspires him further to do his bit for his country. But how can he be friends and perhaps something more with a girl who is Jewish? They do say you can’t have your cake and eat it too and initially that’s what Pascal wanted.

I thought he was the most foolish young boy and yes he may have been sacred of his father and the repercussions of not following the ideology but if his mother Carina could see what was so wrong with everything and she did her best to help Noemi why couldn’t Pascal do the same? Really he wasn’t man enough. I loved how Noemi knew that her friendship with Pascal ran deep but that the fate of her family and that of so many others was of the utmost importance to her. That she just couldn’t stand by and agree with anything that Pascal was supporting when it meant the extermination of her own people. She didn’t align with his views and I thought she was right to distance herself from him. Friendship and love were nagging away at her but she had to follow her head rather than her heart when it came to Pascal, yet for all she endures throughout the book there is a tiny part of her that battles with the question can one offer forgiveness in the hopes that something new, solid and true can emerge from the ashes?

The story moves back and forth between Pascal and Noemi as they navigate very different experiences of the war. I thought the two alternative viewpoints worked very well and although there was slightly less from Pascal’s perspective the chapters from his stance were hard hitting, insightful and impactful. Sent to Russia as an officer his opinions are slowly altering from what they once were and this is all due to what he witnesses and lives through. Still I don’t think I was overly enamoured with him and I think that’s because he wasn’t on Noemi’s side from the get go despite the strong and deep bonds of their friendship. Couldn’t he have been more like his mother than his father? He was totally deaf and blind to reality and ok he may not have known the extent of what was to come but surely knows the difference between right and wrong? It irritated me that he couldn’t see correct path to thread and what was coming down the line.He agreed with the long term plan for the Jews yet his best friend was Jewish. His mindset just didn’t make sense to me at all. He was a very divisive character and to be honest this would make for a great talking point for a book club as there is so much to question, to delve into and explore.

The pair are separated when her parents are taken and as I have mentioned Noemi is forced to flee. One of the good things that Pascal does is provide her with the means to escape even if it meant putting himself in danger for if he was discovered helping a Jew the repercussions from his father would have been unspeakable. The family businesses her parents worked so hard to build up are gone but Noemi vows one day she will return to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives. She promises herself that she will find her parents and she clings to the hopes that they will survive the war. Noemi becomes a powerhouse of a woman as we follow her over the course of the war. From viewing Dachau from the outside, to Prague and Warsaw, she engages in resistance work alongside Matthias a Polish man she meets and a man whom I was desperately hoping that she would fall in love with. I had my fingers crossed throughout.

I won’t give any specific detail as to her time in each of the aforementioned places but suffice to say that shy country girl is long gone and lost and will never return. She is hardened by her experiences but she is filled with anger, knowledge and foresight and I loved how she battled with Matthias to try in any way possible to put a halt to such a monstrous machine. There were many setbacks, complications, pain, fear, suffering and desperate losses but each survived to mould and shape her into a fantastic character who put Pascal to shame. Yes, he too goes on his own personal journey but it was Noemi who I wanted to read all about and her transformation although through experiences she should never have had to go through was a remarkable and a satisfying one to read of. Noemi, certainly grows up quickly and she becomes a warrior, an impressive fighter full of justice, courage, bravery and skill. The scenes she witnesses and some of the things described in the book created such awful imagery in my head that I questioned how could she keep battling on. Truly she was incredible.

The Secret Locket of the title does have a specific place in the story and it’s meaning is valid but as it wasn’t always at the forefront of the story I am wondering would another title perhaps have been better for what was an excellent story? What that title could be I don’t know but it suggested the locket was a mystery waiting to be discovered which it wasn’t. But look that really is a minor personal niggle and I’m only saying it because I feel the incredible story within the pages of the stunning cover needs to be read by as many fan os historical fiction as possible. I’ve been a fan of Catherine Hokin’s work for a good while and in particular adored the Hanni Winter series but Noemi is up there for me along Hanni and that’s saying something considering how much I enjoyed that series.

Wow ! What an emotionally powerful book. So vivid and heart-breaking story ! Loved it, highly recommend this book if you like historical fiction.

What an emotional journey through the war. The author shows us opposite perspectives and delivers them well.
We follow Jewish girl Noemi and Catholic boy Pascal from the start of the troubles through the war, their friendship is tested and at what point do you wake up and truly know if there is a good and a bad jew, or maybe you understand deep down there’s no division and can’t act on that knowledge.
They’ve been friends since the crib, and slowly but surely Hitlers forced ideology pulls at their love and friendship.
Noemi sees and experiences what’s happening and has a real understanding, Pascal on the other hand is blinded by his father and his desire to be a proud soldier. Not thinking how this affects those Hitler wants to wipe out.
He cant see his dads true colours.
The shift in perspective is handled well and there are so many layers to Naomi’s story.
I found it interesting, fascinating and gripping as well as shocking. A recommended read.

Thank you, @bookouture, for my complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

This story begins in 1934 Bavaria, following childhood friends Pascal and Noemi as they navigate the rise of Hitler's regime. Pascal’s father, Viktor, embraces anti-Jewish sentiments, and Pascal, who worships his father, quickly joins Hitler’s Youth, creating a rift between him and Noemi. Despite his father's beliefs, Pascal cares for Noemi, but she realizes they can never be together if he continues to support Hitler.

As the timeline moves to the early 1940s, the story splits into two narratives: Noemi's courageous escape and work with a resistance group, and Pascal's conflicted journey as a German soldier grappling with the regime's horrors.

I found both storylines engaging; however, I felt that an actual relationship between a Jewish girl and a German soldier was improbable, and the conclusion seemed idealistic. This is one of the few times I have felt that an open-ended ending might have been better!

Overall, this story is a compelling exploration of love and moral awakening during World War II and will appeal to fans of Jewish resistance stories.