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The Ties of Blood #1
Unguarded: An utterly gripping WW2 novel
Lying to the SS and fleeing for her life, can one Jewish girl keep her secret from the Fatherland?Germany, 1940. With laws getting harsher and rumors darker with each day, Lena Weisman knows her luck is running thin. But getting arrested comes without warning, and an hour later she finds herself shoved on a train with countless others.But the train heads west, not east like the ominous rumors whispered. And the soldier who arrested her is watching her every move, which is far worse than the others simply drunk with power and ruled by their basest instincts.When she gets a chance Lena runs from the train, but the soldier catches up. She agrees to his help, there’s little else she can do, but even after working together for months she can’t believe his intentions are as innocent as he says. He must have a reason for abandoning his whole life, but even if she believes him, can she trust him with her heart?Then an unthinkable choice splits her path in two, when news from home demands she choose between the secret she’s fought so hard to protect, and her lifelong dream that’s finally within reach. The soldier gave up everything for her, can she risk her soul to save him in return?Unguarded is the first book in The Ties of Blood historical romance series. If you like intense emotional journeys filled with heart-breaking goodbyes and impossible choices, you'll love MaryAnna Rose's series set in the tragic chaos of the Second World War.Buy Unguarded to start this exciting adventure today!
332 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 25, 2019
656 people are currently reading
286 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
January 8, 2022
NAZIS ARE NOT LOVE INTERESTS.
Read
January 9, 2022Unfortunately this is one I have to add to my no-thanks shelf. This book is a romance between a Jew on the run and a German soldier. It's wrong on so many levels. I used to follow this author on TikTok until I realized what her books were about. I wish her no ill will (hence I'm not leaving a star rating), but I can't in good conscious follow or support this author and her books.
January 18, 2022
***HAVEN’T READ THIS BOOK WILL ADD NOTES AS TO WHY THIS BOOK IS REALLY WEIRD AFTER I READ IT***
Maryanna… Maryanna… Maryanna… Where should I start?
Aside from the fact that you look like you’ve drunk toxic waste from the moment of your birth.
Here’s the thing, I’m a sucker for historical romances, and no one is saying that books can’t be set during ww2, but why would you write a book about an ex german soldier saving a Jewish girl? From the perspective of Jews, it just seems like a white savior book. Do you not think it’s weird that an ex SS member saves a Jewish girl? And they fall in love? You have completely crossed the line into fetishizing, and as I wrote in an essay about fetishization and antisemitism, it always always always starts with antisemitism.
You could have written about any other characters falling in love during the Holocaust, why would you choose to write trauma p*rn?
Once again, people like you prove that Jewish people can’t rest even in death.
edit part one:
I didn’t read the summary when I wrote this lol. A jewish girl on the run? Running from a german soldier who is sent to capture her who we all know is going to end up as our love interest? Are you insane? Do you enjoy being weird and antisemitic? IN WHAT WORLD WOULD A JEWISH GIRL EVER FALL IN LOVE WITH A GERMAN SOLIDER WHO IS SENT OUT TO KILL HER AND HER PEOPLE???? And don’t you dare say that it’s fiction. There are certain lines books shouldn’t cross and one of it is writing romance out of horrific things such as the holocaust, slavery etc.
edit part two:
So the reason why I went to review this book because I saw it on tiktok. What I didn’t see though is the post that said, and I quote, “resisting the feminine urge to read a WW2 romance where the girl escapes the SS- then goes back to save the soldier sent to arrest her… knowing it’s a trap”. I feel like I am going to throw up. Why are you as a white woman, making romances about the Holocaust? You literally admit it, the SS officer was trying to trap her and k word her. You can not go back and say “what does me not being Jewish have to do with the book”. Even if you were Jewish, this is purely antisemitic and I swear to g-d that you know what you are doing. My ancestors did not get shot up by the love interest you wrote about, for you to enjoy writing sickening romance. You are a disgusting creature to actual good romance authors around the globe.
Maryanna… Maryanna… Maryanna… Where should I start?
Aside from the fact that you look like you’ve drunk toxic waste from the moment of your birth.
Here’s the thing, I’m a sucker for historical romances, and no one is saying that books can’t be set during ww2, but why would you write a book about an ex german soldier saving a Jewish girl? From the perspective of Jews, it just seems like a white savior book. Do you not think it’s weird that an ex SS member saves a Jewish girl? And they fall in love? You have completely crossed the line into fetishizing, and as I wrote in an essay about fetishization and antisemitism, it always always always starts with antisemitism.
You could have written about any other characters falling in love during the Holocaust, why would you choose to write trauma p*rn?
Once again, people like you prove that Jewish people can’t rest even in death.
edit part one:
I didn’t read the summary when I wrote this lol. A jewish girl on the run? Running from a german soldier who is sent to capture her who we all know is going to end up as our love interest? Are you insane? Do you enjoy being weird and antisemitic? IN WHAT WORLD WOULD A JEWISH GIRL EVER FALL IN LOVE WITH A GERMAN SOLIDER WHO IS SENT OUT TO KILL HER AND HER PEOPLE???? And don’t you dare say that it’s fiction. There are certain lines books shouldn’t cross and one of it is writing romance out of horrific things such as the holocaust, slavery etc.
edit part two:
So the reason why I went to review this book because I saw it on tiktok. What I didn’t see though is the post that said, and I quote, “resisting the feminine urge to read a WW2 romance where the girl escapes the SS- then goes back to save the soldier sent to arrest her… knowing it’s a trap”. I feel like I am going to throw up. Why are you as a white woman, making romances about the Holocaust? You literally admit it, the SS officer was trying to trap her and k word her. You can not go back and say “what does me not being Jewish have to do with the book”. Even if you were Jewish, this is purely antisemitic and I swear to g-d that you know what you are doing. My ancestors did not get shot up by the love interest you wrote about, for you to enjoy writing sickening romance. You are a disgusting creature to actual good romance authors around the globe.
January 8, 2022
What is wrong with someone that they would even begin to think this is an appropriate setting for a romance? Are you seriously kidding, author?
I anxiously await your next book. Will it be between a French peacekeeper who finds love with a Tutsi girl during the Rwandan genocide? Or maybe a relief worker who romances an Ethiopian woman during the Ethiopian famine? Oh, wait -- how about a white South African soldier who falls in love with a woman who lives in Soweto under apartheid.
You can't teach taste, or class. Obviously.
I anxiously await your next book. Will it be between a French peacekeeper who finds love with a Tutsi girl during the Rwandan genocide? Or maybe a relief worker who romances an Ethiopian woman during the Ethiopian famine? Oh, wait -- how about a white South African soldier who falls in love with a woman who lives in Soweto under apartheid.
You can't teach taste, or class. Obviously.
January 9, 2022
NAZIS ARE NOT LOVE INTERESTS!
What the fuck is this? Haven't we already had this conversation? We don't glamorize or romanticize the Holocaust. What the actual fuck???
What the fuck is this? Haven't we already had this conversation? We don't glamorize or romanticize the Holocaust. What the actual fuck???
January 11, 2022
Jewish sensitivity readers are crucial when writing Jewish stories as a non-Jewish person. Romantically pairing the oppressed with the oppressor when the setting is REAL LIFE genocide, during which millions of REAL LIFE HUMAN BEINGS were horrifically killed, is reprehensible and disgusting. Does the gravity of that just not matter to you? A Jewish person living through the terror that was Nazi Germany at the start of the Holocaust would NOT romantically pursue a literal Nazi. Point-blank, period. This is not "Historical Romance," this is the fetishization of real. life. trauma that people are still dealing with the aftermath of today (in real life) (neo-Nazis are a thing and antisemitism(which can be seen through the ignorant content of this book) is very much alive). Nazis don't get redemption arcs, no matter how white and how savior-y they are.
The author is refusing to listen to Jewish readers and is blocking anyone criticizing her on TikTok. There are real life consequences when you're an antisemite, plain and simple. :) Have the day you deserve.
The author is refusing to listen to Jewish readers and is blocking anyone criticizing her on TikTok. There are real life consequences when you're an antisemite, plain and simple. :) Have the day you deserve.
January 9, 2022
Such a terrible premise couldn't be saved by the best writing in the world, and this is not the best writing.
January 10, 2022
If I could give this book a zero, I would. Not only is this poorly written from a grammar and semantics standpoint, but who in the world thinks it’s acceptable to write about a Jewish woman during the Holocaust falling in love with a Nazi?! I find this tack, delusional, and flat out antisemitic. This is disgusting and abhorrent
January 9, 2022
This is deplorable, vile and completely antisemitic
January 10, 2022
Terrible writing and editing on top of the Nazi awfulness.
January 10, 2022
Nobody should write Nazis as love interests. The premise of this book is disgusting and horrifyingly antisemitic. Don't write Jewish trauma stories when you aren't Jewish. (Hint: no Jewish author would ever write this)
The Nazi believes in the SS cause of the Final Solution until his sexual attraction to Lena causes him to save her.
The author is also blocking anyone on Tiktok with valid criticism and discussion on the subject. Repulsive, deplorable behavior.
The Nazi believes in the SS cause of the Final Solution until his sexual attraction to Lena causes him to save her.
The author is also blocking anyone on Tiktok with valid criticism and discussion on the subject. Repulsive, deplorable behavior.
January 18, 2022
Haven't read this book.
It's so disgusting and disrespectful to all the survivors.
It's so disgusting and disrespectful to all the survivors.
January 9, 2022
I haven’t read this but THIS BITCH TOOK NAZIS AND WAS LIKE YEAH LETS MAKE A NAZI THE LOVE INTEREST. This is in no way an okay story to write and publish, especially from a non-jew .
January 10, 2022
I did not read this and I will not read this. Abhorrent and antisemitic.
Read
January 12, 2022As a Jewish woman that read four chapters of this book, I can attest to how wrong on every level it is. Even worse, when I wrote a review on TikTok about it, Maryanna Rose BLOCKED me. In fact, she blocks any criticism from Jews.
The book reads like she has recasted her experience being bullied and plopped it into the backdrop of the Holocaust. Yet, in her telling she is not only irresistible to German men as a whole, but also so blatantly Jewish and German that even complete strangers recognize her as being so. Other Jews hate her for being Jewish (or perhaps what she meant was they hated her for being only partly Jewish? It's unclear from her writing).
Meanwhile, the character is so weak in body that she gets a stitch multiple times just from standing up! She falls over or gets dizzy so often that it's amazing the character has enough strength to move at all. The author considers withholding important character identification as a plot device: Tobias is likely her son, but you only find out his relation to her in chapter 4 and even then it isn't clear that he's her son. In four chapters, you never find out if the aunt and uncle are blood relatives, non-Jews that took her and Tobias in, or something else. The movement of the character throughout the storyline is so difficult to follow that it is impossible to know for certain what is happening at any given moment.
All of this aside, I would have forgiven her if she had taken the feedback she received from actual Jews instead of blocking comment or opinion and plunging forward to release a FIFTH book in this series. Her author website states her grandmother grew up in Germany - it doesn't state whether or not she was Jewish - but it doesn't matter. Her refusal to take the feedback of Jewish people that are currently living through the worst spike in Anti-Semetic attacks since the Holocaust is disgusting, immature, and pathetic. She needs intense therapy and for someone to take away her laptop.
Maryanna Rose, may you have the day you deserve.
The book reads like she has recasted her experience being bullied and plopped it into the backdrop of the Holocaust. Yet, in her telling she is not only irresistible to German men as a whole, but also so blatantly Jewish and German that even complete strangers recognize her as being so. Other Jews hate her for being Jewish (or perhaps what she meant was they hated her for being only partly Jewish? It's unclear from her writing).
Meanwhile, the character is so weak in body that she gets a stitch multiple times just from standing up! She falls over or gets dizzy so often that it's amazing the character has enough strength to move at all. The author considers withholding important character identification as a plot device: Tobias is likely her son, but you only find out his relation to her in chapter 4 and even then it isn't clear that he's her son. In four chapters, you never find out if the aunt and uncle are blood relatives, non-Jews that took her and Tobias in, or something else. The movement of the character throughout the storyline is so difficult to follow that it is impossible to know for certain what is happening at any given moment.
All of this aside, I would have forgiven her if she had taken the feedback she received from actual Jews instead of blocking comment or opinion and plunging forward to release a FIFTH book in this series. Her author website states her grandmother grew up in Germany - it doesn't state whether or not she was Jewish - but it doesn't matter. Her refusal to take the feedback of Jewish people that are currently living through the worst spike in Anti-Semetic attacks since the Holocaust is disgusting, immature, and pathetic. She needs intense therapy and for someone to take away her laptop.
Maryanna Rose, may you have the day you deserve.
January 10, 2022
Trash. Antisemitic trash. Filled with not only RAMPANT antisemitism, but editing disasters and sexual assault. Frankly, anyone that thinks Nazis are not only viable love interests, but appropriate ones for a Jewish woman during the Holocaust, probably shouldn’t be allowed to publish books and needs to go do some serious therapy.
January 11, 2022
Who decided writing a romance between a Jewish woman and a NAZI was ever good, do not read this book. Stop romanticising a genocide :)
December 2, 2021
Romance amidst war.
A romantic story set in Europe during World War II with elements of danger as an ex German officer rescues a part Jewish girl.
The basis of the story is good, but I found it difficult to read at times as the very short sentences and lack of punctuation were extremely frustrating.
I know my curiosity will get to me, and I will need to read more to discover what happens next.
A romantic story set in Europe during World War II with elements of danger as an ex German officer rescues a part Jewish girl.
The basis of the story is good, but I found it difficult to read at times as the very short sentences and lack of punctuation were extremely frustrating.
I know my curiosity will get to me, and I will need to read more to discover what happens next.
January 12, 2022
An appalling premise, and while I haven't read it, here is someone who read a good portion of it, so they could speak to the anti-semitism and poorly-written nature of the first book:
https://www.tiktok.com/@rubenesque.me...
https://www.tiktok.com/@rubenesque.me...
January 10, 2022
Nazi trauma porn. DNF. What a gross subject.
January 10, 2022
I actually didn’t read this but as a Jewish woman….this genuinely makes my blood boil. The fact that this “novel” even got green lighted is beyond me. Disgusting.
January 11, 2022
NAZIS ARE NOT LOVE INTERESTS. IT IS GORRAM 2022. THIS SHOULD NOT NEED TO BE SAID. Seriously, what in the world made you think THIS was appropriate to write AND publish?!
January 20, 2022
Nazi's aren't love interests, why did you write FIVE stories of a Jewish woman falling in love with someone that hates her because she's a Jewish person? What made you think this was even slightly a good idea. Please listen to all the people telling you this is wrong. How did this even become a thought in your head?
January 15, 2022
A Jewish women falls in love with an unapologetic n**i. She states he knows and enjoys what he does. The author speaks over Jewish voices and doesn’t see the problem with this white supremacy fantasy. Horrendous.
February 5, 2023
This is not a book I could recommend. Lots of typos and just badly written.
February 20, 2022
so disgusting to romanticize literal nazis
January 18, 2022
Ignoring the antisemetic parts of the book. It was kinda good apart from the constant fainting….
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 23, 2022
I don't like giving independent artists low ratings. However, ignoring the other ratings about what it's about. Enough people had explained why this book is causing issue. I read it before judging it which you asked people to do. I unfortunately I think you took on too much by going for such a historical event.
Though the love story is cute by itself without the whole ISSUE. It's just too hard to get past the love interest ledger being too red to redeem. I was hoping this book would say look, he's just pretending he's actually been saving people in secret. A double agent. He's never hurt a soul.'
Because this is a TRUE event, I don't think this story can ever be as amazing as you hope. If you had set this on a different planet. A different life. A fictional war. This book would be considered so much better.
Like Loki said in avengers:
Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man....Can you wipe out that much red? Your ledger is dripping, it's GUSHING red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer... PATHETIC! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code. Something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!
I think once you move on from these story ideas that are truly limiting you, You could make something great. You need to present a love interest people can fall for too and I don't think it's possible with his ledger.
Though the love story is cute by itself without the whole ISSUE. It's just too hard to get past the love interest ledger being too red to redeem. I was hoping this book would say look, he's just pretending he's actually been saving people in secret. A double agent. He's never hurt a soul.'
Because this is a TRUE event, I don't think this story can ever be as amazing as you hope. If you had set this on a different planet. A different life. A fictional war. This book would be considered so much better.
Like Loki said in avengers:
Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man....Can you wipe out that much red? Your ledger is dripping, it's GUSHING red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer... PATHETIC! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code. Something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!
I think once you move on from these story ideas that are truly limiting you, You could make something great. You need to present a love interest people can fall for too and I don't think it's possible with his ledger.
January 20, 2022
No. No. No. This book is gross.
January 18, 2022
I’m Jewish and rlly disturbed by this author
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews