4 WWII Young Love Story Stars

I read quite a bit of historical fiction and this one is from a different perspective, the daughter of an SS officer in Leipzig and most of the book takes place just prior to the start of WWII. Hetty is just a schoolgirl trying to figure out her place in the world and why she should think differently about her Jewish friends.

Her teachers, her parents, and the German press explain that she should not associate with Jews and in fact they are to blame for the current situation in Germany. At first, she is all in with the rise of the Thousand Year Reich, but she starts to question that thinking and begins to think for herself about childhood Jewish friends and those at school.

This one develops into more of a love story and I know some readers prefer historical fiction without that element. There’s also drama, danger, and violence – as in most WWII novels. The love story has impossible odds, but I could not help but root for it at the same time.

Hetty is an interesting character and I enjoyed the journey with her, and I especially liked the epilogue at the end of the book. This one did a good job explaining the buildup to the war.

I received an advance copy of this book from Harper Collins by way of the The Book Club Girls & NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Young Hetty is dazzled by the Nazi party in pre WWII Germany. Her father is quickly moving up the ranks & her family is climbing the social & economic ladder. She sees only the positive in Hitler & his philosophies the way a trusting child often does but as we age we learn the world isn't quite as black & white as it seems. After seeing the humiliation of a longtime friend because of his religion she learns more about the darker side of the Reich & begins to question her long held beliefs. Questioning only leads to trouble for Hetty & she is soon forced to make an impossible choice.

Maybe I'm over WWII historical fiction, or maybe this just wasn't the book for me to try & read at the moment but I really didn't click with this one. Hetty & Walter are underdeveloped as love interests & remembering that she's only 17 made her so much harder to connect with. Every action she takes is only because of young love. Love puts everyone in danger & love makes her take chances to do the right thing. I don't like it. Hetty jumped from being in love with her father & the party to being in love with Walter - she never did anything that wasn't for or because of the love of a man. She put so many people in danger throughout the book that I felt so disappointed by her constantly, which was a shame & made it difficult to connect with this book.

I also felt that the most interesting part of Hetty's life was in front of her & it was only hinted at in the prologue section. She became a resilient woman in the face of so much adversity in post war Germany, she made sacrifices & worked to help others but we never got to see it. That's a story I would want to read.

Despite my negative impression of Hetty the book was very well written. The authors prose was beautiful & well thought out with great descriptive touches. It drove home the shiny surface of the Reich for those on top with the darkness for those below. If you are looking for a wonderful glimpse of 1930's Germany this book delivers that in spades!

Hetty Heinrich is a good German girl in 1930s Leipzig. Her father is a rising SS official and they have recently moved from a cramped apartment to a spacious new house with beautiful furnishings. Hetty doesn't wonder what became of the previous occupants and she doesn't question the disappearance of the Jewish students from her school. She doesn't begin to question the Nazi ideology until she falls in love with her brother's Jewish friend Walter and she begins to struggle with the beliefs she had previously accepted.

This is a different perspective on a familiar World War Two story, giving us a better understanding of how ordinary Germans fell under Hitler's spell and how they paid for it at the end of the war.

This was a very different look into life during WWII. Hetty is a young girl living in Germany. The daughter of an SS officer, she believes in Hitler and the beliefs of the Nazi regime. As she grows older, she begins to realize that these beliefs are faulty, and feels she is led to do something about this. We follow her life as she finds tortured love and makes heart-wrenching decisions. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the author’s writing style! I highly recommend reading it!

Growing up under the Reich

Hetty is a young girl growing up in pre war Germany. Her father is an SS Officer. She never questions the teachings of her father and the Nazi doctrine until she becomes a teenager. Now she reconnects with Walter a childhood friend that once saved her from drowning in the pond and is a Jewish boy. She uses the excuse of walking her dog to meet with Walter. It is forbidden and at first they are friend but later become sweethearts, forbidden and hidden. She confides in no one until she confides in her best friend . She writes everything in her journal.

Unknown to her the secret meetings with Walter are noticed by two people, her housekeeper and a childhood friend Tomas that has feelings for Hetty. When the housekeeper tells her brother and he warns her father things become tense. What happens next is heartbreaking and very sad. It is life changing and everyone is affected by it.

This book tells the story of a young girl coming to realize the evil of the Nazi regime and the involvement of her parents. She is traumatized by events that take place and emotionally conflicted by them. It effects her relationship with her parents and her friends.

This is a very emotional story, but very believable. The characters are realistic and true to the parts they play in the story. This book is a good dramatic read, I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Louise Fein, Harper Collins Publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of the book in return for an honest review.

This book was so wonderfully written and from a perspective that I haven't ever heard before which is from an SS officers daughter during WWII. It was such a unique story and her way of writing was simple and not forced to be something it wasn't. It flowed so nicely and I would definitely recommend to lovers of historical fiction.

A WWII novel with a different perspective. Reading this during the time of safer at home made some scenes hit harder that they might normally have. This was a well done book and I look forward to recommending it to others as something a little different in the WWII historical fiction genre.

Solid 4 stars
First, thanks to Harper Collins, Book Club Girls, and Netgalley for the ARC of Daughter of the Reich.
Thoroughly enjoyed this story; once started, I had to finish it to find out what happened. (And yes, I cried at the end.) It was an engaging story that captured the conflict that Hettie felt as she figured out where she stood with the propaganda fed to her by her parents and the regime. I also liked that the story did not follow predictable twists and turns.
My only disappointment was that the story ended in 1939. I wish it had continued through the war.

This novel broke my heart. I loved watching Hetty go from a sheltered young girl blindly following what she is told to a young woman standing up for her beliefs. It was nice to read a WWII novel that didn’t put the camps front and center. The story centers around a family and the choices made during a period of war without the bombings. It is an eye-opening piece of history. Highly recommended!

“We all have a choice. Each and every one of us. We choose how we treat each other.”
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despite the fact that I’ve read a lot of historical fiction books, DAUGHTER OF THE REICH stands out to me as unique because it’s set against the backdrop of the Nazi regime coming to power in the years prior to WWII. Hettie, the young daughter of a powerful Nazi leader, is surrounded by Nazi propaganda, but begins to question it when she falls in love with a Jewish boy. she ultimately must decide what she believes and who she should protect. I really enjoyed reading the story from the perspective of a young teenager who is grappling between what her family and community believe and what she believes to be right. a really engaging story—highly recommend for those who enjoy historical fiction! 4/5 ⭐️—I liked it!

Daughter of the Reich was a beautiful, stunning book! The events are heartbreaking, but so is the whole time period under Nazi regime. This was a beautiful love story between a German girl and a Jewish boy. Hetty has been raised to love and honor Hitler as her father moves up the ranks and becomes a top SS official. The love story was lovely but this aspect of the story was extraordinary. Hetty begins to grapple with what she has always known as her eyes are slowly opened to the horrors of the regime and their treatment of people. This book was extremely well written. It’s a beast of a book but I sailed through it and could not put it down. I was completely caught up in this story and lost myself to the time period. This was a remarkable piece of historical fiction and receives all of the stars from me. My thanks to @williammorrowbooks for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

My favorite genre told through the eyes of a young German girl. Truly an emotional story line that draws you in. Enjoyable read.

I had the ARC of "Daughter of the Reich" for almost two months before I began reading it. I am so sorry that I waited so long to read it! It is beautifully written by Louise Fein and is most definitely not a typical Holocaust/WWI storyI. It is a heartwarming tale of good prevailing over evil. Hetty is a young German girl growing up as the Nazis are beginning to wield their power over the Jewish population. As a small child, she almost drowns but is saved by her older brother's best friend, Walter who is a Jew. This begins the love story that takes place during such dark and evil times. But this book is so much more than a romance novel- it is about the people who dared to go against Hitler and his regime! It tells of the people who survived and some who perished. I absolutely loved this book and it has already become one of my favorites that depict this horrible era. A Captivating and Compelling Five Star read! Thank you NetGalley, The Book Club Girls, and most of all Louise Fein for the ARC!

I felt so many intense feelings throughout this book! I've read so many historical fiction books set during WWII but this one definitely stands out from the rest. If I could give this more than 5 stars, I would.

This was an interesting book written from a different perspective - and just when you think you have it all figured out, you really don't. The book tells the story of a German family, and how as the father of the family rises in the Nazi ranks, the daughter begins to question the life she has known against the life she wishes she could have.. Enjoyed this book, and was a quick read.

Another 5 ⭐️ read for me. You step inside the home of a German family in the 1930’s. Hetty Heinrich’s father becomes a high-ranking Natzis during the rise of the Thousand Year Reich. She must choose between the convictions of her heart and duty to her country. ⁣
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This is a well written historical fiction where I learned more about the life in Germany during this horrible time of history. Once I picked it up each time to read it was hard to put down. It was infuriating to hear about how evil humans can be. Yet, it was encouraging to see such courage and sacrifice for the love of others. ⁣

Great story about a young girl growing up during Hitlers rise to power and rule. A different perspective

Daughter of the Reich spans the life of one little girl, Hetty, as she grows up in the early days of Nazi Germany. You first meet her as a young girl who has just moved into a large house in Leipzig, Germany. Her father is a high ranking officer in the SS. From the beginning Hetty is conflicted about the Nazi ideologies. It is these conflicts and the re-uniting of her girlhood crush that changes her trajectory forever. This book was deeply compelling as it is told from the German point of view. The story moves quickly and is well written. I found I couldn't put it down until I read the very last word with tears in my eyes. I would highly recommend this book.

This is the story of a young girl, Hetty, growing up in Germany in the early 1900s. As you watch her grow, you see how she is learning and adapting and making her own opinions and decisions about living in Hitler’s Germany. The characters are somewhat cliched, and I found this book to be similar to many other Historical fiction novels based in Germany during the same time.
Having said that, I did enjoy reading Daughter of the Reich, and I did like watching Hetty fight back when she needed to.

Thank you to Net Galley and the Book Club Girls for early access to this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the second book I've read in recent months that is set in the pre-World War II time period of the 1930s in Germany, during which Hitler rose to power and Nazism infiltrated every part of the country. Though set in a similar time period, the angle that this book explores is markedly different. The story is told from the perspective of Hetty Heinrich, who, as the daughter of a high-ranking SS officer, was raised to be the perfect German citizen — pure in lineage, patriotic, fiercely loyal to Hitler and the Nazi ideology he espoused. As a dutiful "daughter" of the Thousand Year Reich, Hetty is prepared to do her part — that is, until one day when she is accidentally reunited with Walter Keller, an estranged childhood friend who had saved her from drowning when she was seven years old. To Hetty, Walter is perfect in every way — except for the fact that he is Jewish, and also, as Hetty slowly starts to realize, he goes against every belief she had previously been taught. The two of them end up falling in love and gradually, Hetty realizes everything she thought she understood about her family and country were actually lies, which ignites in her the will to fight against them. When the tides of anti-semitism in Germany escalate to the point where Walter's mere existence is put into question, Hetty is faced with the ultimate decision to try and save him at all costs.

As is expected when reading historical fiction, the feeling of being transported to a different time and place is one of the things I always look out for, which in this story worked really well. This book's strongest element though is in the area of character development. We first meet Hetty when she is 7 years old and subsequently follow her development through her teenage years, but what stands out the most is her feisty personality and strong-willed nature. Hetty is a character who both enthralls and frustrates in equal measure, which I guess is what makes her such an interesting character.

Given the historical context, books set against the backdrop of Nazi rule going into World War II are rarely ever "easy" reads and of course, this book was no exception. The sections that described the brutalities inflicted upon Jews (and others who were considered "enemies" of the regime) were difficult to read, yet I understand why such details were necessary to the story. With that said though, I also felt the writing was a bit uneven in certain areas — the narrative was told entirely from Hetty's first person perspective, yet some sections were descriptive to the point that it didn't seem to match the voice. I also felt the story dragged a bit in the earlier chapters and it wasn't until around the halfway mark that the story became much more engaging — though with that said, for me at least, the last section of the book was the strongest in terms of plot, character, and emotional nuance.

Despite some issues with pacing and flow, this was a good story overall, and definitely a worthy entry into the canon of WWII-era fiction, in my opinion. Over the years, I've heard many people complain about the over-saturation of WWII era novels in the market and while I agree for the most part, I also feel it's extremely important for these stories to continue to be told, if anything, to serve as a lesson for us and future generations, that history cannot be forgotten.

Received ARC from William Morrow (HarperCollins) via Bookbrowse First Impressions program