The German Wife: An absolutely gripping and heartbreaking WW2 historical novel, inspired by true events

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Hello and welcome to my stop of the The German Wife Harlequin Trade Publishing’s Summer 2022 blog tour! Annaliese is kept in the dark about what he does and, given her husband’s increasingly distracted disposition, soon finds herself drawn to the gardener, whom her husband seems to have rescued.

Kelly Rimmer is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of ten novels, including The Secret Daughter and The Things We Cannot Say. In Rimmer's outstanding book, 2 main families are contrasted with one another, successfully alternating between 1930 and 1950.He thought that by being a doctor in Dachau he would be able to help the world by finding a cure for malaria. To the dismay of the hosts of the welcome party, Lizzie takes a stand and harsh words fly between her and Sofie. As a reader, their affair is outlined in the content summary and at first it feels a little disappointing to know so much about the essence of the story. As tempers boiled, and Lizzie's anger and frustration at the situation grew, Sofie was frightened and Jurgen infinitely cautious.

Exceptional… gripped me right from the very start… heartwrenching… so beautifully written with real moments of bravery and hope… heart-breaking… I loved this book and I wish I could reread it again for the first time as it truly is that special. After the loss of her parents and her brother not coming back the same, you can tell she isn’t the woman she should be. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and was amazed to realise that I had read the book from beginning to end in less than 24 hours, using up more than its fair share of my desktop tissue box along the way! The social and political sacrifices…told through her cast …allowed for important compelling questions to be examined. Rimmer takes us through both main characters’ lives, as Sofie and Jurgen are forced to make moral compromise after moral compromise to support their family, and Lizzie and Henry become victims of the Dust Bowl.

And tell me, madam, what do you do when you go to a restaurant and there is a sign in the window that says Whites Only? This would be a perfect book club book and I beg the reader to please read the author’s note at the end of the book and to consider the discussion questions. But it is Henry who brings things to a head simply because Lizzie does nothing to help him, instead she makes excuses for his behavior leading to a tragic event.

Farmers lost their farms and farm families became homeless wanderers, temporarily homeless until they could find a new job, not an easy task in a depression. While the focus is on the German wife and her family, the American woman’s story is entwined throughout the two timelines twenty years apart. it focused much more on the aftermath of the war as well as the years leading up to WW2 and how Hitler slowly took over Germany. Lizzie and Henry hate that the German scientists who were members of the Nazi party are allowed to work freely in the United States.It is filled to the brim with everything from the brutality of war to friendships, to tragedy, to heartbreak and finally hope - this is such a compelling read that it will stay with you long after you have turned the final page. The story was told through alternating points of view from the two women protagonists and switched between the latter time periods and the present one in 1950. Dual timelines don’t always work for me; I tend to much prefer one over the other and that can make it harder to stay invested. As one of the American wives who now has to live among German wives, we start to see things from her point of view. This is an emotionally complex tale that shows how hate can grow, spread and destroy whether by choice, obligation or force.