What I Would Tell You by Liz Tolsma

 

Determined to resist the invading Nazis, a Greek Jewish woman's greatest dream has become her worst nightmare, and now she faces an impossible choice whose consequences echo across the generations. 
 
1941—The pounding of Nazi boots on the streets of Salonika, Greece, reverberates in Mathilda Nissim’s ears, shaking her large community of Sephardic Jews to its core and altering her life forever. If only her people would rise up and resist their captors. At great risk to herself and those around her, she uses the small newspaper she publishes to call them to action, all to no avail. Her husband encourages her to trust God to watch over them, but God has once again deserted His people. Amid the chaos, Mathilda discovers she’s expecting a longed-for child. Still, nothing stops the occupiers’ noose from tightening around their necks, and she may have to resort to desperate measures to ensure her daughter’s survival.
 
2019—College student Tessa Payton and her cousin take a popular DNA heritage test only to discover they don’t share any common ancestors. In fact, the test reveals Tessa is a Greek Sephardic Jew. This revelation threatens her tenuous faith. Always the overlooked child in her family, she empties her savings account and jets off on a journey to Greece to discover where she belongs and which God demands her allegiance. The enchanting curator at the Jewish museum guides her as she navigates life in Thessaloniki, helps with her genealogical research, and loans her a fascinating journal written by a Jewish woman during WWII. Tessa’s search, however, may open old wounds and uncover long-hidden secrets that could fracture her family forever and leave her with more questions than when she started.

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About The Author

 Passionate might best describe Liz Tolsma. She loves writing, research, and editing. Her passion shone through in her first novel which was a double award finalist. On any given day, you might find her pulling weeds in her perennial garden, walking her hyperactive dog, or curled up with a good book. Nothing means more to her than her family. She’s married her high-school sweetheart twenty-eight years ago. Get her talking about international adoption, and you might never get her to stop. She and her husband adopted three children, including a son who is a U.S. Marine, and two daughters.

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My Review

 Another gift from Author Liz Tolsma, a story that tugs at your heartstrings. Mothers from each generation that try to protect their innocent children.

The story starts with the present day with a DNA results, definitely not what Tessa Payton was expecting, but because of it her life is changed, and a whole new world opens up.

This story is a dual time read, and does deal with a period of time when evil spread across Europe! This story deals with the people living in Greece at this time, and although we now know what happened to most of these people, we put faces on these poor folks, who want to trust the enemy, but what choice did they have?

In the end we are offered some sweet romance, along with a family mystery solved, and found family, along with a lot of forgiveness!

Keep reading, I loved the author's note, learned some history I was unfamiliar with!

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Barbour, and was not required to give a positive review.