★TRIPLE AWARD FINALIST- TOP SHELF, READER’S FAVORITE, AND BOOK EXCELLENCE★
An overnight prison. One chance to escape. Who will pay the price?
13 August 1961.
Nationale Volksarmee soldiers roll barbed wire across a war-torn city—families are separated, livelihoods destroyed, and death comes easily as crippling fear paralyzes the occupants of both sides of the Berlin Wall. In one fate-driven … paralyzes the occupants of both sides of the Berlin Wall. In one fate-driven moment, fifteen-year-old Ella Kühn must make the agonizing decision to remain with her dying father or flee with her brother and best friend to the West.
Caught in the crossfire of duty and survival, Ella’s enforced occupation exposes her to the evil workings of the secret police and the deadly plans of a destructive regime. Torn between loyalty and temptation, she seeks comfort in the belief she will be reunited with one man, while another challenges her heart.
Will Ella risk her life for freedom? Or will her restless soul find contentment in the shadows of East Berlin?
Ensnare, the first book in the “Berlin Butterfly” series, is a story of life, love, survival, and the struggle of living through the early years of the Berlin Wall. Readers will be captivated by Ella’s strength, determination, and vulnerability as she opens her heart amidst a dangerous and terrifying journey.
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Fantastic writing and great story telling by Moyes. She gave us a look into what life was like in East Germany. Grim. Brutal. The series is fantastic.
This is my first time reading anything by this author and what a delightful book to be introduced to her with. It’s book 1 in a trilogy so 2 more books to go in this series. I loved everything about this book. The author told her story at a nice steady easy to read pace. There’s a lot of emotion in this book and the characters have a lot of depth to them.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Great storytelling
Moyes pens a grand story in Ensnare. This is the first book in the Berlin Butterfly series, and this story fits with its title and its series title. A historical fiction that introduces the reader to Ella, living in 1961’s Germany, where the east and west are separated by the wall. This story is definitely captivating, and heartbreaking. Ella is a strong character, and she and her family are on a long journey filled with danger, struggles and strength. This story was one with strong characters, and was a definite page-turner. I look forward to reading more by this author, especially the books in this series.
I love historical fiction, so I was eager to grab Berlin Butterfly to read, and I’m glad I did. Moyes did an excellent job blending fact in fiction in this account of the awful time when the Berlin wall was put into place.
We meet Ella, who is living in East Berlin, and when rumor turns fact, and the wall is imminent, she chooses to stay behind with her ailing father, rather than travel West with her brother Josef, and her best friend, Anton.
Growing up an orphan, she had only Anton as her close friend and companion. He helped her during the dark times at the orphanage, he was her first kiss, and their bond is close. After being adopted, she finally found family only to lose her mother and then shortly after the wall is in progress, her father. She’s now trapped in the flailing and dangerous East Berlin, away from the ones she loves and forced to work off the funeral debt of her father by working for a wealthy family.
This is where the story incorporates romance as she meets Stefan, the son of the family she is working for, who was awful to her during their first encounter. But as time is known to do, her hatred for Stefan starts to turn into something more. Life isn’t easy in the East, especially when you aren’t born into a wealthy and influential family, one who wouldn’t want their son dating someone like Ella. So we read and watch as they traverse their relationship and life in East Berlin.
This was a really good story. I enjoyed the portrayal of what life was like for Ella, her constant need to be alert and cautious with whom she speaks with. She also went through a lot of personal growth learning how to navigate her new world while trying to keep ties with her past. I was a bit disappointed in how the book ended, but I know that the next book will pick up right where this one left off. I am anxious to see what is to become of both Ella, Stefan, her family, and how Moyes continues to tell the history of the future of West and East Berlin. Nicely done.
The East Berlin police and army are closing the border with West Berlin. Fifteen year old Ella makes the difficult decision to stay with her ailing father and send her brother Josef with her only and best friend Anton to the west before it is too late. Now she is alone. Can she trust enough to make new friends? Can she find a way to the west and Anton and Josef? Will she find herself facing another choice of go west or stay? I really like this book and look forward to following Ella’s story in the next book.