"The Lost Mother" by Catherine Hokin
Release Date: 1.28.2021

"The Lost Mother" is a lovely piece of historical fiction, blending together events during World War II Germany and 1950s Hollywood.

Rhode Island Peggy Bailey cannot understand her mother's death. She also cannot figure out a picture she found in her mother's belongings -- a photograph of two young women, taken in pre-war Germany. Peggy knows she was adopted but nothing about her birth mother, other than that her birth mother was German. Could this woman be her mother?

In the second timeline, Anna and Marika are two actresses just starting their careers! Anna wants to be a leading lady, while Marika enjoys film making. Of course, Anna has caught the eye of the Goebbels, who see her as more than leading lady material. Anna is flown to the United States and finds herself working as a double agent. Her mission - to infiltrate the German American Bund, an organization that supports the Nazi cause.

I do not really enjoy alternating stories from present day to the past, and this seems to be a theme in many newly published historical fiction novels. I did enjoy Anna's story, as it was a different perspective of World War II. Definitely an emotional roller coaster.


Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for my review.

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In search of a dream

This is a dual timeline story which stretches across years. It all begins in Berlin, Germany at the onset of the Nazi control. Anna and Marika are best friends and Eddy is Anna's boyfriend. They are both actresses, Anna in theatre and Marika in movies. Eddy is the movie photographer. After Goebbels, Hitler's right hand man, takes over the movies Marika gets involved and Anna and Marika find themselves in a bad situation. Anna saves the day but incurs the wrath of Goebbels.
Marika is desperate to leave the country because of her fear of Goebbels. Eddy is going to America to work on a film. He is allowed to take an actress with him. He was going to take Anna, but Marika sets it up so that only she goes and Anna stays behind. Eddy does not know that Anna is carrying his child.

What happens to Anna next is a huge part of the story as she faces death in Germany and makes it to America searching for the child she unwillingly gave up for adoption to an American Couple.
The dual timeline comes in when Peggy (Anna's child that has been adopted) loses her mother Joan and at the end is given a picture and told it is her real mother. Joan dies before she can give Peggy details. From the picture Peggy recognizes Marika who is now going as Louise Baker in Hollywood and is a famous star. She tracks her down thinking she is her mother.

This is where the story starts to bring the two timelines together as Peggy searches for her mother.
The story is heartbreaking. It is very sad what happened to the Jewish population in Germany during the war. Although this touches on it the book is mostly about the Nazi hate group in America and the personal story between Anna, Marika, Eddy and Peggy. I learned much about the Nazi socialist hate group in America right before the second world war. I never really knew about this group. I researched some and found it was really a group called "German American Bund" or "German American Federation" established in 1936. It Consisted of only German born and was an unpatriotic group formed to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany, it was a pro Nazi group. It sprang up in several cities like New York and Chicago. The member wore white shirts, black pants or skirts and the men wore black hats with a red symbol on them.

It is sad that even though some escaped Germany to the U.S. they faced so much discrimination in the U.S. because of the war . I never knew about the German immigrants being put in internment camps during the war. This is a part of history that I had just never heard about. It was interesting to read about it. This is a fiction book but after reading this I looked it up and found that they were interned and many were deported to Germany even some that were born in the U.S. and never lived in Germany. Mothers and children as well as the male members of the family were treated as spies. Although many were associated with the hate group the Bund most were not.

I enjoyed reading this book and learning so much about history that I did not know before. Many books have the German history of this time period but this is the first with so much information on the U.S. history during this time period.

I would definitely recommend this book.

Thanks to Catherin Hokin, Bookouture, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy for an honest review.

This is absolutely heartbreaking. Peggy has lost her adoptive parents and is searching for her real mum. The book flits from two different timelines, before and after the second world war. It's beautifully written and once I got into it, which didn't take long, I couldn't put it down. Such an amazing rollercoaster of emotions. Have your tissues ready. Highly recommended.

The Lost Mother by Catherine Hokin is a wonderful piece of historical fiction that blends together World War 2 era Germany and 1950's Hollywood in an epic and heart breaking story of love and loss, family and fame.
In 1950's Rhode Island Peggy Bailey is struggling to come to terms with her mother's death, and with the puzzle she left behind, a mysterious photograph of two young women which seems to have been taken in pre war Germany. Peggy knows she was adopted but knows nothing about her birth mother , other than that she was German , and now she has a clue that could lead her to the woman who gave her up. A little detective work soon leads to a shocking discovery, one of the women in the photograph has reinvented herself as a siren of the silver screen while hiding her past in Nazi Germany. Could Peggy be her daughter, or if not then the daughter of the other woman in the photograph?
In the second timeline we travel to 1930's Berlin where we meet Anna and Marika. two young actresses on the verge of launching their careers. Anna dreams of becoming a leading lady on the stage while Markia is drawn to the rapidly evolving art of the cinema, and has caught the eye of Goebbels who sees her potential as more than a leading lady.
While one thread of the story follows Peggy in the hunt for her roots, the other follows Anna as she is forced by Goebbels to flee Germany for the United States , where she soon finds herself an unwilling double agent forced to infiltrate the German American Bund , an organisation which supported the Nazi cause and later interned as an Enemy Alien for the duration of the war.
I very much enjoyed this book, particularly Anna's story which was different from any of the other WW2 era books I had read before. The research into German cinema of that era pays off in the story telling , and I found the description of her life as an immigrant in New York fascinating as well as the time she spent in the internment camp.
I had not read any of this author's books before but if they are all of the calibre of this one I am thrilled to add them to my to read list.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher , all opinions are my own.

This was a very good read! Once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down. Yet another story about the war, although fiction, this story took place all over Europe. Highly recommend.

This book is one of the most riveting WWII fiction stories that I have read. The story of Anna: so heartbreaking, but Catherine Hokin captures the resilience of the human spirit and draws the reader in to the lives of the central characters so well. The good, the bad and the ugly are in this telling of the lives of 2 friends during the rise of Hitler, and the consequences of decisions. Truly, an emotional book that was hard to put down.

The book "The Lost Mother", by Catherine Hokin ventures back and forth from the early 1930's when Hitler first comes into power and the late 1950's where we find Peggy, recently losing her adoptive mother to cancer she's left with a photograph of two young women taken before the war in Germany. Determining one of these women must be her real mother she sets out to find out which it is.
The two women in the picture were actresses in pre-war Germany, both having fled the country before the war broke out, but both ending in America with very different circumstances. One is Peggy's mother who upon coming to the USA to find her daughter ends up with the same hostile environment she fled Germany from. Terror and fear fill her new life in America the same as what she left.
This book was fantastic, I felt Anna's fear and despair trying to survive and find her daughter in a strange hostile land with no one to turn to for help.
This is a totally heart-wrenching read with many ups and downs. I feel anyone who loves the work of author's such as Kristen Hannah or Marie Benedict will adore this book. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. I found nothing to dislike at all!!
I would like to thank the publishers @bookoutre and to thank NetGalley for the ARC E-book I received in exchange for my honest review.
#NetGalley
#TheLostMother

This ranks up there with one of the best historical fiction/WWII books I've had the pleasure of reading. This story was so incredibly well done and I was so impressed with the level of detail, I couldn't put it down. You can tell that Hokin really did her research here. I don't normally love books that alternate between time periods and different timelines, however I was so invested in Anna & Marika's journeys as well as Peggy's and almost felt like I got two stories in one. If you loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz or We Were The Lucky Ones, this is the book for you.

Thank you to Catherine Hokin and Net Galley for this amazing ARC in exchange for my review!

This book is so, so, so good it was hard to put down. This is another great Catherine Hokin book that begins in Rhode Island where new college graduate Peggy Bailey is spending time with her very ill adoptive mother, Joan. Just before Joan passes away, she gives Peggy a picture of two women with arms linked that was obviously taken in Berlin. Peggy recognizes a pin one of the women is wearing and discovers the woman is motion picture star Louise Baker. This makes Peggy wonder if Louise Baker is her real mother, or if it is the other woman who she has no idea of her identity. There are multiple narrators in this nonlinear timeline book which takes us to people and places both in Germany and the United States spanning from 1935 to 1959.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of this very interesting book that I really enjoyed in exchange for an honest review.

Haunting. Gut wrenching. Those are just two of the ways I would describe this book. I feel like I have been on an emotional rollercoaster. Just when you thought you knew what would happen it took another twist that made your stomach drop.

Fabulous book - think the new title really does it justice. Not normally a fan of books that go back and forth between timelines and this has three different eras in it but it works. The author weaves an incredible story and I couldnt put it down until I was finished. Dying to read her next book already.

Homes once filled with laughter stand empty as the Nazi party’s grip on the city tightens. When Anna Tiegel’s beautiful best friend catches Reich Minister Goebbels’ special attention, an impulsive act to save her brings Anna under his unforgiving scrutiny. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. This book was a great book to read.

I recieved an ARC of All who Wander from Netgalley and the publisher for my honest opinion Thank you.

This is also a story about a woman, Peggy Bailey, from Rhode Island, who in 1957 embarks on a journey to find her birth mother, armed only with a photo that was tucked into her blanket at adoption. Peggy didn’t know her birth mother’s name but had discovered a broach in the photo that she reconginzed from another photo she saw in a magzine that she believed linked to her birth mother. Peggy’s desperate search for belonging and identity brings her in touch with two women involved in the film industry who had fled from Goebbels’ influence and escaped to America. Will they be willing to reveal their former identity to help Peggy or will they remain hidden?

All Who Wander is a richly rewarding novel that draws readers in from the first few pages and continues to engage them due to her storyline full of the unexpected. It’s a story that will make you pause and think about war, consequences, choices and the power of love. I loved this story and will be recommending it to everyone.

ALL WHO WANDER by CATHERINE HOKIN is a beautifully written WW11 novel which takes place between Berlin and America in the 1930's and 1950's.
Anna Tiegel's story is one that will pull at your heart strings. It starts in 1931 in Berlin, where she is a well known actress, with her boyfriend Eddy and Marika, her dazzling best friend. Her life begins to unravel when she finds herself in Goebbels' crosshairs. Her murdered father's Jewish blood counts against her, she is pregnant and abandoned by Marika and Eddy, who run away to America without her. She manages to escape to America where she is determined to find her baby daughter, but America is not kind to her, and we see her immense courage in very dangerous and unpleasant situations. It is a time when feelings are running high against all things German. There is also a strong pro Nazi faction of which she is forced to become a part.
In 1957 we come across Peggy Bailey, who, on the death of her beloved adoptive mother, travels across America to see if she can fine her birth mother. She is an aspiring journalist and wants to uncover the story behind the photo that Anna put inside her bassinet just before she was taken from the hospital in Berlin.
It is a story about betrayal of the worst kind, but there is also a glimmer of hope amongst the ruins of Anna's life.
It is an inspiring and emotional read and one I highly recommend for anyone who enjoys a really gripping story..
I was given a free copy of the book by NetGalley from Bookouture. The opinions in this review are completely my own.

What is it about World War Two stories that are endlessly fascinating to both readers and authors? I think it’s because WW2 is full of monsters as well as many who suffered atrocities almost impossible to imagine. In the historical novel, ‘All Who Wander’ by Catherine Hokin, German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels is the monster and Anna Tiegel reveals the injustice she suffered at the cruel hand of someone with far-reaching power. To a lesser extent, but by no means any less monstrous, is bunds-fuehrer, Fritz Kuhn, and his hand in the suffering of both Anna and her best friend, Marika.

This is also a story about a woman, Peggy Bailey, from Rhode Island, who in 1957 embarks on a journey to find her birth mother, armed only with a photo that was tucked into her blanket at adoption. Peggy didn’t know her birth mother’s name but had discovered a broach in her adoptive mother’s belongings that she believed linked to her birth mother. Peggy’s desperate search for belonging and identity brings her in touch with two women involved in the film industry who had fled from Goebbels’ influence and escaped to America. Will they be willing to reveal their former identity to help Peggy or will they remain hidden?

This unique perspective on some lesser-known aspects of WW2 is extremely well-researched and well-written. There are many historical fiction novels written during this time period, but none I’ve read focus on the story of German internment and the activities of the Bund in WW2. I was completely unaware of Goebbels controlling force in German cinema nor how propaganda became a major element in the films produced during this time. It stands to sense that the Nazi Party saw cinema’s true power and the scope of influence it had. Goebbels ran every media outlet in Germany and the cinema was his favourite. Hokin builds her story on the documented influence and demands of Goebbels: actors were considered his property and if they refused his demands, careers and families were destroyed. In addition, Hokin informs readers about the German-American Bund that was founded in 1936 and led by German immigrant Fritz Kuhn.

Hokin has crafted a richly rewarding novel that draws readers in from the first few pages and continues to engage them due to her storyline full of the unexpected. It’s a story that will make you pause and think about war, consequences, choices and the power of love. To be published January 28, 2021, this is one of those novels that should be on every historical fiction lovers ‘must-have’ list.

Thank you to Catherine Hokin, Bookouture and NetGalley for this amazing gift in exchange for my honest review.