Hidden in the Shadows (Wartime Holland #2) by Imogen Matthews
Genre: Historical fiction, WW2, Wartime fiction, Fact with fiction
Read: 12th April 2022
Published: 20th April 2022
★★★ 3 stars
DESCRIPTION:
The hidden village was meant to keep them safe, but the Nazis have found it… There’s no time to lose. Laura gathers the children and whispers to them to be brave. The smallest cowers in her arms as they hear the crack of gunshots outside. Laura knows they’ll have to run if they are to survive…
Nazi-occupied Holland, 1943: In a makeshift village in the middle of the woods, hiding from Nazi soldiers determined to find them, a beautiful young Jewish woman named Laura thought she was safe. By day she remained silent and out of sight, but as darkness fell, she began to fall in love with a resistance fighter named Wouter. Until everything changed, on the day the village was stormed…
Desperate to protect the six small and terrified children in her care, Laura races towards the church spires of the nearest town in the distance and just manages to escape from the soldiers.
Wouter is stuck on the other side of the village when the German officers start shooting. As he desperately scrambles through the dark, dense woodland, he has no idea whether Laura has made it out alive.
Devastated that he hadn’t tried to save her, Wouter spends his days delivering food and transporting people to safety, determined to help those most in peril. But he never gives up hope of finding the woman he loves.
Even when he hears the rumours about the Nazis cramming Jews onto cattle trains for deportation to brutal work camps, he can’t believe she’s gone forever. How could he live if Laura was amongst them? And if he does find her, will their love have survived the ravages of everything they’ve been through, together and apart?
An utterly heartbreaking tale of love, betrayal and sacrifice, Hidden in the Shadows is perfect for fans of Fiona Valpy, The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See.
MY REVIEW:
I really enjoyed the first book "The Hidden Village", not only for its concept of a hidden village in a Dutch forest for the Jews during such a tumultuous time, but I really loved the characters...particularly Sofie and the young boys she was friends with (their names escape me now). So when HIDDEN IN THE SHADOWS came up I was excited at the prospect of continuing the journey after the harrowing time Sofie faced when the hidden village was ambushed. However, this book took a slightly different journey, focusing on Sofie's friend she met in the village Laura and Wouter, a young Dutch man who refused to join the Germans' fight. While we do meet up with some of the characters who had a starring role in the first book, they don't feature quite as heavily in this one.
The story follows Laura and Wouter from the moment the village was ambushed and having to flee. Although both of them were on the verge of some form of relationship or other - or whatever it might be in their self-imposed prison hidden away from the Germans - they each fled in different directions instead of looking for the other to flee with. At the time the instinct was basic - get out or die. Throughout the story Wouter chastised himself for failing to look after Laura in getting her and the others out safely, with questionable character Henk doing so in his place. Wouter, on the other hand, fled and found himself in the company of another somewhat questionable character I didn't entirely trust named Klaus. Together they bunked in barns and outhouses or under the stars in their bid to flee the Germans but Wouter's guilt would not let him forget what he left behind and how he failed the other villagers. Despite this, Wouter continued to help the resistance but never stopped his search for Laura.
Meanwhile, Laura was passed around like unwanted baggage, at first with two young brothers with whom she escaped and continued teaching them as she did in the village to help keep their minds occupied and stop them missing their family. However, the woman hiding them found it impossible to keep both boys as well as Laura and so she found someone else who was willing to take them in and keep the brothers together. They had lost everyone and everything else, at least keep them together. But it wasn't long before Laura too had to move on and it was Henk who silently came to transport her. Should she trust him? Or was he handing her over to the Germans? Throughout her journey, Laura never stopped thinking of Wouter, wondering if he got out alive and if so where was he now. She couldn't help wondering about her dear friend Sofie who took her under her wing when she first arrived at the village from Belgium and what had happened to her. The truth of Sofie's horrendous experience would become known to her, and again it was heartbreaking.
There is so much involved in this story working in the background just as it was in the first book. The resistance network of people transporting and offering shelter and aid to those in need...specifically the Jews. How frightening it must have been not only for those fleeing but for those who put their own lives on the line by hiding and helping them. Had they been discovered, they would be shot without question. The Germans spared no one and never showed mercy. The romance between Laura and Wouter was secondary to the rest of the story as each of them were left wondering if the other survived the ambush.
Do Wouter and Laura find each other? Will it be ‘happily ever after’? Was forester Henk hero or villain? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
HIDDEN IN THE SHADOWS is a story of bravery, of survival, of fear and of hope. It should have been as enthralling as the previous one but it wasn't. I couldn't connect with Laura or Wouter's narratives or really anyone else's and wasn't invested in them as I had been with Sofie, Oscar and Jan who were just adorable, especially mischievous Jan. But I felt none of that in this book. I missed the other characters that were the focus of the first book and only a couple featured briefly in this one. Not only that but "The Hidden Village" did have an ending of sorts by jumping twenty years ahead...and then this sequel just rewinds back to 1944 again.
I was disappointed with HIDDEN IN THE SHADOWS given how much I enjoyed the first book, though it is still a good story. There has been a lot of research done to enable Ms Matthews to pen such a story based on fact and she has done an incredible job of bringing the story to life. Unfortunately, I just didn't enjoy this one as much as the first one.
You can read this book without reading the first, but again, the first one is the better story of the two as you get the history behind the building of the hidden village and everyone's part that they played. You also get to meet adorable characters that were missing from this one.
Overall, HIDDEN IN THE SHADOWS is an interesting follow-up to "The Hidden Village" but generally falls flat. However, don't take my word for it as many others have enjoyed this one far more than I did. You might too.
I would like to thank #ImogenMatthews, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #HiddenInTheShadows in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Her first novel, The Hidden Village, is set in the Veluwe woods, a beautiful part of Holland that Imogen has visited frequently over the past 30 years. It was in these woods that she discovered the story of the real hidden village which provided shelter in underground huts for Jews during WW2. Imogen retells the story of the hidden village with characters drawn from real life and from her imagination.
Within weeks of publication in 2017, The Hidden Village became an international bestseller, ranking at the top of a number Amazon's most-read book lists.
Following on from The Hidden Village comes Hidden in the Shadows, which has the pace of a thriller yet is also a love story. It tells the story about two young people who are brutally torn apart and must find a way to be together against all odds.
Imogen's third WW2 novel, The Girl Across the Wire Fence, is set in Amersfoort, Netherlands, and is based on the unforgettable tale of two young lovers who risked everything to keep hope alive in the very depths of hell - the little known Dutch concentration camp called Kamp Amersfoort.
Imogen's WW2 novels are published by Bookouture, a digital imprint of Hachette.
Learn more about Imogen's story in this video.
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