Coming Back To Home

by Elaine Stock

Is it ever too late to find the one place meant to call home?

After a shocking betrayal by her mother, Liselotte, on the verge of adulthood, leaves her family behind. Homeless and navigating dangers on Berlin’s streets during WWII, she is alone—until she meets Klaus.

Klaus, a dedicated Nazi Party member, offers Liselotte protection from harm if she becomes his assistant in Poland. The job initially seems harmless until she uncovers the brutal truth of Germanizing kidnapped children and placing them with families in Germany. Her escape from Klaus begins a journey of resilience through difficult choices, leading her to Audrey, a Red Cross tracking specialist and supporter of Liselotte’s wish to reunite with her family. Liselotte’s happier days turn unsettling when she sees Klaus watching her from afar, becoming her ultimate test of what matters most and what she is willing to sacrifice.

Set during WWII and the early Cold War years, Coming Back to Home, the concluding book of the When Hope Calls Series, will appeal to fans of Kristin Harmel and Ellen Marie Wiseman.

Genres: Historical Fiction

298 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2026

About the author

Elaine Stock writes historical fiction and domestic suspense novels. While her novels continue to appear on several Amazon Bestseller Lists, what pleases her the most is hearing from readers around the world who say these stories inspire them to face their own tomorrows. Elaine and her husband are owned by two cats, who sometimes allow them to go on long walks down country roads and explore New England towns.

Visit with Elaine at: https://www.elainestockbooks.com
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Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/1JYAwNy

Reviews

[liliana i gwinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book, a tale of two young women , one trying to survive and find her family during WWII , and the other, going against her family’s wishes for her safety, enrolling in the Red Cross to help with the war efforts

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an emotional and well researched story about World War II and the years after the war. It is about the lives of two women who meet during the war and even though they are very different from each other with totally different backgrounds, they are both looking for the same thing in their lives – home and family.

Liselotte leaves her mother and her twin daughters behind to search for the man she loves. When she finds his body, she realizes that she has to find a way back to her family but there are so many roadblocks due to the war. She meets Klaus in a bomb shelter and he promises to protect her always and takes her to his family home. The more she finds out about him, the less she wants to be with him. Not only is he a Nazi but he is high ranking and reports directly to Himmler. When she realizes that he wants her to work with him in Poland to ‘Germanize’ Aryan looking Polish children to be adopted by German families, she knows that she has to escape. Her journey through war torn Germany is fraught with danger and the truth that if Klaus catches her, she’ll be killed.

Audrey is a young woman in Minnesota when the United States enters the war. She wants to do something to help her country and much to her parent’s displeasure, she joins the Red Cross and travels to Europe to do what she can. Her parents refuse to answer her letters or phone calls so she is truly on her own. After several jobs at different locations in Europe, she ends up in Germany trying to help survivors find their families and eventually meets Liselotte and works to find her mother and twin daughters.

I’m not going to tell you any more about the plot except to say that both women face unbelievable hardships by trying to help other people. It gets to the place that one of the most important parts of their lives is their friendship with each other. I thought that both of the main characters – Liselotte and Audrey were well written and their journeys were very believable. I cheered at their victories and wept at their pasts. Even though the subject matter in the book is very depressing at times, the end reminds us that there is always happiness to be found in life even when you quit looking for it.

[Jann Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1940s Berlin, Liselotte’s youthful choices will haunt her after she abandons her twins and mother, only to face a controlling Nazi officer. She’s forced into hideous labor in German-occupied Poland, expected to ‘Germanize’ Polish children for adoption by good Germans, to augment their Aryan bloodlines. But if she’s able to escape, she’ll lose any chance of finding her twin daughters. Liselotte’s dangerous journey leads her to Audrey, a high-minded Wisconsin girl who joined the Red Cross against her father’s wishes, assigned to work in Germany. As Audrey works to reunite families torn apart by war, she’d love nothing more than to help Liselotte, and find romance for herself. But their paths to finding family and love take unexpected, even threatening, and redemptive turns, before hope is on the horizon and they can both come back to home, in Elaine Stock’s emotional and page-turning historical novel.

[Barb Deane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a lot of WW2 fiction and non-fiction and didn't think there were too many topics left to explore, but Coming Back to Home by Elaine Stock revealed new territory for me. This is an emotional read with sympathetic and heroic German and American heroines fighting for those in need, including children and injured servicemembers. The struggle to find missing civilians after WW2 became very personal for Audrey as she searched for missing family members and for Liselotte as she searched for her mother and twin daughters. Each woman's journey was filled with shadows, terrors, and, ultimately, helpers, leading them to find each other. These women were well-written and believable characters on a road to growth and redemption in this well-researched and fascinating story. I thoroughly recommend it!

[Stef O'connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, this book absolutely tore at my heart in places. It took me on such an emotional journey - I felt everything.

I also learned so much history that I didn’t really know much about before. The Germanisation of Polish children was shocking and truly abhorrent. The way those children were treated and disciplined during that process just broke my heart.

And yet, despite all of that heaviness, the ending lifted my spirits. It delivered a true sense of “coming home” that felt earned, meaningful, and deeply moving.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coming Back to Home is the addicting and emotional story of two young women who made choices that estranged them from their families during WWll. Liselotte has left her twins and mother to follow her lover. Audrey has left her midwestern town to serve in the Red Cross in Europe causing her family to disown her for disobeying them. We follow them through the war where Audrey’s work reuniting families brings them together. So many twists and turns (and some tears) Now to read again and catch what I missed!