loved this book... a wonderful read... ( )

Even from the beginning, it was obvious to me how much research had been put in to this book and the way the story is told. You don't need to have read the comments at the beginning in order to discover this. The book also isn't the typical story of life in the camps and the focus isn't entirely on a couple torn apart by the events in a Nazi occupied area. The book is about the couple, that is true, but the focus is more on the change of mindset of the average citizen. Power is shifting in the government, people are starting to talk and believe what they hear. Prejudice is growing and that changes things.

I also found the descriptions as moving as the events themselves and they continued evenly throughout the story, adding to what was being spoken, thought, or described. Because the quality of writing was just so beautiful and the story was overwhelmingly touching, I found that this was a difficult book to put down. Will the family survive? Will the couple find acceptance from their families? The end is heartbreaking, but keeps true to life as it was. This is a must read. ( )

Rebecca is a lovely, independent German woman determined to create a life of her own apart from her wealthy, domineering parents. She is attending nursing school in Munich and paying her own living expenses. Everything seems to be going according to plan, until she meets Eli that is.

Eli is sweet and charming. He is a lawyer, comes from a good family, and treats Rebecca as she should be treated. The only problem is that Eli is Jewish, and they are living in the Germany of the 1930s.

As Eli and Rebecca’s relationship progresses so does Hitler’s influence over the country. Rebecca and Eli fear for their friends, themselves, and each other as the Nazis slowly take control of the country and persecute the Jewish citizens of Germany.

But the Nazis aren’t the only ones who oppose Rebecca and Eli’s love for one another. Eli’s family refuses to accept Rebecca into their lives unless she converts to Judaism, and Rebecca’s family threatens to disown her unless she breaks things off with Eli. Will their love be able to survive the opposition they face? More importantly, will they?

Blackwelder does a great job staying true to historic detail. She combines fiction with historical fact and gives readers the opportunity to see the world from the perspective of a Jewish family trying to survive the horrors of the holocaust.

It is a daunting task to try to balance historic accuracy with captivating fiction. And in this case, I felt like the fiction suffered a bit. While there was a lot of fascinating detail and information I had never read before, the story felt forced.

There was a lot of telling in the writing and not nearly enough showing. I wasn’t able to really lose myself in the story or genuinely care about the characters, because I felt that I wasn’t able to become intimate with them. While I read what their emotions were, I wasn’t able to feel the character’s emotions along with them.

Despite that, I did enjoy reading this take on a World War II romance. And while I wouldn’t recommend it to those looking for a fictional novel that will sweep them up and keep them captivated, I would recommend it to history buffs and those interested in reading more about the second world war. ( )

What would you do if you lived in Germany in the 1930's? Would you leave the only home you ever knew? Would stay and fight for a change? Would you keep your head down and hope for the best? Rebecca and Eli are a Christian/Jewish couple who have to make this decision. "The Day the Flowers Died" by Ami Blackwelder in an e-book I received for free from www.librarything.com. Blackwelder starts the book with Rebecca and Eli meeting, dating and falling in love, in regular traditional fashion. Eli is Jewish and Rebecca is Catholic. Neither is a die-hard practicer in their faith. It's more like their parents are religious and they celebrate the holidays. To start off with their religious difference make little or no difference. But as Blackwelder plays out social and political control of the Nazi party and its growth, it comes to matter more and more.

The beginning starts off in a play-by-play style, making it hard to get into, but then Blackwater starts to hit her stride. She gives reasoning on how and why Nazis and Hitler came to power and how easy it was with a government that is evenly balanced and at a stand still with a weak president. Sound familiar? Once she got going Blackwater became a marvelous writer who hooked the reader. The best part was that it didn't cover the usual Nazi/Jew story and tell of life in the camps. It is about the build up of the power and the attempts to get out of the country. The sensitive will need tissues at the end. Just to warn ya. ( )

This book tells the story of a German woman falling in love with a Jewish man in Germany, just as Hitler was growing in power in the 1930's. The story had potential, but I was disappointed overall, mainly because the writing style seemed quite juvenile to me – almost like a story written by a high school student in English class. The writer often made strange choices of verbs and adjectives that just didn't seem to fit well in their context. I found myself constantly noticing how things were worded and it somewhat distracted me from the story.

I also felt that the author spent too much time describing superficial details about appearances, and not enough time describing the thoughts and feeling of the characters. I really didn't need to know the eye color, hair color/length/texture/style of every single character in the book, along with detailed descriptions of the outfits they wore every single day and the way these outfits were affected by the weather. It just all seemed like useless page filler to me and my eyes started to glaze over after a while. My husband even caught me rolling my eyes once when I read about how Rebecca’s skirt or dress ‘swayed below the knee' – an expression used several times in the book.

Due to the writing style alone, I would not recommend this book and will likely not read another book by this author. ( )