Title:  Code Name Sapphire     
Author:  Pam Jenoff   
Genre:   historical fiction  
Rating:  4.0 out of 5

1942. Hannah Martel has narrowly escaped Nazi Germany after her fiancé was killed in a pogrom. When her ship bound for America is turned away at port, she has nowhere to go but to her cousin Lily, who lives with her family in Brussels. Fearful for her life, Hannah is desperate to get out of occupied Europe. But with no safe way to leave, she must return to the dangerous underground work she thought she had left behind.

Seeking help, Hannah joins the Sapphire Line, a secret resistance network led by a mysterious woman named Micheline and her enigmatic brother Matteo. But when a grave mistake causes Lily’s family to be arrested and slated for deportation to Auschwitz, Hannah finds herself torn between her loyalties. How much is Hannah willing to sacrifice to save the people she loves? Inspired by incredible true stories of courage and sacrifice, Code Name Sapphire is a powerful novel about love, family and the unshakable resilience of women in even the hardest of times.

I enjoyed this WWII fiction—one of my favorite reading genres—but I did find bits of it pretty sad (not surprising, considering). I liked Hannah, but found her frustrating at times, too. I would have liked to have seen more of her paintings in the novel. Lily annoyed me about half the time, so she wasn’t my favorite, but I enjoyed the relationship between the cousins.

Pam Jenoff is a bestselling author. Code Name Sapphire is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/Park Row in exchange for an honest review.)

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