A review by anneinaz
The Last Lullaby by Roberta Kagan

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The Last Lullaby by Roberta Kagan is different than the other books by her that I have read. It took the entire book to tell the backstory for the Holocaust story I am sure is coming. Lily lives in France with her widowed mother. They are struggling but life is not over for either of them. Lily meets a man when she is out looking for employment. His name is Joe and he is an American soldier. He helps her find a job, as it turns out, he was paying her salary. The expected happens and she falls pregnant and Joe leaves, promising to return. She writes to him often, never hearing from him in response. One day she opens the door and here he is. They marry and after the baby, a girl they name Mimi, arrives, they leave for America. Then the cracks start to show. They travel steerage. They arrive at a tenement apartment they are to share with his mother. More cracks. Eventually Joe gets a job and things get better. His mother dies. His job pays even more. After several moves they are able to buy a house. Lily falls pregnant again and is a little overwhelmed. Joe allows her to hire a nanny and she hires her friend, Gloria, who she met in the park, along with her little boy who has become fast friends with Mimi. It’s not too long before Joe is sniffing around Gloria. 

Fast forward. Jo and Lily are killed and Gloria attempts to take Mimi to France to her grandmother. On the boat she meets a man who is too good to be true and he makes her life considerably easier. This man is returning home to Germany to meet a man he admires: Adolph Hitler. No one knows at this point what the future will bring. Lily is a naive, simple young woman who believed Joe even when good sense said she shouldn’t. Joe is a driver for a mobster whom he thinks can be outsmarted, by him. He is wrong. Gloria is a simple young woman who got pregnant and was disowned by her family. The women are sympathetic characters. Joe is a jerk. Time will tell where this goes, although based on what Kagan writes, the handwriting is on the wall. Good characters, as always, and an unexpected plot. Kagan writes a compelling, mostly third person, novel with a twist on her usual topic. 

I was invited to read The Last Lullaby by Storm Publishing. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #StormPublishing #RobertaKagan #TheLast Lullaby