Review from Mirrani

from Mirrani @ Goodreads

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.

Review from Mckayla

from Mckayla @ Goodreads

"The best love story ever."

Review from Valerie

from Valerie @ goodreads

It was a wonderful read! Probably wouldn't be considered a well written novel to most critics but it was a perfect love story for me, easy to read, couldn't put it down!

Review from We Fancy Books

from Era at We Fancy Books. bloodspot.com

It’s not all the time that a certain book can bring me to tears. Trust me; I’m somewhat a tough lady, according to myself that is. But this book made me cry for a few minutes. My eyes couldn’t hold my tears as they came flooding down my cheeks. Not that I should stop myself or anything because that would be hard.

Ami Blackwelder wrote a beautiful historical romance novel in the face of The Day the Flowers Died. It was set during the time in which Hitler, the German dictator, had risen to power. I have watched movies and read articles about the inhumane treatment of the Nazis to the Jews. And every time, every time that I see or read it, it’s like it stabs me in the heart. It still pains me that such thing happened in the history of humanity.

And then here comes this book. I felt like while reading this, I was in the 30’s at a German city called Munich. This book provided me a glimpse to this city that had drastically changed in such a short period of time. Eli, the protagonist of the story, is a Jew who was born in Germany. The way he felt about his country when Hitler had started Nazi blows, it really makes me so sad. The way this book was written was tender and slowly and heartfelt. I felt compassion and sympathy to every Jew from that time. They seemed like the unluckiest Jews ever, which is very saddening.

But who wouldn’t really be touched by this love story. I mean I couldn’t go on without spoiling but really it is touching. The last part made me feel like I was in a rollercoaster which is about to go down from the peak. I was anticipating something to happen and well something did happen and it was just really probably icing on the cake.

I think it’s really beautiful and heart touching. I’d want people to read this too.

Review from Michelle @ Goodreads

"I find myself, a month later, still thinking about the story, about the characters, as if they were people who truly lived - perhaps in my family, or a friend's family. 

I studied Political Geography and German, and my husband's emphasis for his History degree was WWII. Between the books from his senior level classes and my German-Jewish writers class, I felt that I had a pretty decent handle on the events leading up to the Holocaust. I've been to numerous museums, both in the US and Germany, read memoirs and spoken to Holocaust survivors, so I thought that I had an (albeit sheltered and incomplete) empathy if not understanding of some of the emotional aspects of living in Germany during those years. But nothing has ever quite impacted me on an emotional level in the same way as Eli and Rebecca's story. 

Throughout my reading I found myself stopping and looking things up in books such asHitler's Thirty Days to Power: January 1933 or The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, only to find that Blackwelder's history was achingly accurate. Things that I had intellectually understood now resonated on an emotional level. I had seen and understood the horror of the ghettos, but not the suffocating fear and uncertainty of the middle class street suddenly devoid of children, the park without strollers. I think it is easier to separate ourselves from things that are extremely horrible, absolutely outside the bounds of our experience. However, we have all felt the odd chill of an unusually quiet street, a silent park, an empty building. To imagine the streets of Munich thus, and to see it so through Eli and Rebecca's experience - the added fear, shame, confusion - left me deeply unsettled. They became real to me, and, despite knowing the few possible outcomes for them, I couldn't help but wish that I could unknown history for a little while. Or that Blackwelder might fudge the historical accuracy, but she does not, nor should she.

I don't think this book will be for everyone, nor do I think it is perfectly constructed. However, I think that Ami Blackwelder brought history to life for me in a way that, though I may not have liked, I certainly needed. I feel privileged to have know Eli and Rebecca, and find that, though they were fictional, they were also real." -Michelle @ Goodreads



THANK YOU for your review Michelle! I wrote the story so that people would be emotionally impacted on facts we get in school.  Your review is the reason I wrote this. I'm so glad this impacted you in an emotional way that made you connect to information  you'll always remember.

Educating through emotions:)

-Ami Blackwelder

Review from Angie @ Goodreads

"I held my breath the entire time I was reading The Day The Flowers Died . Now finished , it has left me breathless ! It is total perfection . 

What started as an innocent relationship between Eli , a Jewish lawyer and Rebecca , a Catholic gal at the on-set of Hitler's terror in Nazi Germany becomes an amazing love story . Probably the best and most amazing love story I have ever read." -Angie @ Goodreads

Review from Maria @ Goodreads

"It is one of the best, if not THE best love story I've ever read. The way the writer describes the couple's feelings; the way they interact; it's all so beautiful. The writer uses colour throughout the novel to describe scenes. She describes everything from the clothes the characters are wearing to the colour of the sky, to the flowers that Rebecca (one of the two main characters) loves so much. In some books I have read, it can become tiresome when an author describes everything -- but not in this book. The writing is so expertly and seemingly effortlessly scripted so that the reader can 'see' what is being described. An amazing talent.

The Day The Flowers Died' is so much more than just a love story. It is a tale very relevant to the world we live in today, showing the destructive effects of prejudice and hatred on innocent people.
This book made me cry at the end.
A must read, for everyone."

-Maria @ Goodreads

FAN MAIL from Mark

FAN MAIL

I have just finished “The Day The Flowers Died”.  That was one of the hardest to read books I have ever started, not because of your writing, but because of the subject.  At the end I was in tears.  Was this book historically correct, did Hitler actually rise to power through Democracy?  I just never thought of it that way.  Thanks for the books and I will leave a review.

-Mark

Yes, Mark,

Hitler rose to power through Democracy. Yes, votes matter:) The country had been under a lot of stress after War World I and between hunger, poverty, unemployment and a need for new leadership Hitler came to power. However, note that his Nazi party had been influencing the country far before he had taken power. In the 20's the Nazi power was cruel to various cities, destroying the science center on sexual inquiries in Berlin as well beating on gay people. 

Thank you so much for your letter. I wrote the book for two reasons. One, the characters came to me in a dream and refused to leave my head till I wrote the story. Two, because I wanted to deliberately educate while entertaining people on the historical facts of War World II and the Nazi party under Hitler. 

Fan Mail from John McLaughlin

FAN MAIL

I'm extremely impressed with the quality of your writing and the range of your storytelling. I wish you all the luck in the world, and I'm confident that your dedication and talent will help you make it big!  Best, 

-John McLaughlin (screen writer for Black Swan)

Fan Mail from Lora

FAN  MAIL

Yes I am dying to know if he went looking for her?

Thank you so much for sending the books for the school. It will be super cool to have your own little section where the students can read your work for years to come

Thanks so much Ami!

-Lora