bethmitcham's reviews
3305 reviews

It goes on a bit long in the middle, but it's a good example of Heyer's wit and ability to write amusing women.

I liked the world building, and the sibling relationship. 

This is really two books that sit together rather uneasily. The first is the Holocaust story of Eva Mozes Kor, who survived bizarre and evil experiments on her and her twin sister by Mengele in Auschwitz. It's a standard tale of a happy Jewish family that is slowly engulfed by anti-semitism and hatred until they are pushed into cattle cars and taken to death camps. Recognized as twins by their matching outfits, the sisters were the only ones of their family to survive.

This story completes with their liberation and after lives, from struggling in communist Romania to emigration to Israel where they can come to terms with their survival. Later Eva married an American and moved to Indiana.

In the 1980s Eva became involved with activism around the Holocaust, making sure it was remembered and that the perpetrators didn't go unnoticed. And she also discovered the power of forgiveness; she forgave not only her parents, who couldn't protect her, but the village that betrayed them, and even the Nazis. In this second story her coauthor grapples with what this means and the controversy it created. Many people were unwilling to hear about forgiveness on the same page as any mention of the Nazis, and resentment and anger were frequent reactions. I'd actually be interested in a longer look at how the community handled this controversy and what it meant to Eva and her family, but it doesn't really work as the epilogue to the story of her experiences. 

The writing was fine, but the heroine made a horrible decision at the end which made me lose both all respect for her and and any interest in her getting a HEA.

If someone discover that a mystic curse makes them prone to uncontrollable fits of murder, than declaring that they still intend to go hang out with a child and no, they refuse any escort from people who might prevent the murders if another fit comes along, and that it's because they "can't be ruled by fear", then that person is a complete asshole. Reading this book during a pandemic did not lesson that conviction of mine. I don't root for people who have no qualms about slaughtering children. Anyone who thinks it would be worse to hang out with a friend than to accidentally kill a bystander is a jerk. And not a good romantic partner.

Poor kid in rich boarding school. Shenanigans!

Murderbot is so sweet. And good with kids!