This book toggles between 3 different timelines: one in 1938, 1943 and 1946. In 1938 we hear the stories of sisters Christiana and Annelise as they are growing up in Germany with friends who are persecuted by the Nazi's. In 1943, we are following Christina who is amidst a group of German women trying to free their Jewish husbands that are being held captive. In 1946, we are following Emmy just after the war. She is a librarian who is trying to sort through all of the books that were stolen by the Nazi's to get them back to their rightful owners. When Emmy stumbles onto a book with messages written in the margins, she is on a mission to find the rightful owner and understand their story. This is a story of the sadness and horrors of war, along with several stories of love and friendship, and stories of woman who have different views of the world. It took me a little time to get into this with the storylines switching, but once I did, it really drew me in. There are a few twists that I didn't see coming. It was a very powerful story that I enjoyed and would recommend to others. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy to ready.

The Lost Book of Bonn has a great storyline and the main characters were initially well written.

As the book progressed closer to the last third, the details, which had been in good balance throughout most of the book, stopped. The main characters were suddenly written about as if they had been minor characters and the outcomes of their lives skipped details you would expect to see and that I was looking for.

By the finish of the book I realized that, for me, it felt like the author had tried to bring too many parts of life before and during the Nazis into the story versus focusing on the initial premise, youth resisters versus Nazi youth with the side story of book recovery post war.