From Malice to Ashes is based on events that took place in Europe during World War II. The characters are inspired by real people or are composites of multiple individuals.

Thankyou to NetGalley and American Legacy Media for the ARC. My review is given voluntarily.

The book explores Lithuania's history during this time through the lives of three characters: a young Jewish man named Olek, his fiancée Leva, and Zeneta. Through their perspectives, the author examines Nazi-occupied Lithuania, Soviet labor camps, and the refugee corridors.

A central focus of the novel is the Ponary massacre, the mass murder of up to 100,000 people, primarily Jews, during the period from 1941 to 1943.

The author does an excellent job of bringing a historical event to life by telling the story through characters we can empathize with. Toyn has made them well-rounded, so they don’t feel like mere tools for conveying historical facts. Instead, they remind us that these events involved real individuals with valuable lives, much like our own.

I received a digital arc and a audio arc. Production values for the audio were good . However due to the multiple viewpoints covered in the story in this instance i preferred to read rather than listen to it.