Incredibly moving and equally horrifying to read a fictional and yet very real account of the concentration camps. I was more personally invested in CNV but Rose was certainly quite the story as well and Elizabeth Wein has some truly amazing gifts to tell these stories! 
 Full review originally posted HERE on The Book Addict's Guide 9/27/13: It took me a little while to organize my thoughts about ROSE UNDER FIRE, but here we go... So ROSE. The first thing I noticed about this story is that it's in the same format at CODE NAME VERITY in the sense that what we are reading is not just a first person narration, but an epistolary novel. Rose Justice, our main character in this book, has to write down what exactly happened to her during the war and as we come to see throughout the book, writing is really the only way she's able to tell her story to the world. 
 ROSE UNDER FIRE, although a companion novel to CODE NAME VERITY, was very different. We get a glimpse of Maddie and Jamie who I LOVED from CNV and yes, yes I know it's a companion and not a sequel, but I really would have loved to see more of their stories actually intertwine with Rose's as the book journeys on. As we find out exactly what Rose went through, I get why they didn't but still. I was really hoping for that when the rumors were flying about Maddie being involved in RUF. 
 I will absolutely say that Elizabeth Wein has given us another fantastic historical fiction novel in which if I didn't know it was fiction, I might believe this is actually a real person's account of what happened in the German concentration camps. As I'm writing this review, I'm also finding it absolutely impossible to separate ROSE UNDER FIRE from CODE NAME VERITY. I honestly can't help but compare so please bear with me as I compare the hell out of these two companion novels. 
 I thought I was going to be a wreck over ROSE. I blubbered at the end of CNV and honestly just starting ROSE and the mere mention of Verity, I honestly almost went to pieces. Along with that time I tried to explain to Shane what CNV was about and how it all went down. Literally almost went into tears like these were real people. ROSE UNDER FIRE was a tricky one for me. Since we didn't get the actual account of what was happening AS it was happening, it actually made a big difference for me. Verity & Maddie pour their hearts our journalistically and are writing all of the god-awful things that are happening to them in that moment or merely hours later. Rose doesn't have that opportunity until she has been through hell and back and must find a way to somehow record what she's seen, the people she's met and lost, and what she's had to endure. The reason this was tricky for me is that obviously Rose has been extremely traumatized and she's had to distance herself from so many things to keep from getting overwhelmed and completely swallowed by all the evil that was around her. While I completely understand that, there was a certain wall that was up that I couldn't get around as a reader so I just wasn't AS emotionally connected to Rose and I had been with Maddie and especially Verity. It ended up playing a bigger part than I thought because once I was done reading, while I did feel for Rose, she didn't 100% feel like a real person like Verity & Maddie had so while I don't want to compare everything to CNV, you can see why it's a bit difficult not to! 
 I actually know embarrassingly little about World War II. Or history in general for that matter. It was never presented to me in an interesting form when I was in school so without a natural draw to it, it tended to fall into one of my less enthusiastic subjects. Reading books like CODE NAME VERITY and ROSE UNDER FIRE, however... If I could have read books like this in school and my teacher could have used historical fiction or even non-fiction but actual accounts of what happened in these wars, I feel like I could have a totally different opinion about the subject. Elizabeth Wein's stats and research are fantastic. Yes, you'll find minute differences here and there (which she also explains herself at the end of the book) but the point isn't really to pick apart the tiniest details. ROSE UNDER FIRE involves the reader in a story and also educates at the same time. Sure, I knew the general idea of the insane destruction that went on during WWII, but there was so much I didn't know that I feel like I got a better understanding of while reading ROSE. 
 If you like historical fiction, if you loved CODE NAME VERITY, and if you're in the mood for a book that will astound and yet appall you, ROSE UNDER FIRE is the book you want to pick up. Although it wasn't as emotional as I was expecting, it's definitely a book that will open your eyes and break your heart.