Thank you to @netgalley and @cornerstone_press for this copy. Historical fiction is my favourite genre to read but I’ve not read much about war-time in Czechoslovakia so this was interesting for me. The description of the POW camps, the back-breaking work the prisoners were subjected to, the constant threat of violence was extremely vivid which makes the concept that this was based on a true story even more powerful. The strength and kindness of the other men in their huts was heart warming with the way they risked their lives to protect Izzy. Love can grow anywhere, even in the most horrible of times, which is shown so clearly through Izzy and Bill’s story..

The Prisioner’s Wife by Maggie Brookes
Rating 3.85/5
An unusual novel based on the memories of an old soldier. Narrated mostly by Billy, a British soldier and Izzy, a Czech Farmer’s daughter. Billy and Harry, prisoners of war are captured by the Nazis and finally sent to work on Izzy’s parents’ farm. Her father and older brother having left to join the partisans.
Unbelievably, she manages to convince a local priest to marry them and they then proceed to go on the run with the hope of meeting up with her father and brother with the Partisans.
Life for a PoW was tough but for Izzy to survive, keep her secret and stay with Billy becomes increasingly difficult.
Izzy’s naivety in the earlier part of the novel is very apparent but as her ordeal continues she manages to draw strength from “Cousins”. An arduous journey awaits the POWs.
An interesting read, well researched and in-depth characters.
Thank you to Maggie Brookes, her team, Random House, Cornerstone and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read The Prisioner’s Wife. In return I have written an unbiased and honest review.

Based on a true story, this novel follows the story of a a British POW, Bill, imprisoned in a Czech concentration camp during WW2. He meets Izabela whilst working in her family’s small holding and they fall in love and marry . She disguises herself as a young man and joins him as they travel between concentration camps. She manages to hide that she is female from the guards and other prisoners and they struggle through the snow, freezing cold and prison brutalities. A few of Bill’s friends know who she is and protect her.

This is a heartwarming story in the face of terrible atrocities and brutality. Love can survive and flourish at a time of horror and cruelty to other human beings. I found this story compelling to read.

Based on a true story this is a testament to the strength and determination love can inspire. The year is 1944 and the Nazis are wreaking terror in Poland. Their POW camps are notorious but for some British prisoners there is limited relief in being sent out to work in the community - albeit under constant guard. One such prisoner, Bill, finds himself working on a smallholding where he meets Izabel and falls in love. Their story becomes the central theme of this novel. In order to be together, Izabel, disguises herself as a young, man and runs away with Bill. They end up sharing brutal marches through the snow from one POW camp to another. Concealing her sex from other prisoners and guards is a terrifying reality she endures 24 hours a day. Whilst this certainly makes for a gripping and nerve-shredding read, what is truly astonishing , and we must remember this, it is based in reality. Brookes story reflects deep research and this is conveyed, at times, with all too vivid images. of brutality. By blending her research with a high quality of writing Brookes has generated something that adds to our understanding of humanity. A book that that puts the "kind" in mankind.

★★★★ 4.5 stars

I have read many books set in Europe during WW2, usually of the Jewish ghetto and concentration camps, but this one is something completely different. THE PRISONER'S WIFE is just that...the story of a prisoner of war's wife...but not in the way you would expect it.

June 1944: Izzy (Izabela) is 20 year old woman living and working on the family farm in Czechoslovakia alongside her mother. Her father and older brother Jan left at the beginning of the war to join the Resistance, leaving the two women and 8 year old Marek unable to tend to their farm and crops on their own. When an SS captain approaches their farm one day, Izzy fears he has come to requisition it for the Reich. But Captain Meier comes to offer assistance in the form of a prisoner of war work camp, to which her mother heartily and thankfully agrees.

When the POWs arrive, one blonde blue eyed soldier stands out to her. Their eyes meet and the attraction is instant. However, upon learning they are British she cannot converse with them as she is only fluent in Czech and German. So Izzy befriends the elderly guard (who had once been a school teacher) who accompanies them each day on the pretense of learning English from him. She is a quick learner and before long the guard encourages her to talk with the British POWs to hone her accent and pronunciation. Not needing any encouragement, Izzy seeks out her soldier whose name is Bill King who continues to teach her English, and the guard pays them no more attention.

The two fall in love but her mother reminds her that it is a union that cannot be. He is a prisoner of war and she is a farm girl. But Izzy will not be swayed. She meets Bill at the camp on the days he is not at the farm, even going so far as to sneak out one night to visit him. But her mother catches her returning home, accusing her of giving herself to a man she barely knows. When Izzy tells her they are in love and will marry at the end of the war, her mother scoffs saying "they all say that to get what they want from you". But Izzy knows that Bill loves her just as she loves him. And so she sets a plan in motion.

The unlikely couple secretly marry in the village near her family's farm and abscond with the hope of joining Izzy's father and brother in the Resistance. But for safety's sake and in order to remain together, Izzy disguises herself as man, cutting her hair and dressing in some of her brother's clothing. They evade capture for a couple of weeks but are eventually apprehended by the Nazis and sent to the Lamsdorf POW camp with Izzy disguised as a mute young soldier with shell shock.

They face appalling conditions in the camp and the constant fear that Izzy will be exposed. In an attempt to keep his new wife safe, he confides in a small group of fellow prisoners and together they protect Izzy from the other prisoners as well as the guards. These men become their family and soon Izzy cannot imagine life beyond the camp and her fellow prisoners. Should Izzy be revealed as a woman she would be deemed a spy and would therefore be shot. Izzy knows what each man is putting on the line to keep her secret.

Told mostly through the eyes of Izzy in the first person and Bill in the third person, THE PRISONER'S WIFE is a heartbreaking tale of love and sacrifice in the face of war. It is horrifying, it is atmospheric, it is compelling. How one person could put themselves through something so barbaric all in the name of love...and to find such joy in the simple things. Throughout the entire book, the reader is left wondering just how this is all going to end.

Will they be rescued? Will they survive? Will they get their happily ever after?

Based on a true story of an unknown couple, THE PRISONER'S WIFE is so beautifully written and wonderfully told that it will have you reaching for the tissues as the reality of the horrors come to life within the pages.

I loved both characters of Izzy and Bill, as well as those of Ralph, Scotty and even Max. This story is as much theirs as it is Izzy's and Bill's...for they helped keep their secret right up till the end. No matter what the cost.

THE PRISONER'S WIFE is a tale of sheer resilience. It is an absorbing read that will stay with you long after you have finished. And will leave you wondering about the real Izzy and Bill, and who they might have been. The author has researched the historical facts brilliantly, despite the story being a loosely based one on a couple she had been told about by a former POW. This story was a gift Maggie Brookes so beautifully and delicately retold in her own words, painting a portrait like no other of a woman in a man's world.

An absolutely wonderful tale I definitely recommend.

I would like to thank #MaggieBrookes, #NetGalley and #RandomHouseUK and #CornerstoneDigital for an ARC of #ThePrisonersWife in exchange for an honest review.

Wow what a read. Absolutely loved this. It was written so beautifully and it was eye opening into what some people went through in the war

This story is absolutely stunning, once you read it, it just won't go away. Based on a true story which has been past from person to person, it begins in 1944 with a British POW in Czechoslovakia who has been sent to work on a farm and the young farm girl Izzy that lives there.
Only Izzy and her mother live on the farm now after her father and brother left to join to Czech resistance. Over the weeks Izzy and Bill fall in love and plan to escape after they marry secretly without her mother's knowledge. The only way that the pair can travel safely is for Izzy to take on the appearance of being a young British soldier who is so traumatized that he can no longer speak. It isn't long before they are captured and transported to a prisoner of war camp.
This was a book that was read in one session because the tension was just too high to be able to settle to doing anything else. The descriptions of everything made it visual, made me feel my skin crawl and scratch as I read at imaginary things I could feel in my hair. The conditions were horrific and the fear of them being caught horrendous. They couldn't do this on their own, but who could they trust to help? Izzy was in great danger. Washing, going to the toilet, showers (which weren't often) and of course the time of the month.
There are heroes and villains in this story but wow! what a love story this is! A beautiful love story that tested them beyond anything I have read. Brilliant writing. this will stay with me a very long time. Highly recommended.
I wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

I finished this book last night and I have thought about it a lot today.

This past weekend we celebrated 75 years since V.E Day and I thought this would be an apt time to read this. I am so glad I did because I was totally immersed in it.

Based on a true story, it is a well researched historical novel about finding love in the worst possible circumstances.

I would have liked to have read an epilogue 5 or 10 years down the line to see what had become of everyone just to tie it up nicely but having said that I highly recommend it to fans of historical fiction.

The most affecting and heart-breaking book you will read all year, The Prisoner’s Wife is a superbly written and wonderfully evocative historical novel that brings to vivid life the horrors and the anguish of the Second World War, the strength of the human spirit and the immense power of love.

Bill and Izabela had wed despite of the vast chasm that divided them. While Bill was a British solider, Izabela was a farm girl, but their differences had only succeeded in bringing them even closer together. With their love impossible to deny and the thought of a future apart absolutely unbearable, Bill and Izabela had married in secret, buoyed by the unpredictability and cruelty of the world they were living in during the Second World War. Czechoslovakia, like the rest of the world, had endured its fair share of misery and despair and although Bill and Izabela count themselves lucky to have found one another, against all the odds, they know that their luck will not last and that pretty soon, evil and dangerous forces will catch up with them. Creeping through abandoned and derelict villages to find Izabela’s father and brother who are fighting for the Czech resistance, the one thing they dreaded most becomes a bitter reality when they are seized by the German army. Bill and Izabela had been preparing themselves for this moment – but not for the shocking events that are about to unfold…

Izabela cuts off her hair and pretends to be mute, a disguise that she hopes will be convincing enough to fool the Germans into thinking she is a British soldier. This masquerade is all that is keeping Bill and Izabela together because the reality of being torn asunder does not bear thinking about. The two of them might be together, but the conditions inside the POW camp they find themselves imprisoned in are tough and terrible and each day brings with it the terrifying risk of their fragile deception being discovered. Helped by their fellow prisoners, Bill and Izabela take comfort in each other and in the friendships they forge with kind-hearted people who aid them in keeping up this deception. But at the back of their minds, Bill and Izabela are always waiting for that spine-chilling moment when their dark secret comes out into the light.

Danger and terror stalks their every move as Bill and Izabela find themselves with everything to lose. Will their love see them through this horrible ordeal? Or is love simply not enough in a war against evil?

Maggie Brookes’s The Prisoner’s Wife is an intense, harrowing and emotional page-turner that is sublimely written and will make readers experience every single emotion her characters go through. Maggie Brookes is an extraordinary writer who deftly and effortlessly sweeps her readers back to the past and back to a time of fear, injustice, cruelty and despair that also manages to be hopeful and humbling as Bill and Izabela’s powerful love story and their strength of character will leave readers sobbing and full of admiration for such noble, honourable and brave characters.

A story that I am still thinking about days after finishing it, The Prisoner’s Wife is a must-read for fans of Heather Morris’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

This is a really powerful read. Based on the journey of Bill, Izzy, Ralph, Max and Scotty. The detail is amazing and you know from history very factual. I really enjoyed this and would recommend it. It was fascinating, picturing the story as it was quite graphic..

A really memorable story which will stay with me for a long time. This story is based on fact and it tells of the horrors and reality of war. It is an unusual story which tugs at the heart strings.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I would like to thank Rachel Kennedy for suggesting this read to me and asking me to review The Prisoner's Wife by Maggie Brookes.
From hearing an extraordinary story that happened in WW2 Maggie then begun some researching to find out more and through that this amazing book was written. This is a true story that I cannot actually believe happened because it is so extraordinary, but happen it did and I have so much respect for all that people went through during that period in history.
Izabela meets and falls in love with a British prisoner of war, Bill. Secretly they marry and then go on the run in the hope of being able to stay together while they escape the Nazis. However, their time on the run is short and despite being prepared for being caught nothing could have prepared them for what they would eventually go through to survive the war. Izabela and Bill are taken to a POW camp and they are exposed to conditions that are worse than anything an animal would endure. The situation as become serious and both their lives are in danger but for love these to will do anything to stay together.
The Prisoner's Wife was incredible to read and sat in the warm sunshine it was hard to imagine what the prisoners of war went through day in and day out but Maggie captures it in these pages and it is horrendous but in amongst the horrors of war Maggie has highlighted the love, friendships and comradery between the soldiers, the groups of friends and the citizens in Europe. This is a love story like no other and one I am so glad I had the chance to read about. The strength that Izabela showed to get through what she did is unbelievable and shows that love really can get us through anything.
Maggie Brookes has captured an amazing WW2 story that I am so glad has come to light highlighting an incredible insight into a POW camp from an insiders perspective.
This is a must read for all WW2 fans and for people who love a love story that beats the odds.

This is a book based on a true story told to the author, and it really captures the extraordinary times many lived through during the Second World War and goes to show that sometimes fact can be stranger than fiction.

It centres around Izabela, a Czech girl living on a farm with her mother and younger brother, and how her world is changed when the Germans bring some prisoners of war to the farm to help with the workload. She is immediately smitten with Billy, an English POW, and their romance moves at a very fast pace and they soon find themselves married and on the run. A decision that leads them to the horrific consequence of being captured and having to spend time as prisoners of war.

Izzy is disguised as a man throughout and it was fascinating to see how she fared, how she was treated by the other prisoners, and how they all become a surrogate family to one another to get through the daily terror that they all faced. Never knowing who else to trust, how the german guards would treat them and what work they had to do. Life is extremely tough, but the kindness of others around them makes each day a little easier to face.

This book never gets too graphic which makes it much easier to read, but it still does a sterling job of conveying the conditions that they faced, and how the human spirit can cope when faced with such adversity. The devotion showed by Izzy and Bill to each other was so touching, and as the story goes on the days get darker for them with what they're facing. And with very little knowledge of what is going on in the bigger picture of the War, they just have to keep finding it within themselves to keep going - having to deal with hunger, horrific sights they witness - a real story of triumph over adversity.

This was a story that made an afternoon fly by and was an absorbing story.

Imagine a farm in the middle of the Czech countryside.POWS come to work there, looked over by a guard. They feed them and give them water but the guard seems to be unperturbed.Falling in love with one of these POWS is not expected. For Izzy however, this is the true story of what happens next

Life in the POW work camp is hard and visceral to read. Nothing is spared and the emotional side is tough to experience. The ray of light is the emotional bond they make and how love and comfort in the most challenging of circumstances can be everything.

Amazing true story!

I read a lot of WWII books, but this was the first from this perspective - following the Czech wife of a British PoW. I particularly enjoyed the fact that a couple of people had appeared in a previous book I’ve read (Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell). The only thing that could’ve made it better was if the epilogue had gone a few years into the future - I want to know what happened to them all!

Thank you to Netgalley, publisher and author for the ARC.

I couldn’t give any opinion on the book as there must have been a problem with it coming over and all I received was the front and reverse of the cover and that was all. From the synopsis it sounds absolutely fabulous though and it would be something I would physically pick up

I found this a fascinating story, and was amazed to learn that it was based on a true story. Excellent characters and fast moving story line.

UNABLE TO READ AS ALL THAT CAME THRU WAS THE FRONT AND BACK PAGES ....................
UNABLE TO READ AS ALL THAT CAME THRU WAS THE FRONT AND BACK PAGES ....................
UNABLE TO READ AS ALL THAT CAME THRU WAS THE FRONT AND BACK PAGES ....................