I've read other books by this author and really enjoyed them. This had been on my list, but I found it yesterday in a small independent bookstore in Winter Park, FL, so decided to support the store and purchase it. Bonus that this is an autographed copy, because the author actually lives locally in Orlando (I didn't remember that!).

The story focuses on a part of WWII that may not get as much attention as others, which is the small groups of Polish-Jews who fled into a dense forest to escape the Nazis, often combining together to form larger communities in the forest. They had to learn to survive, both from the harsh elements and real threat of starvation and disease, and from the ever-present possibility that the Nazis would find and murder them.

It was interesting to learn about how the characters survived, in terms of hunting, gathering, storing foods, herbal medicine, and literally digging holes in the earth to live in - and it's obvious the author did a lot of research on this topic. Their bravery and heroism cannot be underscored enough.

But still, the story fell a little flat for me. There were points that it dragged on and there seemed to be a lot of repetition in their actions (which was real, I get it, but not great storytelling). Considering the beginning of the story had such hype, in terms of the somewhat-mystical nature of Yona's childhood captor and the alluded-to reasoning behind why Yona was destined for greatness, I really expected her 'purpose' to be a more profound one in the end. Not that saving several other people's live's isn't profound, because it is - I just expected a bit more. The end of the novel left me feeling a bit 'meh'.

Reading the Author's Note at the back of the book brought that 'meh' feeling around to a little more appreciation of the book overall, in that much of the novel was based loosely on true events and real people. Overall this is definitely a worthwhile read, just perhaps not one of her best in terms of storytelling.