“Women and children to the right. Men, to the left,” I once said. From 1942 to 1944 I was what some called a Jew killer. Though, I have never hurt a soul, I was responsible for separating Jewish families, ensuring they would never see each other again. Those who were sick, were sent to their death … by me because I was forced to follow the enemy. The war stole my right of beliefs, my goals for … goals for a future, my left arm, and the love of my life.
I saved Amelia …
… then I lost her.
And after more than seventy years, I’m told she’s alive and asking for me.
Will love be enough to overcome the silence of more than seven decades?
more
This is such a powerful and tragic read as you learn more about what happened to those send to concentration camp. Families are spli5 up and death may be the only answer for some. Opens your eyes to the suffering they went through just because of religion
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is a story of resilience and of soulmates but it’s not an easy book to read. There is a lot of emotion that left me in tears at times. This is a love story that spans years and shall stay with me for even longer. This is a heartbreaking story of two people who found a love that was forbidden during a time of fear, hate and war.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Unspoken Words from Shari Rayn is about the Holocaust . She has written this book based off of her grandmothers stories and you might as well get ready for your heart to be in your throat. I have read Last Words and I loves that one so very much and feel in love with Amelia and Charlie Now it is Charlies turn to tell the story of a love that is forbidden. Charlie is a soldier in the Nazi camp where Amelia is being held. These two against all odds fall in love and man what a emotionally charged journey to a love that never should have happened it is. It is beautiful and emotional and I was so engrossed I couldnt put it down. I do not want to give the story away. You need to just experience it. It is not an easy journey as we travel back to a time that never should have happened. But the books so worth reading. Do not hesitate. Just get this book and dive in.
Charlie’s Story
Before I speak specifically about this book, I want to first say how much I have enjoyed this particular series by this author. I read Last Words first and was completely blown away by it. I have at times shied away from reading WWII books because the topic, especially when it revolves around Germany, is harrowing to read about. But I’m glad I chose to read that book and the subsequent ones. In Last Words, the author was truly able to make it about the triumph of the human spirit and love. I found the story to be gripping, so I was curious to see what their tale would look like from Charlie’s perspective.
The author states in the introduction that she struggled, as she is a Jewish woman, writing this story from a Nazi’s perspective. You could get a sense of that discomfort as you read the book. This book seemed more black and white to me than the other ones of the series. Charlie is depicted from a very early age as thinking differently from the rest of his family, neighbors, and other people around him. Would a boy truly think like that? I’d like to think so, but I am not sure. When he is a young soldier, he seems to be the only one with any qualms about what they are doing. I would have liked to have seen him grapple with the concepts a little more, and I would have loved to see more of Charlie and Amelia’s budding relationship at the camp through Charlie’s eyes. I feel like we didn’t see as much evolution here. We get a better sense of how they came to care for each other in Amelia’s book, Last Words. It was harder to see their path to love here.
By the way, I found a few strange historical errors in the book. The year the war ended is wrong; the year of Hitler’s suicide is wrong; both are said to have happened in 1944, one year shy of reality. Another mistake I thought was strange was that the author has Charlie using euros as post-war currency. Euros didn’t come about until the late 1990s and weren’t fully adopted as the sole currency in every country of the pact until the early 2000s. In post-World-War-II Europe, each nation would have had its own currency: the Swiss franc, the German Reichsmark, the Czech koruna, etc.
Those issues aside, this book still has the emotional resonance that I’ve come to expect from one of these novels in this series. This couple is believable and relatable, and we cannot help but feel for these people who are truly in life-or-death situations but are doing the best they can; we want them and their love to triumph. So many powerful themes are touched upon in this book—like the others—including resilience, soulmates, destiny, love triumphing in the most adverse circumstances possible, etc., but these only scratch the surface of what is to be found in this book and series. Once again, I have found this to be a very thought-provoking, emotionally gripping book.
As we near the end of 2019, I find myself looking back on many things, including the books I’ve read and authors I’ve discovered. I have read some excellent books—this series among them—as well as some pretty bad ones. I have read over a thousand books in the past year, and I find that three authors and their works stand out as being ones that I truly adored and was genuinely moved by. Shari J. Ryan is one of those three authors. I find myself still on occasion thinking of Last Words and the brilliant words, ideas, and themes of the book. I’m delighted to have discovered this author. She has managed to make history come alive in a meaningful and poignant way. I cannot recommend this series highly enough. Still, I do suggest you start with Amelia’s book (Last Words) first because the two stories are complementary, and you will better appreciate Charlie’s story if you understand their shared history from her perspective first.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
What an emotional read! I have read previous books by this author and found then fascinating and heartbreaking. This book is no different. It is the story of the soldier that loved and lost Amelia. He finds out that she is looking for him even though it has been seventy years, yes that is right, since they seen one another. Enjoy!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
How do you even begin to write a review for a book that’s about something that had a huge and profound impact on history? When you sit down to read Unspoken Words, get ready for an emotional ride. It’s told from the POV of Charlie, a Nazi, someone who was doing what he had to do to survive, while also doing what he could to save the Jews, without being caught. His story is a unique story that will have feeling all the emotions and will stay with you long after you’ve read the last page.
I strongly encourage you to read Last Words and The Other Blue Sky too as they go with Unspoken Words and you get more of the story. Also it’s all are fictional, they are all based on true events of the authors family.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is the third novel that Shari Ryan has written about a family impacted by the Holocaust. This book is written from the perspective of Charlie Crane, the German soldier. Because he had blond hair and blue eyes, his parents enrolled him in a school for Hitler’s youth, which automatically enlisted him in the army as a Nazi soldier. If he refused, he risked his death or that of his family. He related the experience of attending a school where the curriculum was geared toward brainwashing boys to hate those who were different than themselves, especially the Jewish citizens. He found himself tasked with assisting with the mass transportation of the Jews to the concentration camps. When he refused to kill a woman and his commanding officer did so himself, he felt compelled to look out for her daughter, Amelia, who found herself alone. Over time he fell in love with this young woman and earned her love in return. He described his experience being deployed to the front and then returning to the camp, determined to rescue Amelia, and the daughter of Amelia’s friend. Unfortunately, they were separated at the Swiss border and we get to learn what he experienced in the next seventy years, when he was contacted at Amelia’s granddaughter and subsequently his reunion with Amelia from his perspective.
I really enjoyed this book, but felt that Ms. Ryan wrote the book using a broken English, which didn’t make sense to me for the majority of the book. During Charlie’s time prior to emigrating to the US, he would have spoken and thought in German. So English wouldn’t have been used at all. This wasn’t a diary like parts of Amelia’s book. Except for when he was speaking to others in New York and Boston, Charlie would have most likely been thinking in fluent German. This detracted slightly from the story and is the reason that I gave the book four stars instead of five. I actually enjoyed this book the most of the three stories in this series. I found Charlie to be an extremely likable character, and a good reminder that some Nazi soldiers were just Germans who were drafted to fight and did so in order to keep their families and themselves safe. His story was the most complete as it started when he was quite young and continued all the way into his nineties. I highly recommend that others read this for themselves. It is definitely worth the time.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I am not sure I will ever do this book the justice it deserves in this review. First things – If you haven’t read Last Words by Shari J. Ryan – go get it and read it and then IMMEDIATELY get this book and start to read. How beautifully and eloquently Shari J. Ryan gives us Charlie’s story is more than I could have ever asked. This subject matter is hard to find the beauty but Shari J. Ryan did exactly just that. The heartache I endured while reading is just a speck of heartache that many endured during these times. The pain and suffering, the hope and sadness all entwined into Charlie’s heartbreaking story. This book is one of the best books of 2019 and is now on my list of best books ever. Just stunning.
The FEELS are Endless!
An inescapable read that that will shake you to your core splitting your heart open and keeping you enthralled by the broken beautiful words making it impossible to put down. It’s Raw and Intense, eye opening and and absolute perfect five star read.
I can’t even……….
How do I rate something that I feel had such a profound effect on History. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Shari Ryan for her to tell these stories about the Holocaust. For her to revisit a past her grandmother had to suffer could not have been easy. It was a devastating time in History. Last Words and The Other Blue Sky along with Unspoken Words have been some of the best books I have read and I have read 1000’s. They will be books that will stick with me forever.
Now we get the story in Charlie’s POV. Always remember there are two sides to every story. And just because you may think you know what the story is because of what someone told you or what you heard. It might not be everyone’s truth.
I can only imagine what some of the soldiers had to go through. How scared they were especially as young boys. And having struggle with right or wrong just to survive.
This is a MUST READ!!!!!! You will be missing out a PHENOMINAL story if you pass these stories up.
I am not even sure where I can begin with this review other than to say when you read this get ready for an emotional journey like no other. This story is pure and raw and with true love that is almost overwhelming while reading. For sure this book is going into stay with me and owns a piece of me now.
After you one click lock yourself away so you can enjoy this journey
This is beautiful story focused on love and a second chance.
It is the type of story that clutches you at once and doesn’t release you until you get to the end – then you find yourself pining over the fact that the book has ended.
I loved how the relationship unfolded so we could see these amazing characters grow in ways they never expected.
I received a free copy of this book. This review was posted voluntarily.
This book is simply EVERYTHING…. Shari J Ryan has done it again, bringing us an emotionally charged, realistic portrayal of life during the Holocaust.
Unspoken Words is the 3rd Book in the series. And although this can be read as a standalone, I highly recommend you read the entire series in order. The author really connects you to the characters, living through the pages, experiencing things with the characters in the book which will teach you, move you, and open your eyes to the true terrors lived by all of those involved.
Although this Charlie and Amelia’s journey is a story, it is based on the real life atrocities of WW2. A forbidden and taboo love. A German soldier and a young Jewish prisoner falling in love? Unheard of… Yet Shari J Ryan reels us in, and brings us the most incredible story.
A beautiful love story which is as much heart-warming as it is heart-wrenching. There is a lot of sadness in this book, but also a lot of hope. You’ll definitely need your tissues, but I hope like me you end with a huge smile on your face.
A MUST READ!
Such a beautiful amazing book I absolutely loved it
Shari J. Ryan has penned another thought provoking yet horribly devastating story of WWII. Following the main characters from Last Words, we see WWII from the enemies perspective. I say enemy lightly in this case because Charlie’s actually tried to help the best way he could given the circumstances he faced in a war time era. So many atrocities experienced by the Jewish society, but mainly against humanity in general. It was nice to see more of Amelia’s and Charlie’s story and their connection even after so many years apart. It was especially nice to see things from Charlie’s POV.
Shari J. Ryan did an amazing job telling Charlie and Amelia’s story. Their beautiful, heartbreaking love story was very well-written.
This book will pull at your heart, when I first started I wasn’t sure to think. Charlie was a young German boy when he was made to join an organization he didn’t understand. Then everything changed one day when he met Amelia. She was a young Jewish girl sent to work in concentration camp. Charlie felt something with her but wasn’t sure if he could keep her safe. Would Amelia make it through the war? Would Charlie? What would their lives be?
“Women and children to the right. Men, to the left,” I once said.
From 1942 to 1944 I was what some called a Jew killer. Though, I have never hurt a soul, I was responsible for separating Jewish families, ensuring they would never see each other again. Those who were sick, were sent to their death … by me because I was forced to follow the enemy. The war stole my right of beliefs, my goals for a future, my left arm, and the love of my life.
I saved Amelia …
… then I lost her.
And after more than seventy years, I’m told she’s alive and asking for me.
Will love be enough to overcome the silence of more than seven decades?
Wow! What a book. My words won’t do it justice. The writing of Charlie & Amelia’ story was flawless and felt so real! I was on an emotional rollercoaster reading this book. I absolutely loved every page.
I wish I could give Unspoken Words more than five stars. This book was one I couldn’t put down. I recommend that you have some tissues handy because you will need them. This book is phenomenal. It is an absolute must read.
I cannot begin to convey the emotions I feel when I read this amazing book. Shari forces us to see the horrific stories and lives of those who lived through the Holocaust. Absolutely heart wrenching and poignant. The horrific actions are muted only by the story of a love that was forbidden. It is the love story of the century. Amazing!!