The Girl from the Channel Islands by Jenny Lecoat

 Impossible, Forbidden Love.  

Goosebumps! This is more than a story about German occupation in the Channel Islands during WWII—it’s also about the impossible, forbidden love of a German officer and a Jewish woman trapped in a dangerous world where there are no true winners. Based on a true story, they are forced to be enemies and must go to great lengths to hide their love.  Was it all for nothing?

This book revived my desire to visit the Channel Islands.  I first dreamt of visiting it after reading one of my favorite books of all time—The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  Now more than ever I want to see the islands where the defenseless population was taken over by Germans, the place where the Organization Todt used slave labor to complete their engineering projects, the place where characters like Hedy, Dorothea, Juliet and Dawsey found a place in my heart. 

 

Guernsey Island is also where Victor Hugo lived in exile for 15 years. The Victor Hugo house is open for tours and yes, it’s already on my bucket list! 

 

 

Happy Reading,

 

Annette 

Other Historical Fiction About WWII:

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan (Based on a true story of a young man who saves Jews by getting them over the Italians Alps to the safety of Switzerland and later becomes a spy.)

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris (Based on a true story of love and survival in Auschwitz.)

The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton (About the Kindertransport in the months leading up to WWII.)

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter (Based on the author's own family.)

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay (About the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in Paris)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Won a Pulitzer)

City of Thieves by David Benioff (Set during the Siege of Leningrad)

Address Unknown by Kressmann Taylor