Rachelle's Hidden Star

One Secret, Two Wars: A simple DNA test unearths a grandmother's hidden Jewish past in WWII Poland, only to ignite a modern-day race against time when a newly discovered relative is taken hostage in Gaza.

A shocking DNA match. A grandmother's eighty-year silence. The search for a stolen heritage.

Eva Novak knows her grandmother Ella as a formidable Polish Catholic who survived the darkest days of World War II as an orphan. But when a casual genealogy test reveals a hidden Ashkenazi Jewish bloodline, the foundation of their entire family shatters. Ella aggressively shuts down every question, determined to take her harrowing past to the grave.

Driven by her journalist instincts, Eva refuses to let the truth stay buried. Her investigation plunges her into a labyrinth of dark family secrets, missing parish records, and a mysterious message from a stranger in Israel searching for a girl who vanished in 1942. As Eva peels back the layers of her grandmother's hidden identity, she uncovers an emotional tale of sacrifice and survival. But exposing these long forgotten lies might destroy the very people she is trying to understand.

For fans of Kristin Hannah and We Were the Lucky Ones.