Good historical fiction will paint a picture of the life as it was then. An excellent historical fiction, such as this one, will pull you into the picture as if you were there. A unique story line, the characters' stories revolve in and through the Berlin Zoo. As a background, the zoo was the perfect setting for the people who were trying their best to keep the war from coming into the life of these animals.

I love reading historical fiction books that are set in WWII. And I really enjoy books with a dual timeline. This book was a different focus in that it deals with the non-Jewish German individuals who were affected by the horrors of the Nazi reign. Plus this offers a view into how places, such as zoos, were impacted due to the war. Told from the point of view of two amazing ladies: Bethany (present day) and Katharina (during the war), you will become invested in both stories. The characters were well developed but I really enjoyed Katharina’s story the most. She was a strong and determined woman who cared about the zoo and its animals as well as made it evident she did not support Hitler’s reign of terror.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookoutre for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

When Bethan’s mother dies, Bethan goes through her mother’s jewelry box to find a momento to remember her by. In the box, Bethan finds a hippo brooch and a list of women’s names. Years later, Bethan finds herself working as a vet at the Berlin Zoo. While there she learns the mystery of the list of names and how they connect to her life.

This was a very enlightening read! I learned a lot about what happened to the Berlin Zoo during the war and the women that kept it going during that time. It alternates between the war years and the present day to bring the story to a full circle. I highly recommend this book to historical fiction lovers! It would also be great for a book club discussion!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I really enjoyed this book. I often have difficulty with dual timeline books but I found this one flowed brilliantly!

This book really got to me. Historical fiction and zoo animals (while they don’t seem related lol) are two of my favorite things. And reading this book, with the zoo keeper, animals, and the orphan girls due to the bombings tore my heart apart. There are still parts of me that flicker back to this book. I think it will be with me for quite some time.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a WII historical fiction set at the Berlin zoo. I enjoyed This unique perspective and felt the author did a great job of showing the emotions of the women who kept the zoo going during this time. Told in dual time periods, Nathan is trying to track down her real grandmother. A great read that will tug your heart strings.

BRILLIANT, HEARTBREAKING, EXCEPTIONAL.

The Berlín Zookeeper is an exceptional tale of love, friendship, loss, and the art of letting go.

The book opens up with Bethan Taylor, a young lady arriving at a zoo in Berlín. Young, vibrant and keen to start working on the animals. In her bag is a faded paper that she mistakenly discovered when she was 12, shortly after her mom passed away. It was tugged in her mom's jewelry box. Written on it are the names of 6 women. Strange and mysterious but at that time, there was practically nothing she could do. But now, all grown up and about to start working in the exact same place that one of the women on the list worked, Bethan feels more determined than ever to find the mystery behind the list.

The story is written in the two main characters POV - Bethan Taylor and Katharina Heinroth. From Bethan's POV, the story focused on her finding out what the list truly means and settling in to her new job, amidst making new friends. I love how vibrant and normal she is, and her love for animals is divine. In Berlín, she goes through a lot emotionally. Meeting a mysterious lady outside the Zoo by name of Ada, her father's visit and breaking up with her boyfriend Callum. The biggest blow is when she discovers that her grandmother is not her biological grandmother. Another character that I adore is Max. He's nice and caring, and very helpful to Bethan when she most needed it. Didn't surprise me when they began falling for each other.

On the other hand, there's Katharina Heinroth. Tbh she's my fav character. That lady is a hero. Her POV shows the period during the war. A heartbreaking time. Her love for the animals is so touching and she did everything in her power to save them. Not only the animals but also her friends. They were all a team and together they pulled through. I was really emotional reading about all they went through and the fear that gripped them every day, her friends dying and her making the devastating decision to stay back for her zoo at a period when everyone was desperate to flee. That fact that Katharina is actually a real person made reading the scenes so much more vivid. The war was a very difficult time, and this book brings it out to life. A lot of people believe that non-Jewish Germans were in support of the war going on but this book shows that is not always the case.

I enjoyed reading this heartbreaking and emotional WW2 story. Thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture, and Anna Stuart for the arc copy.

a roller coaster of emotion I did enjoy the story of the zookeeper, I was looking forward to understanding how they survive during so much chaos and war, and this book didn't disappoint, I got all the answers that I was looking for and I fell in love with the characters and their troubles.

A story between the past and the present, the story of Bethan, Ada, and Katharina Heinroth, a woman who fought hard and helped two orphans to survive the most terrible conditions during WW2.

Two women whose life and past will reunite them in the most unexpected ways, to understand the past you must talk about it in the future

one of the things that I enjoyed was the romance part of the book.

I really love this book but as always when I love a story I dont know even what to write so many things that I want to share but at the same time, I dont want to give anything away..

I could not put down this wonderful book!
I love animals and I often thought about the life of animals in wartime, but never thought about how animals survived in zoos during the war. This book shows it perfectly.
I also love secrets, especially family secrets. Bethan has started working as a vet in Berlin zoo. She has found a list of names that her mother had kept in a secret from her. Now Bethan has to find the answers on her questions about the list, the names and her mother's past.
This book keeps the reader intrigued until the end, that is unexpected.
I will definitely recommend this great book to everyone who loves well-written historical fiction.
Thanks to Anna Stuart, Bookouture and NetGalley for advanced copy!

I really looked forward to reading this book and certainly did not disappoint it was really interesting to read about what happened in the Berlin Zoo during the war.

The families that were involved in helping the animals during the war were very strong characters and helped get some animals out to safety.

It was interesting to read about the time in the War and also the present day at the zoo where we meet Bethan who is working at the Zoo for a year. She also has a mystery to solve will she find the answers.

I certainly could not put this book down and would like to read more of this author.

Loved this story! I love the wwii time period. And this story did not disappoint! The characters were great, and the plot was perfect!!! I will definitely be sharing this title, and looking for more by this author!

What a book!!! I've read many, many historical fiction books about WWII, this was a first...told from the perspective of the zookeepers and their devotion to the animals during the war, it was amazing. Told in dual timelines, 1943 and then in 2019, it begins with a puzzle, a shocking secret. From the first page to the last you are held to the story. The book was well written, one I would highly recommend. My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have read other books on this particular topic, but none have made the subject as real and relatable as The Berlin Zookeeper. While I each timeline’s story grasped my attention, the two together really pulled me in and kept the pages flying.

In the present day, Emily is starting her new posting as a vet at the Berlin Zoo, having set herself a career path for this very job when her mother died when she was just eleven. Memories of visiting the zoo with her German-Born mother and meeting their ‘mascot’ Knautschke (crinkles in English) a hippo, she had few items to go on BUT those memories, and now the hippo pin and a list of names found in her mother’s jewelry box. Her father, with whom she has a marvelous relationship isn’t pleased with her discovery, and now all these years later he’s more concerned about her relationship with her live-in boyfriend, her being away for a year, and just what she’s got planned.

Jumping to the past, we meet Katherina, a scientist who worked at the zoo, was devoted to the animals and her husband Oscar, and often far too outspoken for safety. We’re diving in near the end of the war, when Berlin was subject to repeated bombings by Allied forces, and the Soviet army was moving toward the city from the west and north – led by rumors, fear and more uncertainty. But Katherina is determined that their little Zoo Family will survive this war - everything from the animals to the people – and the love they share. While dealing with a director who, despite his obvious care for the animals is strongly attached to the party and it’s leaders, to the struggles (and secrets) they keep, the zoo staff is mostly women, children and a handful of French men who were ‘traded’ by the Vichy Administration to work for the Germans in exchange for some prisoners of war.

Throughout the story we see Emily’s determination to dig out the family secret – now knowing that her beloved grandmother was not her actual grandmother, and that her mother was ‘gifted’ during the war: all balanced with the stories of deprivation, struggle, the history of Ada – the old woman who spends hours each day “speaking” with a statue of Katherina, and just how she may fit into the puzzle that Emily is trying to build. With help from the head of the primate exhibit, Max, and her own feelings for him growing, we also have the “German” perspective of the horrors of the war’s aftermath: the German attitude toward “never again” and, of course, the animals in all their mischievous glory. The story brought much to light, including determination, struggle, hope and plenty of devastation for all involved, present and past. I adore stories that place the past firmly into the present and show the struggles, the challenges and the triumphs against all odds, and in many ways, Emily’s story mirrored the challenges in a very personal way. Her relationship with her father had several challenges, all overcome, and her ending a relationship of 2 years simply because she’d found that she wanted more – and the distance gave her clarity, the story has plenty for readers today to enjoy. A firm favorite for the detail, the emotional connections and the determination that everyone showed to get to the end of the war, or their quest – and to finally see hope for the future firmly on the horizon.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-aVp /”> <a> I am, Indeed </a>

An unforgettable historical novel that will have readers reaching for the tissues, Anna Stuart’s The Berlin Housekeeper is a poignant tale guaranteed to tug at the heartstrings.

Berlin 1943. Ten year old Adelaide and her newborn sister have lost everything after a bomb had left them all alone in the world save for one another. Heartbroken and terrified, Adelaide goes to the only person in the world who could offer her and her sister shelter: Katharina Heinroth, a kind-hearted zookeeper who opens her home to the little orphans. Adelaide might only be a child, but she is fully aware of the horrors of war and the devastation it has wreaked over all of their lives. The animals at Katharina’s zoo provide Adelaide with some much-needed distraction, however, the orphaned child quickly realises that something dangerous is afoot. Her guardian is coordinating a mission to get children and animals out of the city. Yet, when something goes wrong at the eleventh hour, Adelaide finds herself compelled to keep her guardian’s shocking secret. This decision will have dangerous repercussions that will end up echoing down the generations…

In 2019, Bethan Taylor is at Berlin Zoo sitting next to an elderly lady who seems confused and out of sorts. Her conversation shifts from the past to the present, but Bethan finds herself stunned when she hears Ada utter a name she recognises: Katharina Heinroth. Bethan had found her mother’s jewellery box after she had passed and a crumbled piece of paper with names scribbled on it. Names which her father knew nothing about. Desperate to piece together the puzzle of her mother’s past, a determined Bethan vows to discover the secrets of her family’s past. Could Ada hold the key to the answers she has been searching for?

As Ada and Bethan find themselves working together, will they give each other the courage to face old ghosts and heal from the past? Or will the tragedies that still persecute them continue to haunt and torment them?

Anna Stuart’s The Berlin Zookeeper is an emotional, affecting and beautifully written tale that will keep readers gripped throughout. Anna Stuart is a gifted novelist who brilliantly portrays the sacrifices and difficult decisions people made during the war often at great personal cost, the lengths they went to to protect the people they loved and the seemingly endless supply of courage and bravery which remained steadfast throughout those terrifying years.

Anna Stuart has a gift for characterisation and in Bethan, Ada and Katharina has created three complex and nuanced women readers will be completely fascinated by.

A superb tale of love and loyalty, readers who enjoy the novels of Catherine Hokin and Suzanne Goldring will love Anna Stuart’s The Berlin Zookeeper.

Truly interesting and inspiring story! I loved reading a book about WW2 era, from a different perspective. This story tells about the lives of the Berlin Zoofamily, and its interweaved with present day Berlin. This is not an animal story, but instead a story of love, and perseverance to live in one of the world most dark times.

I am a huge fan of Historical Fiction center around World War II-this book caught my attention from the title alone. I read the description and new I had to read it, and am so glad I did! Thank you so much Netgallery and publisher Bookotour for my gifted ARC!

How did the Berlin Zoo and the animals that called it home survive the tragic events of Word War II? This book is just a glimpse of the horrors that were faced during that period of time and how the efforts of a few German Civilians kept the Zoo and its animals alive.

I enjoyed this book and the alternating time periods of two different woman
During World War II-We are introduced to Katharina who is the zookeeper and in charge of helping run the zoo along with her husband. Running the zoo is not Kathariana’s only task, however, she is also helping save children and keep them alive as well.

In present day we are introduced to Bethan who works as a vet in London, she ends up deciding to take a year long assignment working for Berlin Zoo. A list of names she discovered after her mothers death leaves her needing answers. She sets off to Berlin with the list where she ends up uncovering secrets of her families past.

This is a very different World War II read than your usual ones out there. I found it different and intriguing as we normally do not get perspective of the German civilians and how life was for them during this awful time in history. I loved the different time settings and the stories of these two women and how their lives intertwined with one another. They are both strong willed, courageous, and determined. Like most World War II novels, my heart ached reading about what the German civilians had to go through, how the war effected their day to day life, and how many innocent Germans were killed as well.

This book is recommended to any fan of Historical Fiction!! This book is actually based on the history of the Berlin Zoo, which I found quite fascinating.

1943: the staff of Berlin Zoo struggle to save themselves and their animals from the fear of Nazi oppression and the ravages of war as the Allies bombard the city. Present day: vet Bethan arrives at Berlin Zoo to unravel the mystery of her mother's birth and search for her biological grandmother's story.
The Berlin Zookeeper is a dual timeline book set in the 1940s and present day. The main protagonists are Katharina and Bethan. The first is dedicated to the animals in the zoo even at risk of her own safety as the bombs fall. The latter leaves England to look for the truth about her mother's true heritage.
Both women are brave and face personal tragedy over the course of the book. Katharina's animals, friends and family are in constant danger from Allied attacks. The author has done a wonderful job researching the situation in Berlin during the war and the effect this had on the zoo's inhabitants. There are some quite unpleasant descriptions of animal injuries and deaths but these are handled with stoicism and compassion by the characters.
Meanwhile, Bethan's mother died years ago after searching to find her birth mother. Bethan remembers visitng Berlin Zoo but her mother's investigation proved fruitless. Now Bethan has the opportunity to do the vet job she loves and try to find the answers that eluded her mum. She also has to deal with the pressures of a long distance relationship with Callum. Ooh he made my blood boil with his careless and selfish behaviour and attitude!
This book has a bit of everything, all executed well: history, love, loyalty, tragedy, mystery, danger. The Berlin Zookeeper is a lovingly researched and written novel about the horrors of war and the bravery and kindness of humanity.

I am torn about my rating for this book. Overall I really enjoyed it. The main characters were likeable and interesting, the romantic interest fit in well with the story, the dual timelines complemented each other.

However, about halfway through the book there were some elements that made the book less enjoyable. For me this stood out the most when referencing rape during the war - it seemed to come out of nowhere and be too cavalier for how serious of a topic it is. Because this was off-putting it soured that part of the book for me. The ending was also a little too cutesy for my liking.

But like I said, overall it was an engaging read and I would recommend it to others.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

This was good. I liked the history of it all. But kinda wish it was all about the zoo during the war.