I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Simone Lyon is the daughter of a well-respected general and feels confident as German forces move closer to Belgium that war will never touch her home. However, it soon does and Simone is forced to flee Brussels with her best friend Hava, who is Jewish and therefore in terrible danger if enemy soldiers find them.

This book is well-written and seems well-researched. You can tell that the author really wanted to pay tribute to those who had fought, died and survived the war in how he wrote his story, and the story he really wanted to tell to readers. The friendship between the girls was really wonderful, and I never doubted the love and camaraderie they felt for each other. They were true sisters of the heart.

Unfortunately though, the story felt really lack-luster to me. I think it almost felt overdone in a way and everything the writer wanted us to feel and understand from the story was written plainly on the page and a lot of nuance was lost. There's absolutely nothing really wrong with the story - it just failed to light something inside of me that as a reader, I want to feel when reading a story. The start - particularly Simone's life in Brussels before the German invasion and the start of her friendship with Hava - was really dragged out, and then their fleeing from the Germans seemed to all be a blur.

The characters felt slightly wooden as well and lacked real personality that made them feel real - Simone was very much a Mary-Sue character and everything seemed to come very easily to her, while Hava was a manic pixie dream girl of some sort. The only real thing I felt from the girls was their teenage obsession with Hollywood actors and singers.

I just felt a bit bored of this book and I feel like there are ways the story may have been better. Just not one for me I think!