Book Review | THE GERMAN WIFE by Kelly Rimmer

My Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Description:

Berlin, 1930—When a wave of change sweeps a radical political party to power, Sofie von Meyer Rhodes’s academic husband benefits from the ambitions of its newly elected chancellor. Although Sofie and Jürgen do not share the social views growing popular in Hitler’s Germany, Jürgen’s position with its burgeoning rocket program changes their diminishing fortunes for the better. But as Sofie watches helplessly, her beloved Berlin begins to transform, forcing her to consider what they must sacrifice morally for their young family’s security, and what the price for their neutrality will be.

Twenty years later, Jürgen is one of the many German scientists offered pardons for their part in the war, and taken to America to work for its fledgling space program. For Sofie, this is the chance to exorcise the ghosts that have followed her across the ocean, and make a fresh start in her adopted country. But her neighbors aren’t as welcoming or as understanding as she had hoped. When scandalous rumors about the Rhodes family’s affiliation with Hitler’s regime spreads, idle gossip turns to bitter rage, and the act of violence that results will tear apart Sofie’s community and her family before the truth is finally revealed.

My Review:

I found this book extremely hard to read. Not because of format, although it was a bit like Kirsten Hannah’s Four Winds meets Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and that made things rather disjointed. I wondered more than once when Lizzie and Sofie’s stories would collide. The storylines just seemed so disconnected.

I found the book difficult to read because of the content. The moral corruption by the Nazi’s made me physically ill, especially as it related to the children and the helplessness of the people. But then you have to wonder whether people were actually like this, where they put their heads in the sand, during the war. Was this story based on fact? Would people really be like that? Sadly, probably. And that just makes me think of today’s politics and I feel a weight so heavy it’s hard to breathe.

This is a book that will stay with me. I am giving it 4 stars because of the format – it jumped around alot and seemed like you were reading two completely different books. Plus, I read a review about how some didn’t like the way Lizzie was with her husband and how they didn’t like her storyline. I thought long and hard about that. I daresay Lizzie was gay but that wasn’t spoken of ‘in those days’, but all indicators lead to that in this book. So why did the author bury it? Why not bring that side out? They talked about her marriage, after all. But it’s the author’s choice to write the story as she wished, but I feel it could have given a deeper level of interest to Lizzie’s character. It’s just interesting that Lizzie isn’t even mentioned in the synopsis of the novel, when half the novel is about her story too.

You can find more about the book here:

Check It Out on Amazon

Check It Out on Goodreads

PLEASE NOTE: Affiliate links were used in this post. I do not promote anything I have not used or experienced myself. All opinions are my own. Please follow our advice at your own risk. By clicking these links allows me to receive a small commission, which in turn keeps the website running – and me writing! For that, I thank you.