I picked up The Puzzle King hoping for a good read. I wasn't expecting it to make an impact on me, but it did. I was sorry when I saw I was near the end. I wanted the story to keep going; I wanted to read more about the characters. But the ending was just right. And some of the discussion questions at the back of the book ask the reader to suppose what happened to some of the characters after the story ended.

The real-life backstory is just as interesting as the fiction. The author grew up hearin More...

NOTE: I actually gave this book 4 1/2 stars.

I ADORED this book. Those of you that read by review of Songbird Under A German Moon know that I unfortunately sort of missed out on World War II history. This is one of the many reasons for which I absolutely adore books that give me a glimpse of what it was like. In Betsy Carter's gripping tale of love and family and heartache, that is exactly what she does. She brings Jewish characters to life in the times leading up to war. She breathes life into f More...

My impression of The Puzzle King was that it was going to be a story about the rescue of Jews from Germany during World War II. Surprisingly the description from the front flap of the book of Flora standing in line at the consulate in Germany appears very late in the book.

The character that the reader first encounters is a nine-year-old boy named Simon who is leaving his family in Vilna in order to immigrate to the United States. He is unaccompanied on his trip and has no one to meet him or take More...

Puzzle King is the story of a few of the fortunate who escaped from Germany to America before the start of World War II. Simon, and the sisters Flora, and Seema all are sent to America as young children, leaving their families behind in Germany. Their success as immigrants is extraordinary as their find their place in the new country, work hard, and prosper. Yet always hanging over them is the question of what happened to the families they left behind. This is a new perspective on WWII, that of More...

This book was a compelling read. The characters are wonderful; Edith is hope and life, Seema is vibrance and danger, Flora is sturdy and solid, Margot is beautiful and fragile and Simon is serious and haunted.

Told over the course of 30 years, the story chronicles the lives of Simon and Flora beginning when Simon's mother sent him to America to escape the ethnic cleansing in Lithuania. Flora and Seema, sent to America from Germany, enter the story gently and then become larger than life as their More...

he Puzzle King, by Betsy Carter is a well-written novel, based on Clark’s ancestors and family legends.

The novel opens in March 1936, in Stuttgart, Germany, where a woman named Flora stood in line waiting to see the consul. The story line then moves to 1892, and back and forth through the decades between 1892 and 1936. The main characters in The Puzzle King are Simon Phelps, and Flora Grossman.

Their lives have strange twists, as each one of them emigrates to America. Simon, a Jewish boy, is sen More...

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was a quick, easy read, with deep characters and a historical point of view I have not yet come across, despite my recent discovery of period novels and series such as Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs. I feel disappointed because I expected some type of climactic Holocaust entanglement, and the story is a much more linear, emotional history of a diverted crisis. While it still doesn't fully explain the passion that prevents German Jews from racing More...

I was a bit disappointed in this book. Good subject, interesting characters...but the writing needed a bit more polishing for me. I wanted the author to go into much more depth, in particular about Simon's family left behind in Lithuania. I found it hard to believe that Simon, with so much wealth, wouldn't go back on his own, back to his roots in Europe. To try, on his own, to find some information about his family...to see where he came from, what molded him into the man he had become. That one More...

A great love story, a great family story based on legends heard by the author from her relatives, and also a look at people in the US and Germany at the beginning of World War II.

Characters are not always what they seem and it is not until the end of the book that we see that. People who appear frivolous may not be so and may be capable of great courage. People who appear ungenerous may be the most generous of creatures who are unobtrusive in the ways that they help others.

At times the story se More...

Nice historical novel based on the author's relative revolving around the effort to get German Jews out of the country before Hitler really went nuts. The author spends a lot of time setting up familial relationships, and character establishment, and little on the actual efforts because she had very little factual evidence, but I think it works. It gives the reader an excellent picture of Hitler's rise to power and what American Jews and German Jews believed in the years leading up to WWII. The More...

Betsy Carter's previous two novels are among my favorites, especially since the setting in both novels was Florida. The Puzzle King is very different. It is historical, spanning the years from 1892 to 1936. It is based on Carter's family stories. Flora Grossman and Simon Phelps are immigrants to America, who fall in love and marry. Somon makes a fortune by inventing the jigsaw puzzle. Both have family members in Germany and want to get them out in the face of Hilter's rising power. The book is a More...

I enjoyed this novel, which is actually based on real people and events that happened to the author's ancestors. The story is of Flora and Simon Phelps who both are Jewish and emigrated from Europe. The action goes back and forth between Europe and America from 1892 to 1936. Tension builds up as things get worse and worse for the Jews with the rise of Hitler. The title refers to Simon's idea and development of the first mass produced die-cut advertising jigsaw puzzles at the height of the depres More...

This is my first book by Betsy Carter and I enjoyed it. It is a story of Jewish immigrants from Europe before World War II and their efforts to bring the rest of their families from Germany to America. Although it is not a memoir it does come from some of Ms. Carter's family history. I was confused by the actions of some of the characters and did not feel that they were realistic - but who knows how I would act in the same situations. Overall I enjoyed the book and would probably read more by he More...

The Puzzle King by Betsy Carter is a touching story about the courage to put oneself on the line to help in the face of overwhelming evil..Simon Phelps made sense of the world with his drawings. His mother has a tough timeraising her children in Eastern Europe. She scrapes together enough to send 9 year old Simon to the United States. He is to work hard, become successful, and then send for his family. The first part he achieves, but he never finds his family again. Imagine a 9 year old child in More...

If you don't know how much about the early immigrant scene and the early years of Hitler's restrictions on the Jews - you will probably find the book interesting. What endears the book - but also might weaken its tension - is that the author is related to the female character. The author has researched the situation and time period and created this novel - and - unfortunately - I think it feels that way. This would be a good novel for a high school reading list.

This was a "surprise" from the shelves of our local library. I don't know what attracted me, but I got it, and I'm glad I did. It tells the story of European immigrants to America in the late 1890's and continues through 1936, I believe. The story focuses on Flora and Simon, who are from Germany and Lithuania, respectively. So you see the rise of Hitler from an immigrant's standpoint. The prose is fluid and fun to read. Great book!

A Jewish 9 year old boy is sent alone to New York in 1892. When attending a dance in his mid teens, he meets his future wife. He becomes a very successful jigsaw puzzle maker and is also obsessed with bringing his family and his wife's to N.Y. before WWII breaks out. This story is predictable and yes you've read stories like this before but I enjoyed the book because the characters were engaging and the story moved at a good pace.

This fascinating historical novel is based on Ms Carter's own family story. Simon Phelps comes to NYC alone at age 9 at the turn of the century and manages to succeed although he never finds the family left behind in Vilna. His story and that of his lovely wife and her German Jewish family left behind is a gripping one. A love story and a Holocaust rescue story are movingly told.

The Puzzle King is an affecting story of immigration to the US from Germany and Eastern Europe, and more importantly - how it feels to leave part of one's family behind. It examines the choices that those who leave and those who stay make and the impact that making such choices has on indivuals and families. Recommended. The jacket copy is relatively misleading, for what it's worth.

I picked up this book for $1 at the dollar store and it was worth so much more than that! I love historical fiction and this one had an awesome development of characters and one of the sweetest love stories. Lately I've been disappointed in every book ending but this one was just right. I can't wait for some time to pass by so I can read it again!

This is actually quite a fascinating book, part family history and part fiction. It's a quick read, which is the unfortunate part, because the author could have drawn her characters more deeply. Instead, they tend to come off as "characters in a book" rather than the fascinating people they probably were. Still, well worth reading if your time is limited.

While I liked the concept of the book it self, I don't think that it was very well written. It didn't always flow very nicely from one idea to the next. There were also a few suggestive parts that I could have done without. Overall, probably wouldn't read it again or recommend it to anyone.

Interesting historical fiction about immigration in the early 1900s. And then the story grows into a early World War II story of American Jews trying to save their families in Germany. I feel more understanding of the struggles these early immigrants endured.

A little slow starting out but a good book in the end. Fiction, follows the lives of 2 immigrants from Germany that leave for the US from 1892 through the 1930's. The actions they take to save their families from the horrors of Germany at that time.

An engaging read, not spectacular but worth picking up and spending the time on. I only wish that it had more epilogue, 'cause it left me wanting to know what happened after the ending, even just a paragraph or so on each character.

Didnt hate this book or love it. It was about a subject I enjoy but I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more of an ending. How many of the characters stayed in Germany, and what happened to them?

This is a World War II fictional novel. I thought this book was well-written and the characters were well-developed. It was a little slow at parts, but overall an easy and interesting read.

I enjoyed this book. I would have liked more in the epilogue about her family and the factual parts of the story. I would like to know what happened to Seema(even though I'm pretty sure I know what happened).

I've read another book about immigrants in the US!! And the characters also see the build-up to the Second World War and warning signs of the holocaust. I've got another book on my pile to read next that has Irish immigrants in it(---but a much earlier setting). I've gotta stop this.
The title, which attracted me to this novel, refers to the invention and use of stamped cardboard puzzles as advertising gimmicks. There are other aspects of art used for advertising in the dawn of the age of adverti More...

So much promise! But a few too many historical inaccuracies. That said, I loved the premise and feel the cover is one of the best I've seen.