Picked this up as part of a reading contest!

From Amazon:
Emma had lived in the closed orthodox Jewish community of Krakow, Poland, until she began working at the university library and met Jacob. He sweeps her off her feet, and they marry on the eve of the Nazi invasion. Jacob immediately leaves to join the Jewish underground, and Emma returns to her family, now locked in the Jewish ghetto. Jacob provides false papers, enabling Emma to become Anna Lipowski and move in with his Catholic aunt Krysia, posing as her niece. Krysia works for the underground while maintaining her status as a leader in the arts community. During a dinner party, Emma/Anna is introduced to Nazi Kommadant Richwalder. Smitten, he asks her to come work for him. She agrees, knowing such access will aid the underground, and even becomes intimate with the enemy to gather information. In her moving first novel, Jenoff offers an insightful portrait of people forced into an untenable situation and succeeds in humanizing the unfathomable as well as the heroic.

Emma is a Jewish Pole who finds love at a very young age. She marries Jacob and just as she is starting to settle her life as a librarian and wife, World War Two begins and everything she knows suddenly changes. Jacob is a key member of the resistance to the war and leaves Emma to go underground because life is too dangerous for him. He makes Emma promise to destroy her wedding rings and marriage certificate, but she just cannot bring herself to get rid of the only thing that now connects her to her husband. After Jacob has left, Emma and her parents are moved to the Ghetto. But when Emma meets Marta, she realizes that she has befriended a member of the resistance who can bring her news of Jacob, and perhaps even safety from the Ghetto. Emma is placed with Jacob's aunt under the assumed identity of Anna, a Pole from the coast. Soon Anna finds herself working for Nazi Kommandant Richwalder. She tries to tell herself she is only working there to get information for the resistance, but realizes soon that she might also have feelings for the Kommandant. While struggling to keep her marriage vows, Emma must keep her identity a secret, which proves not so easy in a Nazi-ruled city.
The characters in this novel are incredibly real. Your heart immediately goes out to Emma and the heartache she has from not being able to see her new husband. Even the Kammandant Richwalder is sympathetic, though I found myself a little upset that I was feeling anything but disgust for him as a Nazi commander.
The story flowed well and was a quick read. Even though I would classify this book as a fiction/literature, it was quite the page turner. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Emma and if anyone was going to find out her secret.
The ending leaves the possibility of a sequel to the book. If Jenoff does put out another book following Emma or another of the other characters in this novel, I would pick it up in a heartbeat. This novel takes you through every possible emotion and leaves you wanting more.

Emma, a Jewess, marries Jacob on the brink of Germany's invasion into Poland. Jacob goes immediately to join the Resistance leaving Emma to re-join her parents in the ghetto. Emma is gotten out of the ghetto by the Resistance and sent to live with Jacob's Catholic aunt She then has the chance of working for the Kommandant of Krakow. Jenoff describes the nervousness of spying and the conflicts of Emma's leading a double life very well. Emma soon finds herself the Kommandant's mistress. Will she be caught? Is she falling in love with the Nazi?

Emma is depicted as such a frail and fragile woman. In order to do what she has to do she must be a very strong woman. I found the story with regards to Jacob a bit unbelieveable. Why wouldn't he have taken Emma with him? Especially if he loves her so. Or was this what he had planned for her. The Kommandant is a flawed weak man. One wants to pity him but that is hard to do when he is a committed Nazi. Jenoff has written a story that you get caught up in very quickly. It is an easy read but definitely not a simple read

Sent today to WestofMars as part of a trade.

I'm a heel. This actually arrived last week but has been sitting here, smiling at me and waiting for me to journal it ever since.

But I've been thinking about you guys a lot, since I knew it was from some of my favorite Hosers.

Wow. To say I loved this moving, captivating, thought-provoking book wouldn't do justice to how absorbed I became in it. I simply adored it.

I'm passing it off to my vet tech soon. What she does with it beyond that is up to her, but you can be sure that this is one book I'll pick up whenever I see a cheap, used copy -- just so I can pass it along to others.

You guys so rock for sharing this with me. Thanks.