The Edelweiss Sisters: An epic, heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 novel
Page 37
“God rest his soul.” Johanna rested her cheek against Franz’s bony shoulder. She could hardly believe he was here; she felt the need to squeeze him, to make sure he was actually in her arms, alive and whole. He wouldn’t disappear like the dream he still seemed. “I’m so happy,” she said after a moment, her tone wondering. “I’ve forgotten what that feels like.”
“God willing you’ll have many opportunities to feel it again.” Franz hugged her to him. “I will make sure of it, starting with Paris.”
“Paris—” Johanna laughed and shook her head.
“One day, I will take you,” Franz promised her.
“I know you will.” She believed it then, just as she believed in their own future, could see it shimmering in front of them, finally in reach. “And I know I will be happy,” she stated with firm decision. Happiness was a precious treasure, but it was also a choice, one she would make every day—for Lotte’s sake, for Werner’s, for Ingrid’s and Kunigunde’s and everyone who had laid down their lives so that they in turn could live—and love. “I will,” she said again, and taking Franz’s hand, she led him into the house on Getreidegasse, and up the stairs to home.
If you loved The Edelweiss Sisters, don’t miss Into the Darkest Day by Kate Hewitt. Set in war-torn London and Europe during the Second World War, it is a love story that will break your heart.
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Into the Darkest Day
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She had to step outside and hold the paper up to the moonlight to read it, but when she was able to make out the words, her heart felt as if it would drop right out of her chest. Because the message was in German.
1944, London:
When Lily meets enigmatic GI Matthew in war-torn London, she doesn’t expect to fall in love. While her sister starts a reckless affair with another GI, Lily tries to hide her growing feelings for Matthew.
But Matthew has a devastating secret. One that could change their lives forever.
Present day, America:
Abby lives a quiet life on an apple farm in Wisconsin. Tormented by survivor’s guilt after the tragic deaths of her mother and brother, Abby leaves the orchards as little as possible, keeping her life small, peaceful and safe… Until she is contacted by Englishman Simon Elliot, who arrives nursing a heartbreak of his own, and bearing a World War Two medal that he claims belonged to Abby’s grandfather.
Together they begin to piece together the heartbreaking story of their relatives’ war. But as the story brings Abby and Simon closer—tentatively beginning to lean on one another to heal—they uncover a dark secret from the past.
And like Lily and Matthew nearly eighty years before them, it will make Abby and Simon question whether you can ever truly trust someone, even when they have your heart…
A heartbreakingly powerful, epic love story about courage, friendship and broken trusts, Into the Darkest Day is an unforgettable story perfect for fans of Nora Roberts, Kristin Hannah and The Notebook.
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Books by Kate Hewitt
Standalone Novels
The Edelweiss Sisters
The Girl from Berlin
When You Were Mine
Into the Darkest Day
A Hope for Emily
No Time to Say Goodbye
Not My Daughter
The Secrets We Keep
A Mother’s Goodbye
This Fragile Life
When He Fell
Rainy Day Sisters
Now and Then Friends
A Mother like Mine
Amherst Island Trilogy
The Orphan’s Island
Dreams of the Island
Return to the Island
Far Horizons Trilogy
The Heart Goes On
Her Rebel Heart
This Fragile Heart
Writing as Katharine Swartz
The Vicar’s Wife
The Lost Garden
The Second Bride
The Other Side of The Bridge
AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
The Girl from Berlin (Available in the UK and the US)
When You Were Mine (Available in the UK and the US)
Into the Darkest Day (Available in the UK and the US)
A Hope for Emily (Available in the UK and the US)
No Time to Say Goodbye (Available in the UK and the US)
Not My Daughter (Available in the UK and the US)
The Secrets We Keep (Available in the UK and the US)
A Mother’s Goodbye (Available in the UK and the US)
Amherst Island Trilogy
The Orphan’s Island (Available in the UK and the US)
Dreams of the Island (Available in the UK and the US)
Return to the Island (Available in the UK and the US)
Far Horizons Trilogy
The Heart Goes On (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Rebel Heart (Available in the UK and the US)
This Fragile Heart (Available in the UK and the US)
A Letter from Kate
Dear reader,
I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read The Edelweiss Sisters. If you did enjoy it, and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, just sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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I have my lovely editor Isobel to thank for suggesting I write a story of three sisters in Salzburg. All I knew of Salzburg was from The Sound of Music and a brief trip there in my teens, so it was fascinating to delve into the research and discover how different Austria was to Germany in many ways.
While the Eder sisters are fictional, there are some real-life characters in the book—namely Maria von Trapp, Virgilia Lutz, the Mother Abbess of Nonnberg, and Corrie and Betsie ten Boom. The von Trapps’ first public concert was indeed at the Elektrischer Aufzug in 1934, and Betsie ten Boom did spend some time in the infirmary at Ravensbrück, where she shared her dream of a house where all those damaged by the war could recover and heal. The accounts of Ravensbrück are inspired by Corrie ten Boom’s memoirs, including the wonderful The Hiding Place. There is no evidence that Nonnberg Abbey was involved in any resistance activities (despite the scene at the end of The Sound of Music, where the nuns assist the von Trapps!) but knowing what I have learned about Virgilia Lutz, I like to think the nuns there were involved.
I hope you loved The Edelweiss Sisters and if you did I would be very grateful if you could write a review. I’d love to hear what you think, and it makes such a difference helping new readers to discover one of my books for the first time.
I love hearing from my readers—you can get in touch on my Facebook page, through Twitter, Goodreads or my website.
Thanks,
Kate
www.kate-hewitt.com
The Girl from Berlin
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1936, Nazi-ruled Berlin. A heartbreaking and stunningly powerful novel of friendship, courage and betrayal, about two girls whose lives collide in war-torn Berlin, and whose friendship is the only thing that might get them out alive.
They sat together on the roof, watching Berlin burn, as traces of smoke and cloud floated through the air. “I just want to be free,” Rosa said quietly, “Even if only for a few minutes. It might be the last chance I have.”
From her beautiful new home in Berlin, a young woman named Liesel Scholz barely notices the changes to the city around her. Her life is one of privilege and safety thanks to her father’s job working for the new government.
But a chance encounter with Rosa, the daughter of their Jewish housekeeper, confirms Liesel’s fears that something isn’t right. That the Nazi government’s brutal rules are cruel and dangerous, and that oth
ers aren’t as safe as she is. When Rosa begs Liesel to help—pressing her grandfather’s gold pocket watch into Liesel’s hand—Liesel recklessly agrees.
She will help hide Rosa and her loved ones—in the dusty, unused rooms at the top of their house—even if it means putting everyone she loves in danger. Even if it means risking her own life.
Frankfurt, 1946: An idealistic American captain, Sam Houghton, arrives in Germany to interrogate prominent Nazis on trial and to help rebuild a battered country. When he hires an enigmatic, damaged interpreter named Anna, he doesn’t expect sparks to fly between them. Perhaps there is a chance of love for both of them. But then the question of what happened to Anna in the war raises its head.
Because Anna has secrets—ones that link her to Berlin, the Nazi party, and the story of one gold pocket watch and two young women who became friends, even when they were told it was impossible…
A compelling and haunting story about courage, love and betrayal set in war-torn Berlin. Fans of The Alice Network, All the Light We Cannot See and The Nightingale will be not be able to put this down.
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When You Were Mine
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“Dylan…” I croak, but my little boy doesn’t even look at me. “Dylan,” I say again, my voice breaking now, and the social worker gives me a reproving look. I’m not helping, but I don’t care. “Dylan!” My voice is louder now, and my gaze stays locked with my son’s as she pulls away from the curb and drives away, taking my very life with her.
Single mother Beth loves her seven-year-old son Dylan with all her heart. He’s her world. But life with Dylan isn’t easy—and his emotional issues push Beth to her very limit. When a misunderstanding leads Dylan to be taken into foster care, she is determined to do whatever she can to get him back.
Mother of two, Ally has always dreamed of fostering—it feels like her chance to give back when she has been so lucky in life. But when Dylan joins their family, Ally finds herself struggling to balance his needs with those of her own children and husband—something Beth can’t help but witness when she visits.
Beth wants nothing more than to find a way to bring her beloved child home. But where is the right home for Dylan? Is it with the mother he was born to? Or is a new mother the greatest gift Beth could give her son?
A beautiful, powerful and ultimately hopeful story of the heartbreaking power of a mother’s love, for fans of Diane Chamberlain, Jodi Picoult and Jojo Moyes.
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A Hope for Emily
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Looking back, I wish I could find my way back to that moment. I’d snatch it and hold onto it and live in it for the rest of my life, if I could. When Emily could still throw her arms around me. Oh God, just give me that moment, or one like it again. That’s all I want.
From the moment Emily was born, reaching out with her tiny little star-shaped hand towards her mother, blinking with long eyelashes over soft blue eyes, she became Rachel’s whole world.
But Rachel’s worst nightmare comes true when a rare auto-immune illness leaves four-year-old Emily in a coma the doctors say she may never come out of. And Rachel has to make a heartbreaking decision – one that her ex-husband, Emily’s dad James, doesn’t agree with.
Terrified she’s going to lose her daughter for good, Rachel knows she must find a way to keep the hope alive for Emily. But there is only one person she can turn to for help to convince James––and it’s his new wife, Eva.
As an unlikely but powerful friendship develops between the two women, both Rachel and Eva will have to ask themselves––what is truly the right choice for the tiny, fragile little girl who lies between them?
A beautiful story that will break your heart into a million pieces, perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain and Susan Lewis.
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No Time to Say Goodbye
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It hit me, the reality of it, in a way it hadn’t before like a sledgehammer straight to the chest. Laura was gone. She was never coming back. I’d never see her again; she’d never hum in the kitchen, she’d never pull Ruby onto her lap and tickle her tummy as she buried her face in the sweet curve of our daughter’s shoulder.
Nathan Ross loved his wife Laura with all his heart. But now she’s gone, taken from him in a seemingly random act of violence. Laura was the glue that held their family together. And for Nathan, life without her feels almost meaningless.
As he tries to find hope in the darkness, his three young daughters express their grief in different and challenging ways – with one set on a path of self-destruction that could devastate their family all over again. Desperate to understand his own heartbreak better, he reaches out to others who had known Laura. Including her new friend Maria, whose light and warmth are exactly what their grieving family needs, and who is soon helping out and providing emotional support for them all.
But the picture Maria paints of Laura is unfamiliar to Nathan – of a wife who felt ignored, a mother who felt she couldn’t do enough – and he struggles to reconcile it with his own memories of the woman he loved. Is it possible he didn’t know his wife after all? And can he trust Maria? He can’t escape the feeling that she’s keeping something from him.
Maria is hiding a secret with the power to rock Nathan’s family to its core. Because it is about what happened the day that Laura died…
An insightful and powerful novel guaranteed to break your heart, about how the unthinkable can sometimes help us see the world in a powerful new way. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain, and Susan Lewis.
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Not My Daughter
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My darling girl, you lie so still, lashes fanning your cheeks, golden hair spread across your pillow. You’re so beautiful my heart aches. Your breath is so soft I can barely hear it, but at least I can see the steady rise and fall of your chest, every breath a promise. You’re still here. I’ve still got you. For now.
Milly has always dreamed of being a mother. Adopted, she longs for a powerful connection with a child of her own. So, when she and her husband Matt are told they can’t have children, she’s heartbroken.
Milly can barely believe it when her best friend and Matt’s brother offer be donors. With everyone accepting and open, Milly believes nothing could go wrong.
But none of the four are prepared for their feelings when Milly gives birth to beautiful baby Alice.
Then, when Alice is still a little girl, she receives a devastating diagnosis. Milly’s whole world falls apart, and each of them is forced to face what it means to be a parent, and make impossible choices… for themselves, and for Alice.
An unputdownable, heart-breaking, but ultimately uplifting story about the power of love and the true meaning of family. Fans of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain, and Gracie’s Secret will never forget Not My Daughter.
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The Secrets We Keep
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My whole body aches. I trawl memories of her, now so precious… my darling child. I can’t lose her…
When Tessa arrives at the little house by the lake with her two children, it is an escape. The rental house may be a bit small – but it’s theirs for the summer. A place to hide…
However, their isolation is disrupted by the family from the big house next door. Three children and their glamorous mother Rebecca – who seems determined to invite Tessa into their lives.
Rebecca, however, is harbouring a dark secret. And when it becomes too much for her to bear, Tessa seems to be the only person she can turn to.
But as powerful bonds form between the two families, choices will be made that can never be undone. And as the summer comes to an end, nothing can keep everyone safe. And one family will pay the ultimate price…