A Sparrow in Terezin by Kristy Cambron

Sera James looks forward to marrying William Hanover, but when they are immersed in a legal battle immediately after their wedding, the life she’s dreamed of now becomes a nightmare she never anticipated. As she and William fight to clear his name, William’s refusal to open up to her about his past causes Sera even more concert. When she’s given some more life changing news, she’s determined to solve the mystery.

In 1939, Kàja Mokovsky flees Nazi-occupied Prague at her parents’ request with a promise in her heart that she will return to her beloved city some day. Working in London as a secretary at the Daily Telegraph, Kàja is thrown into the war during the London Blitz. When a report comes across her desk stating Jews are being killed by the thousands, she knows she must return to Prague to find her half-Jewish family.

Kristy Cambron once again seamlessly combines the two stories throughout A Sparrow in Terezin. I enjoyed spending time with William, Sera, Penny, and Sophia again (from The Butterfly and the Violin) and the struggle between Sera and William is true-to-life (marriage still takes work after you say, “I do.”). While it took a little longer for the connection between the two stories to come together, once they did, there were two mysteries that held my interest through the end of the book. Cambron’s insight into the children in the concentration camps and ghettos is original and tugs on the heartstrings. While her stories are fiction, they are steeped in the real horrors and atrocities of the Nazi regime.
While heavy reading, I found myself crying a couple times during this one, The Sparrow in Terezin is steeped in hope—the hope of a happy future for the main characters. Cambron is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors, and I can’t wait to see what she shares with her readers next. You will definitely want to pick this one up (available everywhere April 7)

****Thoman Nelson Fiction (via NetGalley) provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. All opinions expressed are my own