The German Heiress is a post WW2 historical fiction novel told from a German perspective. It was a unique story yet still filled with the heartbreak and fear that stories from time all are. It was very detailed and full of twists.

I read an ARC, it will be released April 7, 2020.

Loved it....

It was a different point of view than what we normally read. I read this during a cold weather spell, and the author made me feel what the characters were feeling while they were dealing with the winter weather.

I like books that are a bit different. This story was told from someone who was being hunted who normally was the one that was doing the hunting.

I recommend this to all who want a different story regarding the survivors of the Holocaust.

I did not finish this book. I found it very boring. I am not someone who generally enjoys WWII stories, I was willing to try it based on the recommendations of an online bookclub to which I belong. Sadly, it was not for me.

I love historical fiction and The German Heiress exceeded my high expectations. The author paints a picture that’s so realistic, I felt like I was transported back in time. I love everything about the characters and plot!

Told from the Germans’ point of view, Anika Scott’s The German Heiress gives the reader a different perspective on how WWII affected the opposing people of the Allies. Clara, the protagonist, matures through the story as she realizes the true natures of her father and mother, her own failures in helping the displaced people, and the true loyalty and bravery of the townspeople toward her family, who owned a major industry in the town. When she accepts responsibility for her actions, she proves to Fenshaw, a main subsidiary character, that she is worthy of leniency and trust, an important theme. Scott gives her readers plot twists from beginning to end: Clara thwarting Fenshaw’s attempts of capture, Willy’s charging the cave wall, and allowing the reader to decide for himself what happens after the last paragraph.
I enjoyed learning about the effects of WWII on the German people and the Allies’ roles in Germany after the war. I recommend this great read of historical fiction!

I cannot get the book to download. Can I get some help? This is my first book, so I must be doing something wrong. I can see it, it just doesn’t download.

I absolutely LOVED this book! The author has a gift for taking you into each scene. The story felt real to me. I'd love to see this movie made into a film. This book exceeded my expectations. I will be looking for more from this author.

This was a quick and easy read, though not as suspenseful as I expected from the description. Jakob was interesting, but I never felt invested in Clara. I usually count character growth as a good thing, but the changes here happened too quickly. Someone told Clara that many of her memories and perceptions were lies. Even though Clara had a strained relationship with this person, she accepted their account without hesitation. Clara's feelings about her own actions changed just as quickly. Unfortunately it didn't move me or feel believable.

The story ended abruptly, and the lack of author's notes disappointed me as I enjoy reading about an author's motivation.

Thank you to the NetGalley for the ARC.

I have read many many WWII novels over the past few years and sometimes feel as if I cannot bear another story of suffering and loss. But then I pick up All The Light I Cannot See, or The Nightingale, or The Huntress and I find myself loving another war story. In this book I found myself drawn into the rare German postwar perspective and found it very thought provoking and the characters well written and empathetic. I very much enjoyed the book, will recommend to others and look forward to more from this author. Thank you for the ARC

I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. It will be published April 7, 2020.
Net Galley's description was that this book was "for readers of The Alice Network and The Lost Girls of Paris, an immersive, heart-pounding debut about a German heiress on the run in post-World War II Germany." BOOM I was sold!

The book takes place after 2 years after WWII had ended in Germany. Clara Falkenberg has false documents saying she is Margarete Müller, but in reality she is an heiress to a pre-war iron working empire. She is in hiding because she is wanted for war crimes for her and her families support of the Nazi’s. Clara is trying to return to Essen to find her best friend Elisa and Elisa’s son Willy. The path she ends up following is full of twists and intrigue, and an ending that hits all the feels and surprises you too.

The opening of the book paints such a bleak picture of post WWII Germany. That is something we rarely think about. We think about the Yay Nazi’s defeated, but what about the other Germans. The ones that weren’t in the military and weren’t necessarily Nazi’s but had to find a way to survive when the Nazi’s were in power. Did they get saved by Adolf’s defeat or were they punished for crimes they had no choice in? Wow this was just a wow book! I’m not sure I even have words, it was so well written and the story was so compelling. None of the characters turned out to be who you thought they were. The depth and breadth of the character development was fantastic, and as any good book should, made me feel all the feels.

It seems that everywhere you look lately there's another WWII era book with a strong female main character, and when I got the opportunity to read The German Heiress from Netgalley, I was wondering if I would be able to get into it. I think that even after reading so many in this subgenre there are still some great stories to tell, but they have to be special and stand out in some way. This one truly does! It's very well written and the characters are so complex. It's funny that the description compared it to The Lost Girls of Paris because I actually just finished that one and the two books have nothing in common other than the time period! I thought that The German Heiress was SO much better! I hope that people won't dismiss it as just another WWII story because they will really be missing out!

It takes place in Germany, in 1946, and the main character is struggling to survive like everyone else. She is forced to come to terms with the choices she made during the war while she searches for her best friend that she hasn't seen since the night she fled her hometown and began living under a different name. Everyone seems to know her face though, in spite of how hunger has changed it. She was the famous "Iron Fraulein," held up as a symbol of strength in German propaganda. The British officers who have arrested her father for war crimes are hunting for her while she hunts for her friend, and decides who she wants to be when confronted with the truth about her wealthy family. I was drawn in from the very beginning and the ending did not disappoint. I will definitely look for more books by Anika Scott!

Beautifully written. Edita chooses to preserve literature and share stories for the children even though they are enduring horrific conditions. The stories are an escape from an unreal situation. She has to give up her childhood because of the war, yet she tries to help the other children preserve theirs as much as she can.

Thanks to Net Galley for the digital ARC of Anika Scott's book The German Heiress. I have many patrons at our library who like historical fiction. I will recommend this book to them. Good REad!

This books challenges the reader to consider the humanity of the citizens of post-World War II Germany. As the story unfolds, each person's past comes to light, and they each struggle to reconcile their wartime actions with their conscience and their moral values. Who can we trust? How well do we know the people we think we can trust? What are we willing to do to make up for our shortcomings?
This is a beautiful story, with complicated, engaging characters. Highly recommended!
#TheGermanHeiress #NetGalley

I rated this 4 Stars.There are a lot of WW2 novels out right now and the cover alone made me think it was going to be very similar to the rest of the pack. Instead it really stood out taking the unique perspective of the Germans after losing the war. Dealing with the Allied occupation, starvation, as well as persecution when (as the author says) simply being German was the crime. I love that the author highlighted there were resistors within Germany who did what they could; large and small as well as thee guilt of having not done enough especially when more information was revealed after the war. A must-read as a balance for the other books in the genre.

This novel looks at German civilians during WWII - how did they justify their actions during the war? Were they complacent and followed orders? Did they resist, however fruitless? And, most importantly, how did they live with themselves after the war?

This is Clara's story. Her family ran a lucrative mining company in Essen, which she took over towards the end of the war. The government sent slave labor to her mine to ensure steady production, which was necessary for their troops. Clara advocated for more food rations and better living conditions for her workers, but continued using their labor anyway. As Germany fell, Clara knew she'd be labeled a war criminal, so she fled her home. Two years later, she returned to a city that she no longer recognized.

Living in the shadows, she meets a whole cast of shady characters who help her pick up the pieces of her life. She uncovers family secrets that change her view of her family before the war, which deepens the shame she feels about her own actions during the war.

I didn't find Clara to be a sympathetic character and didn't always enjoy the sections of the book told from her perspective. But along the way, she met an ex-soldier caring for his sisters named Jakob - he was the real star of the novel for me. From Jakob, we learn how truly stuck many Germans were when the war began. And we're reminded how important family is, especially through such a chaotic time.

Since the end of WWII, Clara has been living under an assumed name in a small town. During the war, Clara ran her family's ironworks for Germany. Known as the Iron Fraulein, she was used as a propaganda tool. When a British agent tracks her down, she narrowly escapes back to her hometown. Quickly after returning she discovers that her closest friend Elisa was picked up by the Gestapo and Elisa's son is missing. While evading the agent, she is determined to find them both.

This was an interesting read. I did not want to like Clara, but as the book unraveled she became more and more likeable. She, and the other characters, felt very realistic. Throughout the book, questions of morality, survival and image are at the forefront. Overall, this book was well written, engaging and enjoyable. 4 out of 5 stars.

I enjoy historical fiction and this story has a unique perspective as the “heroine” of the story is a German Heiress. We begin our understanding of Clara’s story with her current circumstances of worrying about a friend from her hometown from whom she has not heard. She has tried to contact Elisa through mail with no success. She’s also been hiding out since the Allies have ended the war and are now hunting for war criminals. She knows that although she did try to help those that were sent to her family’s factories as forced labor, she could have done more to resist the Nazis. This is her journey to return home, find her friend and maintain her freedom, but it won’t be easy and she knows it. This story has a little bit of everything: lost love, girl power, lost family, identity crisis, family dysfunction, family hope and new love. I would not consider it a romance, but do consider it women’s fiction. I found the story to be well-written, easy to follow and generally an interesting read. I could root for Clara although she wasn’t a good person in general. I think that makes the story more unique. Her family was part of an establishment that sought to harm others, but I did want her to get closure, good or bad. Since it’s based on a known war, you can imagine, the times are not the best and tragedy was widespread.

Thank you to NetGalley & Harper Collins Publishers for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title.

WWII books have really come into their own but have you ever wondered about the aftermath of the war from the German perspective? Clara Falkenberg was a dutiful daughter & German despite her moral qualms with the Nazi party. She allows family loyalty to influence her actions & following the war she is on the run, not only from the authorities but also from her past. Destroyed by regret she reluctantly returns home to search for a friend & along the way must avoid capture by the determined Captain Fenshaw who is searching out war criminals. Along the way she struggles to survive in a country torn apart by war & uncovers a family mystery in the process.

In a large pool of historical fiction of this era it stands out because of it's different perspective. It paints a picture of post war Germany that I haven't seen in a lot of fiction. It is a story worth telling & it is a perspective that has value. Well researched it painted a vivid picture of life during that time & was worth the read for that reason alone. I also found the story compelling & fast paced, a great quick read that may inspire additional reading on this subject.

Where I felt the book came up short was in the depiction of Clara, the main protagonist. I found her unlikable which was truly unfortunate. She was billed as a strong & formidable woman but all I saw was a weak person who allowed her life to be directed by the whims of the men around her. First her father, who set her on a path she didn't want to follow by preaching family loyalty, then by a lover who lied & took advantage of her. After the war she runs from the former Nazi doctor who wants to marry her only to be pursued by the British officer right into the arms of another man who chooses to help her. All of her actions we in reaction to the men around her which really did her a disservice. In fact, I struggled to find any woman in this book that wasn't 100% motivated by a man in one way or another. Even the unnaturally happy ending was only possible because of the good graces of a man & not by a single action taken by Clara.

I really think that had I liked Clara or found her more self determinate I would have enjoyed this book more completely.

Thank you to Netgallery, the publisher, and the author for the ARC of this book.

While the concept of the book seemed intriguing and offered another point of view of the very used topic of women in WWII, I found myself thinking of others that I had read in this genre and could easily see similarities between this book and others. I also found that Clara was justifying what she did during the war and her profiteering because she tried to make her slave laborers from the East comfortable. I was not too convinced of the author's attempt to convince the reader that Clara was really opposed to the regime. This was not explored too much other than a brief flashback in the carriage house and her boredom during a pro-Nazi rally in Britain. (Honestly this part of the storyline reminded me of Oskar Schindler.) I did feel that the story ended rather abruptly and never fully explained what Fenshaw's game was with Clara.

So, 3 stars: Story kept me interested until the end (I wanted to see what happened), was easy to read, but it lacked originality and left too many questions and things unexplained.