The Point of Light (Historical Fiction #1) by John Ellsworth

The Point of Light (Historical Fiction #1) Reviews

• 
  Christine

  Disappointing and plagarized from war crimes testimony, word-for-word
  
  I am very disappointed in this book. I have read Mr. Ellsworth's other books and enjoyed them, so I had high expectations. I was very disappointed.
  I read a lot of historical fiction and I am especially interested in World War II. This book falls far short. One of the problems is the change in Point-of-view. Sometimes the action was described in 1st person while other times the text recounted events in a sort of documentary style. There was one sentence that stated that Claire was in the dorm for what we would call "sex workers" for 9 months. One sentence for that?!? There are other authors who could write a whole book about everything contained in that one sentence.
  
  Another thing that I found very disturbing was his virtually uncredited use of the experiences of Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier. He mentions her (almost in passing) in a post-script at the end of the book. So I looked up her Nuerenberg testimony and I was shocked. He lifted her testimony almost word-for-word in his descriptions of Claire's time in Auschwitz. Word-for-word. This is disgusting in a fiction work. He did not create a fictional world as is required by an author of historical fiction. Instead, he merely stated facts in an odd style and when authentic details were required, he merely lifted the words he needed from testimony at the war crimes trials.
  
  I will never again read a book by this author.
• 
  Skye

  Nothing in this book was cohesive or linear. It felt like the Author could not finish one thought before jumping to another. Do I even need to mention how it felt like non of this book was realistic in the least bit?!? This was a waste of my time and as an avid historical fiction reader I strongly suggest others do not waste their time either. I don’t know how this book has so many good reviews!
• 
  Lindsey

  Am interesting story based on true events but the writing fell short for me.
• 
  Cindy Woods

  Redundant
  
  I cannot, for the life of me, understand the high reader reviews for this book. I read, mostly, historical fiction.......this one I would emphasize as being the ultimate fiction. It is almost insulting.
  
  Having read dozens of fiction and non-fiction books about WWII, this book makes a mockery of what the French resistance was.
  
  The dialogue is juvenile. Claire so casually asking her husband if he was okay with her sleeping with the enemy to gain information and his acquiescence is bunk. And Claire's ridiculous attempts at seduction and questioning of the SS officer she's having a liaison with. None of it felt real.
  
  Then we have Esmee receiving special treatment by the SS second-in-command commandant Schlosser who sends her on a vacation......what??!!! She meets a man in a restaurant who strikes up a conversation and he tells her he is a jew straight out and tells her don't tell anyone. I cannot even imagine such a thing happening given the dangerous political atmosphere of the era. It's beyond stupid!
  
  The arrest by Gestapo of Claire when she doesn't know how she's supposed to answer because her resistance training never covered that......what? !! The French Resistance would never have not covered such an important aspect in training. This story, as written, glosses over and undermines the rigid training of its members. I'm insulted by the childish antics here as portrayed of a truly brave underground army. Their missions were secret and rigid training and protocol was enforced. This is a travesty and injustice to make light of these heroic individuals.
  
  I am beyond angry having personally known a woman resistance member from Holland who related some of her experiences as a teenager during WWII. She and her brother had been arrested by the Gestapo, questioned and tortured for their resistance activities. These young people put their lives on the line. This book, on no way, reflects the true seriousness and dedication of these individuals. It is shameful and I am thoroughly disgusted having read this blather. It was a waste of my reading time.
  
  No recommendation. I wouldn't insult another reader's intelligence on this subject matter.
• 
  P.R. Oliver

  I have been a fan of Ellsworth's attorney novels for some time but i was turned off early in the novel by the number of historical mistakes, primarily events that could not have taken place at the time he depicts them. Historical fiction should be realistic. The characters must fit into the era of the story and the story about the characters should be realistic for that time and place. What theses characters did was not believable, it could not have happened.
• 
  Jonna

  Honestly, if I could give it a MINUS star, I would. This is a self-published book, and clearly the author never proofread his work. In the first part of the book, a main character has dark curly hair, at the end, it's stated he is blond, blue-eyed. Good grief! And the typos and poor grammar are staggering. I am absolutely amazed that this was published. Now I know to look up the description on Amazon and if it says it's distributed by Amazon Digital Services, I know it's most likely not been subjected to a good edit and I pass it by. Buyer beware. This book sucked. If I were the author, I'd be ashamed.
• 
  Rachel N

  Sadly, this story fell far short of its potential. The characters were not believable. The story line was disjointed and confusing. The historical aspects of the narrative did not align with the many many other biographies and historical fiction stories I have read from this time period. Perhaps with additional research and an experienced editor, The Point of Light could have been a moving story.
  Disappointing.
• 
  Sherrie

  In the past few years, historical fiction involving the Holocaust has become en vogue. Many of these books are excellent, well written, and deserving of being read. This book is not among that group.
  
  It’s difficult to know where to begin, so I’ll start with the writing. It’s terrible. If a story is the equivalent of 6 feet deep, this one never went below 2 inches. Events happening to the main characters—and events that belong in any novel of this type—are dispensed with in a single sentence, never to be heard from again. Errors—both of syntax and history—abound. The characters had the depth of the rainwater sitting on my sidewalk. (Spoiler—not deep enough to be shallow). The book is (very loosely) based on a real person, who testifies at Nuremberg. The testimony the fictional character gives is so very, very different from the style of writing in the rest of the book that I strongly suspect actual (uncredited) testimony was used.
  
  I am beyond stunned at the ratings this book received. I frankly consider those ratings an insult to the memory of the millions of Holocaust victims and members of the Resistance. Please, read something legitimate and educate yourselves. This book receives 2 stars only because of my personal policy to reserve 1 star ratings for books I abandon. And I deeply regret not abandoning this one.
  
  1.5 stars.
• 
  Beverly

  Some typos distract
  
  There were more typos in the beginning than toward the end. The story is the one you know, but which can never be told often enough. However, this authors story telling, fell short on effectual description and character insight. I sometimes felt like he wasnt telling the whole story for some unknown reason.
• 
  Elizabeth

  I'm not an expert on WWII, the Resistance, or the Holocaust but I have read many books on the subject, and this book is simply poorly written and large parts of it make no sense and aren't historically correct. Read The Just-About-Cocky Ms M's review, it says it better than I could. A disappointing book.
• 
  Judy

  I generally like historical fiction set during WWII, difficult as the subject can be to read about, but this is not a great example of it. I found the characters unbelievable with weird conflicting motives. I'm sure the real woman on whom the main character was based had an amazing story, but this version did her a disservice. Perhaps the author being male and writing from a female point of view was part of the problem, although I know other men have managed it. This is the author's first historical fiction, although he has written a lot of legal thrillers which seem to be better.
• 
  Abigail Perman

  There is literally nothing anyone could say to convince me this book wasn’t written as a bad joke.
• 
  Amber

  I'm usually a big fan of historical fiction, but this one just really disappointed me. Though some chapters had me interested, others would completely lose me. If this wasn't a bookclub pick, I'm not sure I would have finished.
• 
  Nicole LaCroix

  I keep going back and forth between 2.5 and 3 stars, so I rounded up for my rating. This was a good read, that kept me interested, just not blown away.
• 
  Carlton Phelps

  Well written historical fiction
  
  Or is it? Thanks you Mr Ellsworth for making this book available on Goodreads.
  The setting for the story is in France during WWII. It follows a family as they each find ways to fight back against the Nazis. The main character is a renowned photographer who uses her talent fighting with the French resistance. Her photos made it impossible for the US to ignore what was going on in Europe.
  She is captured while waiting to take photographs of the house where a Nazi officer lived to explode.
  She is sent to concentration and she does what she can to stay alive.
  Plenty of action and some romance.
  Least we forget what went on under the thumb of a madman.
• 
  Allison Keith

  The premise of this story intrigued me, and the real historical figure, Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, who was the inspiration for the main character has a biography that is riveting. But The Point of Light did not do Marie-Claude justice. There is intrigue and romance, courage and human resilience, unspeakable atrocities and tenacious hope in this tale, but the execution missed the mark. Numerous errors, inaccuracies, and a lack of continuity outweighed the powerful story this could have been.
• 
  Sharon

  This book was simply horrible. The writing was childish, story was chopped up. Mr Ellsworth need to stick to his Michael Gresham and Thaddeus Murfee books. Historical fiction is not his forte!! Sorry Mr Ellsworth.
• 
  Peg Schneider

  I really enjoy WWII historical fiction and the storyline of this book was interesting, however the writing was awful. The characters were flat and the dialogue was forced and difficult to read. And, so many holes in the plot. It was painful to read and I'm not really sure why I finished it.
• 
  Marina Kantorova

  Very well written story. Look forward to read the 2nd and 3rd books in the series. Favorite quote: “the survivor craves justice, yes, but even more they crave the quieting of memories”.
• 
  Amber

  3.5
• 
  Vickie Sarmina

  This genre is not usually one that I read. I was a little hesitant at first, but as usual, John Ellsworth has done it again. This book is the story of a courageous female photojournalist, Claire Vallant. She was not afraid to share with the world the atrocities that the Jewish people endured when Germany overtook Paris. Claire was only in her early twenties, when she was called by one of her longest and dearest friends, Remy Schildmann, to rescue a small child from being sent to the labor camp, Auschwitz. Remy’s father, had sent him to become part of the Germany army, even though Remy was a Parisian. Remy didn’t like the fact that he had to send his own people to Auschwitz. He knew that the majority of them would never survive the camp. They would die either by the atrocious living conditions, or they would be sent to the gas showers. Claire began her career as a photojournalist for the Jacques Marseilles, the managing editor of the Paris Soir. Claire would take pictures of the Jewish families, as they were being herded onto the trains that were headed to Auschwitz. Her pictures captured heart wrenching moments of husband and wives being separated from each other, as well as mothers being separated from their children. The culprit of all of the monstrosities was a man by the name of Sigmond Skorzeny, Waffen - SS. He was the head of the concentration camp. Skorzeny was a heartless monster, and Claire was determined to let the world know what he was. What could she possibly do, when she found her sister was in the Auschwitz camp? Will Claire be able to get her sister out of the camp? She waited for the moment when these monsters would be held accountable for their war crimes. Will Claire succeed in finding this criminal? Will she be able to fulfill her mission to see these men stand trial for all of their vile acts against humanity? I thoroughly enjoyed the historical background that was set for this book. The characters had you either cheering for them or wishing that you could wreak vengeance on them yourself. The amount of research that must have gone into this book had to have been tremendous, and it certainly was captured in the plot of this book. I became completely immersed in the book within the first few pages, and had a difficult time putting the book down. This book really did open my eyes up to the types of horrendous acts that were done to the Jewish people, all in the name of Hilter. No human being should have ever gone through what the Jewish people endured during this time. I won’t spoil the rest of the book, but I do believe you will like to read this book.
  
• 
  Kelly Veatch

  I really liked the writing style of this author. I love that the main character was inspired by a real person. What brave men and women there were during WWII! I really love the cover of this book as well. Good book. I recommend it to all those who love historical fiction.
• 
  Pam

  The Point of Light was written by John Ellsworth. The story is loosely based on the life of French photojournalist and Auschwitz survivor Marie-Claude Valliant Couturie. She was a member of the Resistance and was sent to Auschwitz and Ravensbruck. However, Claire, in the book, has gone beyond Marie-Claude in this book.
  Claire Vallant wanted to be a photojournalist for as long as she could remember. She loved taking phtos and was very good at it. Her Father ran the Vallant dealership in Paris and her Mother was a surgeon. She had a younger sister and two younger brothers. Claire was considered the “good” one while Esmee was always getting into trouble. They were raised to do good for others and to be themselves and do what they wanted to do. When the Nazis were threatening Paris, Claire decided she wanted to do something. She ended up joining a resistance group. One member of this group was Remy Schildmann, the son of a German General. She had known Remy since they were in elementary school. She considered him her best friend while he was in love with her. They became reacquainted in the resistance and fell in love. Then, Remy was sent to Germany, by his Father, to join the SS and become the SS officer he was destined to be. He decided to go along with them and work against the Nazis from the inside. However, it did mean he would have to be actively involved in the deportation of Jews. He was leading a raid on the Naussenbaum family. They arrested Mr. and Mrs. Naussenbaum; but Remy hid their sleeping daughter in her amoire. He then called Claire to tell her where Lima was. Claire went to get her and then kept Lima as her own since they didn’t know where any relatives were. In order to keep her safe, Claire and Remy married and adopted Lima. Then Remy’s unit was sent to the front. Claire was left to bring up Lima and to do what she could to stop the Nazi momentum.
  The story continues through collaboration, resistance, arrest, torture, and being sent to Auschwitz and later Ravensbruck. How will Claire and Remy survive the War? Will they stay together afterwards? Will Lima’s parents come back?
  The book is very interesting and keeps your attention through the entire book. You are kept on the edge of your chair not knowing how Claire will get out of tough places and if she and the others will survive. The really weak spot is when Remy begins working to document for war crimes. His sudden dropping from Claire’s life just isn’t realistic.