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Joanne Kormylo

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10 min read

Our age bandAdult
Reader rating
4.5 · 3,631 Amazon ratings
reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
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The Resistance Daughter: An utterly sweeping and unputdownable WW2 historical fiction debut novel, based on a true story by Joanne Kormylo front cover

Our review

The Resistance Daughter

The Resistance Daughter by Joanne Kormylo Review: A Research-Driven WWII Debut

by Joanne Kormylo

Joanne Kormylo's debut for Hodder & Stoughton is a WWII historical novel set in Poland in 1942, inspired by true stories and built on her own father's Wartime Log, veteran interviews, and museum work. Its deep personal research is its clearest strength.

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Our age band: Adultwartime violence and Nazi captivity · prisoner-of-war suffering and deprivation

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Readers of commercial WWII fiction in the Anna Stuart / Soraya M. Lane vein who want a fast, emotionally heavy resistance-and-captivity story whose wartime detail rests on genuinely documented family research rather than set dressing.

Worth it if

Worth it if you value knowing a WWII novel's captivity and resistance detail grew out of a daughter's real inheritance — her father's Wartime Log, veteran interviews, and museum work — and you're in the mood for a momentum-first, emotionally heavy page-turner.

Skip if

Skip it if you want a quieter, more interior wartime novel, formally unconventional storytelling, or strict nonfiction — the "based on a true story" packaging describes an inspired-by novel, not memoir or narrative history, and its record so far is endorsements and reader sentiment rather than established press criticism.

The one independent review retrieved, from the Historical Novel Society, credits Kormylo's meticulous research while cautioning that the action is "frenetic throughout" and the plot leans on unlikely coincidences, suiting "lovers of high-octane adventure." Beyond that, praise circulates as genre-author endorsements quoted on retailer pages — McNally Robinson carries Robert Dugoni's "a stunning debut" and Kathleen McGurl's "action packed and full of drama," while Barnes & Noble quotes Leigh Russell on its "authentic insight" into POW life.

Sources: Historical Novel Society, McNally Robinson, Barnes & Noble
4.5from 3,631 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

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Joanne Kormylo's debut for Hodder & Stoughton is a WWII historical novel set in Poland in 1942, built on unusually personal research — her late father's Wartime Log, veteran interviews, and museum service. LuvemBooks' verdict: its deep, concrete research foundation is the clear strength, giving the "inspired by true stories" tagline real substance, and it suits fans of Anna Stuart and Soraya M. Lane who want momentum-first, emotionally heavy wartime fiction. The key caveat: The Resistance Daughter is a novel, not narrative history, and its reception so far rests on genre-author endorsements and reader reviews rather than established press criticism.
Is it worth reading?
For its target readership — fans of commercial WWII historical fiction — the early evidence is encouraging: Robert Dugoni calls it "a stunning debut," Richard Woodbury calls it a "meticulous and gripping page-turner," and reader reviews stress its emotional impact. The honest caveat is that reception so far comes from genre-author endorsements and reader reviews rather than established newspaper or magazine criticism, so readers who weigh formal criticism heavily should factor that in.
Similar books
Readers who connect with The Resistance Daughter should consider Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, another WWII novel centered on an overlooked corner of the war, and The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, which similarly builds fiction on real wartime testimony. Kristin Harmel's The Things We Cannot Say — which also weaves Polish WWII history with family inheritance — is a natural match, as is Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale for its resistance-and-survival focus, and The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams for readers who like history told through personal, archival material.
Who should read this?
It is aimed squarely at the large readership for commercial WWII historical fiction — the publisher's own comparison points are Anna Stuart and Soraya M. Lane. It suits readers drawn to stories of resistance, captivity, and survival, and especially anyone who values knowing a novel's wartime detail rests on genuine research — a father's Wartime Log, veteran interviews, museum work — rather than set dressing.
What are the main themes?
The endorsers circle a consistent set: the resilience of love, hope, and the will to survive (Robert Dugoni's phrasing), courage against all odds, and endurance under occupation and captivity. Beneath those sits a more distinctive theme — a daughter engaging with her father's wartime record — which gives the survival narrative a personal, inheritance-driven resonance beyond the standard genre package.
Is it a good book club pick?
It can be, with one calibration. The discussion hooks are strong — the real Wartime Log at the novel's root, the ethics of fictionalizing family history, and the question of whether the captivity material convinces — and the emotional register gives readers plenty to react to. Groups that prefer formally challenging literary fiction, however, should know this is an accessible, plot-driven commercial novel.
How fast-paced is it?
All the available signals say yes. Kathleen McGurl calls it "action packed and full of drama," Richard Woodbury pairs "meticulous" research with "gripping page-turner" momentum, and the publisher's own framing — sweeping emotion, high stakes, courage against all odds — promises a pace-first experience. Readers wanting a slow, reflective wartime novel should look elsewhere.
Summarize this book

Summarize this book

The Resistance Daughter is Joanne Kormylo's debut novel, published by Hodder & Stoughton on April 17, 2025, and set in Poland in 1942. Inspired by true stories of the Second World War, it focuses on a less-trodden corner of the conflict — including, per endorser Leigh Russell, the lives of prisoners of war captured by the Nazis — and delivers a plot-driven story of endurance, love, and survival under occupation and captivity.

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Is the story connected to the author's own family?
Is it fiction or non-fiction?

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Our Review

We review the evidence: published critics, reader verdicts and BookTube reviews, gathered and weighed with AI assistance and edited by LuvemBooks, rather than one reader's first-hand take.

The Resistance Daughter is a debut WWII historical novel whose strongest asset is the unusually personal, meticulously documented research behind it — and whose reception so far rests heavily on that same foundation.
The Resistance Daughter: An utterly sweeping and unputdownable WW2 historical fiction debut novel, based on a true story by Joanne Kormylo front cover
The Resistance Daughter: An utterly sweeping and unputdownable WW2 historical fiction debut novel, based on a true story by Joanne Kormylo front cover

What the Book Is

The Resistance Daughter is a work of historical fiction by Joanne Kormylo, published by Hodder & Stoughton on April 17, 2025. It is the author's debut novel, and its marketing positions it squarely in the commercial WWII fiction space: the publisher frames it as a sweeping, emotional story of "courage against all odds," set in Poland in 1942 and inspired by true stories of the Second World War.
The comparison points the publisher offers — Anna Stuart and Soraya M. Lane — accurately signal the shelf it sits on: accessible, plot-driven wartime fiction built around endurance, love, and survival under occupation and captivity.
It is important to take the packaging at the right value. "Based on a true story" here means inspired by true stories: this is a novel, not a documentary account, and readers who want strict history should approach it as fiction with deep roots in real experience rather than as testimony.
Within that frame, the premise aims at a less-trodden corner of the war — endorser Richard Woodbury describes it as shedding light on "an overlooked part of the horrors of the Second World War," and novelist Leigh Russell highlights its portrait of "the life of prisoners of war captured by the Nazis," which locates the story's terrain clearly even where the publisher's synopsis stays broad.

The Research Behind It

The most distinctive fact about this novel is who wrote it and how. Kormylo is the daughter of a WWII bomber pilot and prisoner of war, and the book grew directly out of that inheritance.
According to her author biography, her research included studying her late father's Wartime Log, interviewing veterans, serving on the board of an Air Force Museum, and traveling to the UK, Poland, and Germany. That is an unusually concrete research trail for a debut, and it gives the "inspired by true stories" tagline more substance than the phrase usually carries in this genre.
This foundation is also what endorsers consistently single out. Crime novelist Robert Rotenberg credits Kormylo with making "history come alive through her tremendous research and storytelling," and Russell's praise of the novel's "authentic insight" into POW life speaks directly to the research question that matters most for a book like this: whether the captivity material convinces.
On the evidence of those endorsements, authenticity is the pitch the book is making — and the one its early champions say it lands.

How It Has Been Received

Reception to date comes primarily through endorsements quoted on publisher and retailer pages, plus reader reviews, rather than through established newspaper or magazine criticism — worth knowing as context for any debut. The endorsement roster is nonetheless strong and notably specific.
Robert Dugoni, himself a New York Times bestselling author, calls it "a stunning debut" and praises the way Kormylo "writes of the resilience of love, hope and the will to survive." Kathleen McGurl emphasizes momentum — "action packed and full of drama" — while Woodbury's "meticulous and gripping page-turner" couples the research with the pacing.
Reader reviews quoted in the marketing echo the emotional register: one describes needing "a minute before I pick up another historical fiction novel," another calls it "an emotional story of courage."
Taken together, these reactions sketch a consistent profile: a fast-moving, emotionally heavy novel whose impact depends on the reader's investment in its real-world foundations. That is a coherent identity for a debut to have.
It also means the book's reputation currently stands on genre-insider endorsements and reader sentiment; readers who weigh formal critical reviews heavily in their choices should know that this is the shape of the record so far.

Where It May Frustrate

The same positioning that makes the book easy to recommend also defines its limits. The comp-author framing and the breathless subtitle promise a familiar reading experience — sweeping emotion, high stakes, page-turning pace — and readers looking for a structurally or stylistically unconventional WWII novel will find the marketing points elsewhere.
McGurl's "action packed" praise, meant warmly, cuts both ways: this is pitched as a momentum-first novel, and those who prefer the quieter, more interior end of wartime fiction may find the emphasis on drama and pace less to their taste.
There is also the matter of expectations around the true-story claim. The novel draws on genuine family history and serious fieldwork, but it fictionalizes; anyone drawn in specifically by the Wartime Log connection should know they are getting a novel built from that material, not a memoir or narrative history of Kormylo's father.
That is not a flaw — it is simply the form — but the subtitle blurs it enough that the distinction is worth stating plainly.

Who It Is For

The Resistance Daughter is aimed at, and best suited to, the large readership for commercial WWII historical fiction: fans of Anna Stuart and Soraya M. Lane, readers who gravitate toward stories of resistance, captivity, and survival, and anyone who values knowing that a novel's wartime detail rests on genuine research rather than set dressing. The personal stakes of the project — a daughter writing out of her father's wartime record — give it a resonance beyond the standard genre package, and that, more than any single endorsement, is the reason this debut earns attention.
Readers who prefer their war fiction formally daring or their history strictly non-fiction should calibrate accordingly.

Sources & Further Reading

The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.

  1. Cited in this review
  2. 1
    The Resistance Daughter - OHFB

    ohfb.com

  3. 2
    The Resistance Daughter - Historical Novel Society

    historicalnovelsociety.org

  4. Further reading
  5. 3
    The Resistance Daughter: An utterly sweeping and unputdownable WW2 historical fiction novel | Archambault

    archambault.ca

  6. 4
    The Resistance Daughter: An Utterly Sweeping And Unputdownable Ww2 Historical Fiction Novel Book By Joanne Kormylo, ('tp') | Indigo

    indigo.ca

  7. 5
    The Resistance Daughter: An utterly sweeping and unputdownable WW2 ... - Joanne Kormylo - Google Books

    books.google.com

  8. 6
    The Resistance Daughter: An utterly sweeping and unputdownable WW2 historical fiction debut novel for 2025, based on a true story by Joanne Kormylo -

    hachette.com.au

  9. 7
    The Resistance Daughter: An utterly sweeping and unputdownable WW2 historical fiction debut novel for 2025, based on a true story: Amazon.co.uk: Kormy

    amazon.co.uk

  10. 8
    The Resistance Daughter: An utterly sweeping and unputdownable WW2 historical fiction novel: Kormylo, Joanne: 9781399744881: Books - Amazon.ca

    amazon.ca

  11. 9
    McNally Robinson

    McNally Robinson

  12. 10
    Barnes & Noble

    Barnes & Noble

Age & Reading Level

Our age band

Adult

Our age band groups books for browsing; it isn't an age a review gave.

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Content to know about

wartime violence and Nazi captivity
prisoner-of-war suffering and deprivation
emotionally heavy content around survival and loss

Skip if you prefer the quieter, more interior end of wartime fiction, or you want strict non-fiction history rather than a novel inspired by true events.

Joanne Kormylo on The Resistance Daughter

Author Joanne Kormylo presents the historical background and personal family history behind her WWII novel The Resistance Daughter for the Friends of the Canadian War Museum.

Uploaded by FCWM, 2026 · Watch on YouTube ·

More from this interview on Joanne Kormylo's page →

Childhood turnip ban from father's POW diet

Kormylo shares that her father was fed watery turnip soup and bread mixed with sawdust while held in a German POW camp. The experience was so traumatic that he strictly forbade turnips in their house throughout her childhood because he could not bear the smell.

Inheriting father's escaped POW handcuffs

Kormylo reveals that prisoners in Stalag IV-B used Red Cross ration can keys to pick their handcuffs and stash them in pockets to antagonize guards. The pair of handcuffs photographed on her book's cover is the actual missing set her father managed to keep.

Sewer-smuggling resistor inspired novel's protagonist

Kormylo explains that her fictional heroine, Anna Kowalski, was inspired by an underground Polish resistance fighter codenamed Grace. Grace helped smuggle Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto through the city sewer system to hide them in convents and foster homes.

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Books like The Resistance Daughter

Curated picks for readers who enjoyed The Resistance Daughter, with our reasoning for each match.

If you liked The Resistance Daughter

In our catalogue

The Nightingale

Kristin Hannah

Two sisters in occupied France choose different forms of resistance; offers the same focus on women's courage under occupation with bigger emotional sweep.

Vianne Mauriac and her younger sister Isabelle Rossignol respond to the German occupation of France in opposite ways, one sheltering children at home, the other guiding Allied airmen over the Pyrenees. Like Kormylo's novel, it keeps the war at kitchen-table scale, showing how survival itself becomes an act of defiance. Best for readers who want a longer, more tear-heavy story built on the same theme of women refusing to look away.

In our catalogue

Salt to the Sea

Ruta Sepetys

Four young refugees, including a Polish girl, flee toward the Baltic in 1945; matches the true-event foundation and the Polish wartime experience from a civilian angle.

In our catalogue

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Heather Morris

Built directly from a survivor's testimony, it shares the same foundation in real wartime records and turns one man's experiences into an intimate story of endurance.

On Amazon

The Things We Cannot Say

Kristin Harmel

Also set in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1942, following a young woman whose wartime wedding vows hide a secret; delivers the same ground-level view of ordinary people living under the occupation.

Not your thing?

In our catalogue

The Dictionary of Lost Words

Pip Williams

If the wartime brutality weighed too heavily, this gentler historical novel about a girl collecting words at the Oxford English Dictionary offers quiet stakes and hope.

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