Stormi's Review: The Watcher by Monika Jephcott Thomas

APC PUBLISHER: Clink Street Publishing RELEASED: October 10, 2017 GENRE: historical fiction, military LENGTH: 214 pages FORMAT: ebook, paperback

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It’s 1949 when Netta’s father Max is released from a Siberian POW camp and returns to his home in occupied Germany. But he is not the man the little girl is expecting – the brave, handsome doctor her mother Erika told her stories of. Erika too struggles to reconcile this withdrawn, volatile figure with the husband she knew and loved before, and, as she strives to break through the wall Max has built around himself, Netta is both frightened and jealous of this interloper in the previously cosy household she shared with her mother and doting grandparents. Now, if family life isn't tough enough, it is about to get even tougher, when a murder sparks a police investigation, which begins to unearth dark secrets they all hoped had been forgotten. FOUR BOUNDLESS STARS

A father who suffered as a POW, a mother who looked for love when it was needed, and a child who is sickly. This is a story about a family on the brink of breaking apart. This book was very heart-wrenching. War is never pretty and this book shows this first hand. It's hard not only for the soldier but for the family that awaits back home. The war is over and building a future is hard when Max returns from war. He has PTSD, a wife keeping secrets, and a sick little girl. Erika is desperate to reconnect with her husband, while Netta is desperate for her parent's attention. This book was sad and wrapped in mystery with the death of the housekeeper and when the truth comes to light, it is a bit of a shocker. This story was very well written with a captivating storyline and real characters. It shows the horrors of war during and after and the redemption of a family in need of a better future.