Finished: Wunderland (Epstein) Heartwrenching story about Isle and Renate, best friends from the time they are little girls, growing up in Germany as Hitler is rising in power. Isle and Renate are inseparable until Isle talks Renate into disobeying her parents and secretly applying to be part of the Hitler Youth Movement. The standard investigation into Renate's records reveals the truth that her father is Jewish and married to her Christian mother. Renate is half Jewish and she never knew it. Her older brother, Franz, knew and he and her parents had kept the secret. Once it's out, though, Renate's life changes. Her boyfriend cruelly breaks up with her and Isle quits hanging out with her, breaking Renate's heart. As the persecution of the Jewish people kicks into high gear, Renate and her family suffer immeasurably. They apply to leave the country, but it takes three long years, lots of red tape, and lots of money, for Renate's parents to finally buy passage for just Renate and Franz. As Renate goes through her teenage years, she learns that she won't be able to attend the school she always has, and that it's unlikely she'll be allowed to attend college, her longtime dream. Meanwhile, Isle believes wholeheartedly in Hitler's ideals about her Germany. She is a budding writer and writes whatever propaganda she is asked to. One night she accompanies some of the male Hitler youth as they head out to tear up the Jewish shops of Berlin and round up Jewish men to be sent off to be interrogated. She actually watches in horror as the boys completely destroy some shops she used to frequent with Renate, as well as the local synagogue. She's not horrified enough to leave the movement, though. When she realizes that the next man on the list they are going to terrorize is Renate's father, Isle steps in between the youth and Mr. Baur. She insists to the youth that the Baurs aren't Jewish, putting her own life in jeopardy. They move on to the next victim, but within the week, Isle is interrogated herself and told at some point, they will want her to get information on Franz for them to prove he is involved in activities that are illegal for Jewish folks. Occasionally the book fast forwards to the future where we have been introduced to Ava, Isle's daughter. Ava has never been close to her mother who had been very cold as she raised her, even leaving her for a few years in an orphanage during the war while she disappeared. Ava never knew what her mother did during the war or who her own father was. When her mother finally came back to get her, she would never tell Ava anything about her past. Ava, now with her own teenage daughter, Sophie, has just been informed that her estranged mother has died and wanted her to have all of the letters she wrote to Renate over the years, but never mailed. As Ava reads through the letters, she discovers so much about Isle and her friendship with Renate....as well as her crush on Renate's brother, Franz. The book is very well written and the experiences that both Renate and Isle go through are so vividly presented. As we go back in time again, it is only two days until Renate, now 19, and Franz are to finally take the ship to America and escape the persecution in Germany. It is at this time that Isle, frightened for her own life by the people who questioned her, does a despicable deed. Pretending that she misses Renate, she goes to their house and spends the evening there reminiscing. She also takes the time to snoop as much as she can in Franz's room for anything incriminating. She doesn't find anything, and leaves the home empty handed. When the higher-ups come down on her even harder and insist that she find something within the week, she goes back the next evening when she knows Renate will be at work and visits with Franz. Franz had also been enamored with Isle, and he completely falls for her act that she's changed, and shows her where he's got illegal books hidden AND tells her the time and date of the next of the illegal anti-Hitler meetings he's been attending. Then, they both give into their old feelings and sleep together. Isle walks out of the house with one of the clandestine books and the time and place of the upcoming meeting. She decides she won't turn this information over until Franz and Renate have gone in two days. She doesn't get that choice, though, when she arrives home and the same men who interrogated her before are waiting at her home. Isle tells them that the meeting is the next week, and she thinks she has spared Franz, but the men go to the house that night, take him out and beat him, and take him away. Franz dies in captivity. :-( Isle, is then thrust into the war effort and never realizes that Franz didn't make it to New York safely. As Ava reads all these letters, she realizes that Renate lives in New York and hopefully not too far away from her. When Ava tracks her down, Renate is very upset when she finds out Ava is Isle's daughter and asks her to leave. Ava doesn't realize either that Franz never made it to New York. Ava tells Renate that Isle is responsible for her brother's death. Ava begs Renate to hear her out. She tells her that Isle's letters reveal that Franz was Ava's father! Renate can almost instantly recognize the resemblance. It's a very touching moment when Renate realizes she's got a niece, a piece of her beloved brother. The book ends with them planning to get together and get to know each other as family.

Finished: Run Away (Coben) Another page-turner by my favorite thriller, who-done-it author. Father of three, Simon, is devastated that his oldest, daughter Paige, gets heavily involved in drugs her first year of college, spiraling downward until she flunks out of school, steals from her parents for drug money, and lives with, Aaron, the man who got her hooked on drugs. She is now missing and Aaron is dead. Simon and his wife's quest to find Paige leads them to a run down housing project where their lives are put in danger. Simon's wife, Ingrid, is shot and lies in a coma. Simon continues his mission to find Paige, even while police are questioning whether Simon and/or Ingrid could have killed Aaron...or was it Paige herself? Meanwhile, there's a couple who grew up together in foster care, Ash and Dee Dee, who are traveling around the same area contract killing men who have been put on a hit list. Dee Dee is a member of a controlling cult, and as it turns out, the men are all the sons of the charismatic cult leader, who had been put up for adoption as infants. Now that the cult leader is on his death bed, someone in the cult is wanting any remaining sons with claims to his fortune to be eliminated. When Simon finds out that Aaron was actually one of the boys who was adopted long ago, then all the connections start falling into place. There are a few surprise twists towards the end which keep you on your toes. :-) All in all, a good Harlan Coben book. I didn't enjoy it, though, as much as I do his Myron Bolitar series.