Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture, and author Kate Hewitt for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

This is the fourth book in The Emerald Sisters series by Kate Hewitt which follows four young Jewish women during World War II. We first meet the four main characters in the first book, The Girl on the Boat. This establishes them meeting each other on the S.S. St. Louis, a boat of Jewish refugees which left Germany for Cuba, only to be denied entry and sent back.

The Girl Who Never Gave Up follows Rachel’s story. She is the oldest of the four women and was already married by the time we met her in The Girl on the Boat. Her husband, Franz, was a political prisoner at Dachau who was released. He has never talked about what happened to him there, but he came back a very different man from the one she married. After being turned away from Cuba, Franz and Rebecca are sent to the Netherlands. At first, they are in a refugee camp that is not much better than a concentration camp. Some of Franz’s friends come to their aid, and after a month, they are in a small apartment in Haarlem.

Franz is supposedly working for a law firm, but is not bringing home much money. Rachel must look for a job to keep food on the table. Still, Franz is mostly silent and moody around her. Rachel tries to be positive and encouraging to Franz, but there is no sign that he even listens to her most of the time. When the war comes to Haarlem, Rachel and Franz must hide from the Nazis. They move around several times, grateful for the people who are helping them. Eventually, their luck runs out and they are sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

I found The Girl Who Never Gave Up to be the weakest of the four books, which is a shame because it’s building to the hinted conclusion that only three of the four women have survived. I was quite anxious to see the story resolved, but I had to wade through Rachel’s story first. Looking back on Rachel’s life and choices can be difficult from a 21st-century perspective. Yes, Franz went through a horrible experience at Dachau, and it’s understandable that he would shut down after that. However, he seems to blame Rachel for all of their problem, and she seems to accept that blame. This frustrated me to no end. Rachel was always trying, and Franz seemed just to want to criticize her and place blame. He doesn’t give her any feedback about what happened to him or what he needs from her, so she is in the dark and guessing about how best to reach him. It’s a traditional wife’s role, and it’s a frustrating thing to read eighty years later. I know it’s authentic, but it’s also something that’s becoming harder to relate to. I would have walked away from Franz on any number of occasions, but especially when he allows his friends to mock her while she is the main breadwinner who is providing for the two of them.

The other part I found unrealistic, and it’s a spoiler of sorts, so stop right here if you don’t want to read it…..

Right before they are transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Rachel learns she is pregnant. Knowing how bad the camp was and that people were starving to death, it is hard to believe that Rachel not only managed to carry the pregnancy to term, but the baby was born with no issues. I did like how Hewitt inserted guilt on Rachel’s part for being able to send her baby into hiding, while most of the other babies born in the camp were drowned by the staff.

I did enjoy how the story wrapped up. The women meeting as they planned and putting the emerald together, along with seeing the missing piece and drinking a toast to the one missing, was poignant. I didn’t think they would all survive the war, and how they got to this point is well done. It drives home the value of friendships among women. During Rachel’s time in Haarlem, it is women whom she turns to and gets help from time and time again. This includes an encounter with Corrie Ten Boom and her family, whose spirituality, although different from Rachel’s, has a big impact on her.

I do recommend the series. The Girl Who Never Gave Up really doesn’t work if you haven’t read the other books. I recommend picking them all up. This final book may have been a bit repetitive and frustrating at times, but it was still a good story that wrapped up the series nicely.

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