Hello, Sunshines, I have the huge pleasure to be today’s stop on the blog tour for; The German Nurse by M.J. Hollows. I can’t wait to share my review of this beautiful book with you all, firstly I want to say thank you to Sian at HQ Digital for the invite to this tour. Now, let’s have a look at this book!
The German Nurse by M. J. Hollows
Genre: Historical Fiction, WW2 Fiction
Release Date: 18th November 2020
Publisher: HQ Digital
A powerful and heartbreaking WWII historical novel for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Nightingale and Beneath a Scarlet Sky.
A secret past. A forbidden love. A terrifying choice.
Her past could kill you.
Guernsey, 1940. As war storms through Europe, Churchill orders the evacuation of all military personnel from the island. Boats ferry soldiers and vulnerable young children to England, leaving their parents and loved ones behind to face the invading German army on their own.
Her love could save you.
One of the few remaining policemen on the island, Jack must protect not only his friends and family, but also the woman he loves: Johanna, a Jewish nurse from Germany, whose secret faith could prove fatal to them both.
Her fate is in your hands.
When the Nazis arrive, everything changes. Jack is forced to come to terms with the pain and loss of a world re-making itself around him. And then a list of Jews on the island is drawn up, and he must make an awful choice: write down Johanna’s name and condemn her, or resist and put his family in immediate danger…
Purchase Link – Amazon
Review
I loved this book, it’s a powerful and emotional read from the start, I was completely taken with Jack and Johanna, they pulled at my heartstring with their beautiful love story, and there were times I was in tears.
The occupation of the Channel Islands has always grasped my attention, I have read many books and watched many films set during this time, and the Channel Islands – Guernsey especially – have been on my to-visit wish list for so long. I haven’t made it there yet, and with certain factors, in my life meaning, I most likely won’t. Thank goodness for books!
The stories that came out of that horrific and hard period will not only break your heart, but you stand back in disbelief that our country deserted them, support and protection were withdrawn and they were alone to face the full force of the Nazi army alone. Those who decided to stand back and allow our Channel Islands to be occupied and not lift a finger to help them should hang their heads in shame. I do realise that there would have been many factors going on behind the scenes, but still, our Channel Islands were deserted and left to fend for themselves. Even once the war was over, the people of Guernsey and Jersey were still in dire need, they were starving and needing urgent supplies and again they had to wait for the UK to send much-needed aid. I think that was a blight on our history, it was disgusting how the UK deserted them and I look at those incredible people with such awe, the bravery that they showed the way many resisted Nazi rule, these stories, their stories need to be told and I am so pleased that more and more authors are telling them.
Hmm! I think I got a little carried away there, I think I should talk about this book!
I love the opening, it sets the story up beautifully for what’s to come, and you get a sense of what’s to come. Even from those first few pages, you get a real sense of just how much he loves Johanna, it’s in his every move, it’s the forces that push him onwards and it’s the thing that keeps telling him not to give up keep going. Jack’s undying devotion to her, to keep her safe pulls at the heart, yet saying that I think that the love story is more of a subplot, for me the main story is all about what’s going on with the occupation and how people – Jack – had to cope, how they struggled and how they survived.
This is all about survival, love and family and the contradicting feeling of duty, it’s the story of what a man would do to protect those he cares about most. Once Guernsey has been occupied the people of the Island have to make choices to survive, Jack finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place, he has a duty to do to protect his family and yet to do that would put Johanna in danger.
What is a man to do when everyone he cares about is the danger? Jack is a good man, he is a loyal and dutiful man, a man who is torn, he struggles with his choices but he can’t abide the thought that his choices would come with too high costs for those he loves. Your heart goes out to him, he faces grim times, and the author does a brilliant job at portraying Jack’s struggles and hard times with realism and sensitivity.
MJ Hollows is a wonderful author, I have read and loved his previous book; Goodbye For Now (I need to write my review of that one) as soon as I got invited to take part in this blog tour, I couldn’t sign up fast enough. I love the writing, it sweeps you away to another time.
This is a must-read for anyone, but especially for those who love their WW2 historical fiction, I cannot recommend The German Nurse enough.
About the Author
Michael Hollows was born in London in 1986, and moved to Liverpool in 2010 to lecture in Audio Engineering. With a keen interest in history, music, and science, he has told stories since he was little.
Goodbye for Now is his first novel, which he startd as part of his MA in Writing from Liverpool John Moores University, graduating in 2015. He has also been published in SF anthologies, and is now researching towards a PhD in Creative Writing, working on his next novel.
You can find more at www.michaelhollows.com and on Twitter at @MikeHollows
Chicks,Rogues and Scandals 
One thought on “The German Nurse by M.J. Hollows | #BlogTour #TheGermanNurse #Review |@MikeHollows @HQStories”