I love time-slip novels, and I also tend to choose books set in the World War Two time period.  That made “Hidden Among the Stars” an easy choice for me, as it incorporates two interwoven stories, a contemporary one, and a historical one set during WWII.

There are many, many things to say about this book.  First, let’s start with the downside.  There is one part of the historical story that is quite horrible, particularly with a Nazi officer’s treatment of a young Jewish woman.  While I feel I need to mention this in order to be honest in my review, I must also say that this situation was handled with remarkable tact on the author’s part, which I greatly appreciated.

Now for the upside – apart from the issue mentioned above, this was one of the best books I have read in a long time.  Honestly, each time I thought I had figured out what the end result would be, I discovered I was wrong, and it took all the way until the epilogue for all of my questions to be answered.

Yet, there was so much more to this story that just an intriguing plot.  There is masterful story-telling, beautiful writing, and a conclusion that is joyous in some ways, and heart-breaking in others.

One of the themes of “Hidden Among the Stars” is John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”.  With this verse as a guide for one of the character’s actions, we are given a powerful illustration of selfless love, told in the context of one of history’s greatest horrors, the Holocaust.

In the end, while caution is needed for the reason described above, I still recommend “Hidden Among the Stars”, because the rest of it is, in a word, excellent.

This book was provided courtesy of Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for my honest review.