Celticlady's Reading Room

Paradox Forged in Blood takes place in two different times in a woman's life. Present at her 80th birthday and in the past when she was growing up and a nanny in a well to do household in Cleveland, Ohio in the late 30's.

Ellen Grace O'Malley was born in 1916, the oldest of a family of eight children. Patrick Michael O'Malley was just 18 months old when he was taken from his crib. Ellen was only six at the time but she had woken up and observed someone , she thought it was her father, standing over Patrick's crib. She realized her mistake when in the morning Patrick's disappearance was discovered. She realized her mistake in not telling her parents. In her defence, she had been told to not disturb her parents if the door was locked. Because of what she witnessed, the abductor could have been apprehended earlier or could he? She eventually told her parents what she had witnessed but Patrick was never found.

Ellen is offered a job as a nanny to the Sheridan family after Mrs.Sheridan observes how well Ellen controls her unruly siblings. She enjoys her job as a nanny and is happy to be contributing to the household's income as it is during a time when the Nazi party in Germany has just taken hold and has now crossed into America with it's nasty tentacles. The Sheridan's go out to an event one evening and come back to find a burglar robbing the place. Louis Sheridan is killed and his wife knocked unconscious. A description of the assailant is kind of vague but Ellen describes what she can. After this incident, Ellen observes a man watching her and he mimes that he knows where she lives. Scared to say anything to the police she keeps quiet.

The story also takes us into the lives of many other characters that all intertwine, including twins Gertl and Sadie, who's parents were killed in a motor vehicle accident. They end up being separate and spend most of their lives not knowing where the other is. They are Jewish and during this time it is not safe to be a Jew at all. We go through WWII and the atrocities that came out of it to arrive at the climax of the story on Ellen's 80th birthday.

This story is character driven with many people's lives intercept and weaves together to tell an interesting tale, during a time of fear, upheaval, and war the reader learns how each character impacts the lives of others. I enjoyed the story, the only thing I did not like was how it was formatted, I am sure this is because it is an ebook and not all books are not formatted correctly. I switched over to my iPad and it was easier to read.