When Forever Ends

The Blood Sisters #3

by Roberta Kagan

In a world filled with danger, heartbreak, and impossible choices, the blood sisters must navigate through the darkness to find love, redemption, and a chance at survival.

Anna has found solace and love in the colorful Romany camp. How long will this last under the watchful eye of a spurned and obsessed Nazi?

In the unrelenting grimness of Ravensbrück, Moriah is caught in the web of Dagna's deadly ambition and schemes. Her chances for survival diminish with every passing moment.

Shunned by society for the telling scar on her face, Elica struggles to live with the consequences of her selfish choices. Will she ever find love, redemption, or her son Theo, again?

In Mussolini's Italy, Mateo and Aria shower young Theo with love and affection. But love is a weakness in the fascist regime.

Genres: Historical Fiction, World War II, Audiobook, Fiction

306 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 7, 2023

About the author

I’m an American writer of Jewish and Romany decent. I write Historical Fiction and Historical Romance, most of which is set during the holocaust. Although I never discount the horrors of the time period, the main focus of my work is on ordinary people who prove to be strong heroic characters in unfathomable circumstances.

Facebook Author page:
http://www.facebook.com/Rkagan4

Facebook Book Club:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/14942...

Instagram:
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Reviews

[Marilyn (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Forever Ends (Blood Sisters, #3) by Roberta Kagan was the third and final book in this compelling trilogy. The story resumed and ultimately revealed the fates of each of the blood sisters, Anna, Bernie, Elica and even Dagna. They all in their own way were made to suffer at the hands of the Nazis as World War II continued to rage and affect their lives. In When Forever Ends, Roberta Kagan, was able to depict some of the atrocities that occurred in both Auschwitz and Ravensbruck. She also captured the essence of Italy under Mussolini’s reign and then after as the Nazis occupied Italy.

When Anna, Bernie, Elica and Dagna were young girls, they made a pact with each other to always remain friends forever. Each girl took an oath by blood to always remain friends. Would a selfish and desperate act of betrayal be enough to sever that promise that was made so very long ago? There were things that were confessed to that could never be undone. With that confession, feelings of guilt and shame lived on relentlessly in the heart of the betrayer. When Forever Ends explored the themes of survival, hope, betrayal, trust, love, friendship, repentance and acceptance. I was sorry for this trilogy to end but I was glad it ended in Israel in the late 1950’s. A good sense of closure was provided. I recommend this trilogy if you enjoy historical fiction novels that take place during World War II and focuses on a friendship that evolved over many years. Publication is set for June 7, 2023.

Thank you to Roberta Kagan Publishing for allowing me to read this ARC of When Forever Ends through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

[Dianne McMahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished the 3rd.novel in this series.
It was outstanding as well,as the other two.
The character of Anna,was especially memorable as she always was an honorable friend,Loyal & true,no matter the hurt & grief she suffered.
This novel truly tied the friendship together & the title "When Forever Ends" couldn't have been more fitting.
I love this author's books,so much as she truly makes this time period come alive.

My father served in the Pacific during this war & I was born as it ended.Dad never met me until I was almost a yr.old.
He was a marine & never would talk about the war.

As long as Roberta,keeps writing,I will always have another favorite book.to read.I will never grow tired of her writing & invite everyone to join me.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance ARC.

[Bevany · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great finale to this wonderfully heartfelt series. The book continues where the last left off with our blood sisters and their struggles to survive. The book continues to after the war ends. It is a story of love, friendship, and forgiveness. I have loved this series, and I highly recommend it to readers of World War 2 historical fiction.

[miranda l camp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d love to say I enjoyed the conclusion to this series. But, I did not. Too many things were wrapped up with quick unbelievable stories. At times it was hard to read. I know that the Holocaust is a very hard thing to hear, read or write about. So here is my warning if you don’t want to hear in depth horrors. I’m actually very glad this is the last book in the series. Not a complete miss just not worth the time & lack consideration put into finishing the story well.

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the last book of the Blood Sisters Trilogy Roberta Karan takes back to the last days of World War II and the period after the war. We follow the lives of the blood sisters and know the fate of them during the war, who died, who survived and how did they survived.
This book is a fitting conclusion to the story of these four young girls who grew up in a very convoluted world and became women during a terrible time in history. When times are hard, it is said, that you know the inner truth of a human being, in this trilogy we really get to see the inner truth of each one of them and how the choices they make in life influenced and impacted the lives of the other ones and the people surrounded them, and most importantly the outcome in life of each one of them.

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the last book of the Blood Sisters Trilogy Roberta Karan takes back to the last days of World War II and the period after the war. We follow the lives of the blood sisters and know the fate of them during the war, who died, who survived and how did they survived.
This book is a fitting conclusion to the story of these four young girls who grew up in a very convoluted world and became women during a terrible time in history. When times are hard, it is said, that you know the inner truth of a human being, in this trilogy we really get to see the inner truth of each one of them and how the choices they make in life influenced and impacted the lives of the other ones and the people surrounded them, and most importantly the outcome in life of each one of them.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never been so happy to finish a book series. In all the books I’ve read about WW2 this has to be the most toxic friendship group I’ve ever read about. Anna and Bernie’s characters were tolerable but just barely the whole “friendship” with the 4 of them was diabolical. Not to mention the other toxic people that were added in throughout the story. This story took jealousy, obsession and backstabbing to a whole different level. Anna’s love life was exhausting, the girl had so many people obsessed with her I rolled my eyes several times. Anyways I don’t doubt this kinda of evil went on back then. There were inconsistencies with the writing as well. I gave it 4 stars because I finished this train wreck. I shall now take a break from WW2 for a bit.

[Christine Cazeneuve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterful

One of the very best series I've ever read. I laughed, I cried, I got angry and I got hopeful. The characters are so real that you will experience every emotion and event with them. The twists and turns never stop and this book (along with the others) will have you finding it hard to put down. Deserves more than five stars!

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read and easy to stay engaged series. I like the writers style and the short chapters. It is hard to read anything about that time period though and it was hard for me to read about so many characters who were and or became so un likable it did bring that out for me though how circumstances such as those in WW11 would change people and bring out the worst in them. It didn’t have a perfectly wrapped ending either but it was more realistic that way.

[Alyson Lucille · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 rounded up. Love Roberta’s unexpected turn of events for all the characters. Another great series. I had goosebumps when the character revealed the reason for the title of this book.

[Firetruckmama · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, for which I thank them.

“When Forever Ends” is the final book in “The Blood Sisters” trilogy by Roberta Kagan. My strong recommendation is to read these books in order. While some information is repeated for readers, especially for this final book one needs the background for the book to make sense. I think this book wrapped up things nicely for the four main characters from the first book. I did have some quibbles about minor details (how much rat poison does it take to kill someone being a huge one) and Anna is, once again, so naive and trusting that I sometimes wonder how even after everything she managed to stay that way. In some cases, this book too neatly wrapped things up, but I understand why the author chose to do so. There’s a bit of oddly repeated information in the book; it’s as if an editor hadn’t quite finished editing the book because something will be mentioned and then repeated two chapters later to remind the reader of some fact. I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first two, but it was a solid read. Overall, a 3.5 star rating, bumped up to 4 stars.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Forever Never Ends by Rober

t Kagan is book three of the blood sisters. I (unfortunately) did not read the first two books, so maybe I was a little lost, but not too much. The author did a good job of giving details. When Forever Ends by Roberta Kagan, continues the story of Anna, from a wealthy Jewish family, Elise, the maid’s daughter, Bernie, the tomboy, and Dagna, the bully. Dagna is at Ravensbruck and is mistreating Jews horribly and loving it. The brutality of the camp shocked me, and I have read a lotof WWII books. She becomes a monster.Mateo and Aria adopt a child that belongs to Erica. However, Kagan does a good job of ending the stories of the blood sisters. I now need to go back and read book one and two.

I would like to thank The Book Whisperer, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this complimentary copy for an honest review. Book three is due our June 7 so be sure to grab it for a satisfying end to the story.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Forever Ends is the final instalment of the Blood Sisters series. It continued the story of Anna, Bernie, Elica, and Dagna as we read their sad story of friendship, love, betrayal and loss.  Sadly, it wasn’t my favourite, I much preferred the first two as I found this to be a bit repetitive. However, it did wrap up the story of the four blood sisters with the perfect ending.

I would like to thank The Book Whisperer, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this complimentary copy for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

[Sue Plant · Rating 5 out of 5]

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this exceptional book

its the last one in the series and boy does it has all the answers and so much more and not wanting to give to much away but this book is a rollercoaster of emotions , the good the bad and the ugly

it answers all the questions about the 4 blood sisters and what happened to them all, its such a powerful storyline

cant wait to see what else this author does...

[Nicola “Shortbookthyme” · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very heartbreaking story full of betrayal.
I’m sorry to say that the story seemed very disjointed to me. The flow seemed choppy and awkward at times.

(Please be aware there is very sensitive topics within this story)

[De Koukleumpjes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Veronique las 'Alles voor mijn zus', het derde en laatste deel in De oorlogszussen-serie, geschreven door Roberta Kagan.

Haar mening lees je hieronder. ⬇️

Anna is opgevangen bij de Roma's en heeft zelfs de liefde gevonden. Echter nazipartijlid Ulf kan Anna niet vergeten en heeft snode plannen met haar en hierdoor is Anna nog steeds niet veilig.

In Ravensbrück wordt het voor Moriah, de beste vriendin van Bernie, steeds moeilijker doordat Dagnar steeds meer van Moriah verlangt.

Elica komt steeds verder buiten de maatschappij te staan door het vreselijke litteken in haar gezicht. Ze wordt als een monster gezien. Daarbij worstelt ze ook nog met de gevolgen van haar keuzes. Zal ze ooit met zichzelf in het reine komen?

Het verhaal begint met een proloog, waarin Ulf alles klaar aan het maken is voor Anna. Het verhaal gaat dus eigenlijk verder waar het tweede deel gestopt is en het is dus wel handig als je de serie op volgorde leest, want ik denk dat als je het boek als losstaand verhaal zou willen lezen je belangrijke achtergrondinformatie mist.

Je leest in dit laatste deel wat er met de vier bloedzussen gebeurd is. Het was weer een meeslepend verhaal die er voor zorgde dat ik steeds verder wilde lezen. Wel had ik enkele kleine details die op mij ongeloofwaardig over kwamen. Zoals de scène met het rattengif. Volgens mij is er toch echt wat meer rattengif nodig om iemand te doden. Daarnaast vond ik Anna op sommige momenten ongelofelijk naïef. Ik kan me niet voorstellen dat ze Ulf nog zou geloven na alle gebeurtenissen, maar ik snap wel waarom Kagan hiervoor gekozen heeft en bij het verhaal was het passend. Hierdoor kon ik me over deze kleine details ook makkelijk heen zetten en beïnvloedde dit niet mijn leesplezier.

Wat ik wel erg prettig vind, is dat ook de slechtere keuzes belicht worden en de gevolgen van die keuzes ook goed uitgediept worden.

Dit is een mooie afsluiter van een geweldige trilogie. Doordat het verhaal ook nog verder gaat na de tweede wereldoorlog weet je ook hoe het de overgebleven personages vergaan is.

Als je van historische romans houdt, die zich in de tweede wereldoorlog afspelen kan ik alleen maar zeggen pak deze serie op. Een echte mustread.

Dit boek ontvingen wij van Boekerij. Dit beïnvloedt onze mening niet.

[Dione Hanke · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Forever Ends is the final book of the Blood Sister Series. I read all 3 and plan to read more books by Roberta Kagan.

When you read historical fiction or nonfiction books about WWII, you do not learn a lot about the bad guys that did the horrible things. They are not the main characters in the story. But in this series you meet all four girls when they are young and I hoped that their character would improve as they grew into women. It was hard when a woman made bad choices that had horrible consequences for one of the other four.

What a horrible time to grow up! The history in this book helped me understand so many things that I struggled with in the past about Hitler and World War II. How and why did good German people develop such a mean streak after Hitler came to power. I had never thought about the fact that Germans could do anything they wanted to Jews with no consequences.

It was hard for me to figure out how this book was going to end. There was no way that the ending could be happy with all that had happened to the four girls/women. The ending was realistic and consistent with the personalities of the girls.

[Marie Z Johansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent Series! Have Kleenex When You Read This Book

I thoroughly enjoyed this 3 book series. This, the third in the set, was a difficult read in some ways because it is, at least in part, about the Holocaust and the hideous torment of the death camps - Ravensbruck in particular. I found it difficult to read about the atrocities in this book and yet I am certain that the reality was even worse. It was another good reminder why we, the world’s citizens, must never let the atrocities be forgotten. Why we must remain vigilant about the world’s leaders.

I am very glad to have happened upon this series. Each book was a pleasure to read. The plots are beautifully crafted and the characters are very engaging. Looking forward to more of Roberta Kagan’s books.

[jeannette Dooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jean38no

I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down. The author sweeps you back to Nazi German. Where you are immediately. Immersed into the travels and travails of Anna . Then Elicia and Bernie. you quickly realize There are three girls that made a blood pact to remain as friends forever. There was one more girl that blackmailed her way into the group because she was obsessed with the most beautiful girl in the group. She had been spying on them. She finally realized her dream to be close to her idol.
Then the Nazis came.
I like how author takes you back to the girls childhood and ties it into the story . So if you haven’t read the first and second book you can read this book as a stand alone book.

[Sandra Sado · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Realistic Ending to a Saga

I have enjoyed this trilogy, set initially before the second WWII, during and after the war. The plots were feasible and interesting. The sadness in the 2nd and last book is tolerable but still gut wrenching. The last book is as Anna says "the end of forever", referring to their Blood Sister's pact which they said and expected would last forever. Both Hitler and the War tests their bond, and in the end the pact does not last, but they each suffer because of their choices in life.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I had rated this book after the first third, it would have had a lower rating. This might have been unfair because I turned the sound down very low because it was set in Ravensbrück and after one rather graphic incident of sadistic torture, I didn't want any more. I would listen for a bit and when I could hear indications that something of that sort was coming, I would turn it way down. After that part was done, the story became more what I expected after the first two book. Some people will think that I'm too squeamish, but I don't care.

[Karen Kepner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Blood Sisters - 3 book series

I love to read Roberta Kagan’s books and this series was no different. Believable, relatable characters, unbelievable but true hateful issues, love and hate, unredeemable characters and those who persevere beyond any reason. The stories follow three girls from early childhood, thru adulthood and later. Thru the beginning of Hitler’s rise to the end, and after. Hard to believe the incidents truly happened.

[Bonnie N. Frunz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings...good read

The series was frustrating to me because the first two just stopped. Kinda like to be continued. Series with novels that can be read individually or in series are more satisfying to me. I finally decided to read the last of the series and it did wrap things up nicely.
I was never fond of Anna. She seemed to be naive but always seemed to escape and come out okay.

[Kathy Hutchinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the best of the Blood sister series. I hated the series came to an end. Even though this book had so much heart ache in it, it was interesting to see how the characters managed to continue with their lives and to fulfill the blood sister pact they made as children. The characters were so well developed in this series from start to finish. It was a very interesting and fast read for all three books.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The character of Anna never seems to catch a break. The author claims she likes to write books of triumph in hard times, but how many times can you kick a character down and expect your reader to believe they will prevail? The whole series is very heavy and does not feel triumphant.

The characters are very deeply created. Their stories are very intertwined. But these three books are not light or particularly hopeful.

[Melissa Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ending to a wonderful series!! ~ ~ This one was a bit darker than the others - - but it really helped me understand why people didn't help many Jews back then. - It really showed how helping even one person would affect those you love so much so that a lot of times it resulted in you or your loved one's being murdered! Hitler and his crew really were evil - - there is a lot of this in this 3rd book of the series as well.

[Nancy Gutreich · Rating 5 out of 5]

When forever ends

Disappointed that Anna forgave Elica. She didn't deserve to be forgiven.She was still a whining, selfish person. I'm also upset that her son found her and that she would benefit from having a family since she destroyed everyone elses. However,I'm glad that Anna found happiness and peace.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author concludes the story of the blood sisters with this book. This one takes the reader past the end of WWII. The author keeps you turning pages as she draws you into the story. You will experience a range of emotions. Someone does get a happy ending, but you need to read the books to find out. I read an electronic copy courtesy of Net Galley.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roberta Kagan never misses! Powerful historical novel series about friendship, love, and betrayal. From their childhood in Vienna through the horrors of WWII, we follow four girls who could not be any different from one another: Else - the pretty one; Bernie - the lesbian; Anna - the Jew; and Dagna - the plain one. Who will betray whom? Who will shelter whom? And at what cost?

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad

The end of The Blood Sisters saga. Forgiveness is something Elicia wants and needs but can Anna forgive Elicia her part in the deaths of all those she loved and lost? Frankly, Ms. Kagan did a good job painting her characters. One of the most real stories of surviving the years of Nazis and the Third Reich.