A wonderful piece of historical fiction - so poignant I was swept away by the lovely characters and writing style.

This book was a beautiful WW2 novel. This was my first novel by Catherine Hokin, and she did not disappoint! We follow Magda, who is living a double life, working for the SS, but at night, distributing resistant pamphlets. This was just so well written, and I could not put it down. I also enjoyed the romance that was tied in. Complex, and well researched, I highly recommend this novel.

I throughly enjoyed this book. I love books with dual timelines. I engaged with both Magna, a WWII secretary, leading a double-life and her granddaughter Nina living in the 1980s.

I was educated about live in East Berlin and entertained with this beautiful story. You must read this if you haven't already.

This was a fantastic read that I couldn't put down as usual with Hokin books. I loved the characters but especially Nina and Magda. I dont usually enjoy dual timeline but this author does it well. This was well researched and so filled with emotion. Cant wait to read more books from this author.

4.5 STARS

I love historical fiction and this is a combination i haven’t read. World War II and the Cold War / Fall of the Wall
Magda leads a dangerous double life. By day, a secretary for the Nazi SS. By night, a member of the Resistance.
40 years later, Nina is openly criticizing of the East Germany government. She escapes on a forged passport to uncover Magda’s story.
It may start slowly but the two stories intertwine beautifully.
I couldn’t stop reading.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Magda, working as Heinrich Himmler’s secretary, has to all the planning going into the Final Solution of the Jewish populating during Hitler’s Nazi regime. Through the eyes of Nina, her granddaughter, we see the choices that Magda made, not only during Nazism, but also through the division of Germany and her life in East Germany. Sensitive and well written.

Catherine Hokin’s new novel takes readers to 20th century Berlin, where two women opposed the government at great risk to themselves, albeit in different ways.

There’s a strong sense of foreboding from the start of The Secretary. The opening pages describe mysterious ceremonies at the home of Heinrich Himmler, where a young woman is presented with a house which once belonged to a Jewish family. She has no choice but to accept the dubious honor, even as she participates in a dangerous game to undermine the very government for which she works. Fast forward and we see her granddaughter vocally questioning the diktats of the East German government. In doing so, she risks imprisonment or worse. Is it better to disobey secretly (as Magda does) or publicly?

I found The Secretary a difficult book to put down. The parallel stories of Magda and Nina wrap around each other until they combine for an explosive conclusion. The younger generation, born into a divided Germany, must wrestle with the actions of their grandparents – actions that are only now being revealed with the fall of the Berlin Wall. At times, the book is traumatizing. Magda’s observations regarding the treatment of the Jewish people and the contrasting attitudes of high-ranking Nazis and their wives are startling. And it’s hard to not feel emotion as both Magda and Nina’s thinking is turned upside down. What can you do, after all, when what you thought was the truth turns out to be a lie? And, furthermore, what can you do when what you believed was right turns out to be a wrong set of beliefs? Aren’t we all wrestling with the changing of beliefs that were formerly set in stone even today? Meanwhile, I also wondered how complicit Magda was in the actions of the Himmler and his fellow Nazis, by doing the work she did, even though her intention was to prevent and circumvent. Should she have come forward with her knowledge after the war? Do you speak up even when doing so could put your life in danger?

In The Secretary Hokin includes real events and places, such as a Berlin neighborhood known for its anti-Nazi sentiment during the 1930s and 40s. The street where the Tower House was situated is real - I looked at both satellite and street views of it online – as is a station from where Jewish people were deported to their deaths. This is an expert coming together of both the real and imagined, to the point where I was surprised not to read that this was based or inspired by real life events and people. It’s an incredible book which I recommend to any lovers of historical family sagas. You won’t regret it.

Disclaimer: Although I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher, the opinions above are my own.

Thoroughly engrossing is the best way to describe this book. I honestly don’t know what else to say. It was drawing me in from the synopsis and did not let me go for hours after finishing. I can only suggest to every historical fiction fan read this book.

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

A historical romance set in WWII are my favourites and this did not disappoint! It starts slowly but once it finds its footing it really develops into an eye-opening remarkable story that gives a fascinating insight into one family experiences of war and its long time reverberating impact.

Catherine Hokin’s The Secretary is the latest heart-breaking, dramatic and emotional historical novel from this very gifted storyteller.

Germany 1940 and Magda is the secretary to the leader of the SS. Magda seems to be completely and utterly dedicated to the cause and she is the last person anybody would suspect of being a traitor. But there is more going on beneath the surface than meets the eye because while Magda spends her days and nights sending party invitations to high-ranking Nazis and distributing pamphlets, she is leading a dangerous double life. If her employers were to found out the truth about where Magda’s loyalties truly lie, the repercussions simply do not bear thinking about. Yet, Magda is willing to do whatever it takes to protect the man she loves – even if it means paying the highest price of all.

Forty years later and Nina finds herself stumbling onto an uncertain future. With only a forged passport, a few bank notes and a scribbled address for a place called The Tower House, which she believes will help her find the answers to the questions she so desperately seeks, Nina forges head desperate to find out the truth about her family’s past. She firmly believes that The Tower House holds the key to laying bare old sins and forgotten secrets, but is she ready for what she is about to uncover? As shocking revelations that have been buried for a long time come to light, she quickly realises that events from four decades ago will end up shaping not just the present, but also the future.

Can Nina finally lay old ghosts to rest and discover where she truly belongs?

Catherine Hokin’s The Secretary is another compulsively readable historical novel from this immensely talented writer. As always, Catherine Hokin makes the past come to colourful life and will make her readers feel as if they are living in Nazi Germany alongside her characters.

The Secretary is a poignant, intense, devastating and unflinching tale of love, loyalty and betrayal that readers will struggle to put down as they will find themselves completely and utterly consumed by this wonderful story.

A first class novel that is absolutely superb, Catherine Hokin’s The Secretary is an unforgettable tale perfect for Heather Morris fans.

This was a pretty basic dual timeline novel set during WWII and forty years later. I didn't really connect to the characters, but I did find myself imagining - could this really have happened? Is there a true story somewhere that we don't know about yet? The historical part of this book was the more interesting, and I ended up skimming the "present" part in order to finish.

I reviewed this book for the August edition of Historical Novels Review Magazine, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society. Per their policy, I cannot post any reviews online until the magazine is published August 1, 2021. I will update this review then.

*Book Review***
Thank you to @netgalley & @catherinehokin for an advanced copy of the book for an honest review.

Synopsis - In 1940, the main character Magda leads a double life working for a high-ranking SS officer during the day and delivering pamphlets for the resistance at night. She leads a dangerous double life, trying to protect the man she secretly loves from the Nazis, helping the resistance and maintaining the facade required.

Forty years later, we are introduced to Nina, Magda's granddaughter. Growing up in East Germany under the communist regime, not quite agreeing with everything she’s taught. She discovers a picture in her grandmother's closet of a house on the west side of Berlin with an address. She sets out to uncover the secrets her grandmother cannot part with and finds secrets that may change her family's life.

I’ve mainly read books from an allied or Jewish perspective during WW2 but enjoyed the telling from a German citizen's perspective. The book is suspenseful, heartbreaking, eye-opening and emotional. To read that there could have been brave citizens trying to help out the Jewish community, understanding the scrutiny that they may have faced from others and trying to keep secrets while completing work for the resistance was thought-provoking. I had always assumed that there would have been people in Germany that resisted, but most WW2 HF that I’ve read is from the Allied point of view.

If you enjoy books about the resistance during WW2 then you will enjoy this book.

Germany 1940. Magda is in a very high position as Secretary to Himmler. She appears to her fellow citizens as a traitor, despicable and despised but she has by sheer grit come to this position to get information and help her fellow citizens. Fast forward forty years and her grand daughter is now in East Berlin acting in the same manner as her grandmother and creating dissension amongst the East German police, and trying to protect her fellow countrymen. Magda despite her connections cannot save Nina and Nina is imprisoned.

Nina trying to trace her family's enigmatic history stumbles upon the Tower House, from a drawing found in her grandmother's cupboard and the whole story of Magda's past trickles out. The house was originally owned by Jews, requisitioned by Himmler and given to Magda for "good behavior". Magda hated it, did not want to have anything to do with it and did not talk about it to her family.

The book was an emotional read, well documented and East Germany was the setting. Before the Wall came down. A totally police state governed by their own laws, suitable for those in power. Apart from the historical aspect this book also dealt with a family saga and their own history which added a lot of interest.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a fantastic read that I couldn't put down. I loved the characters but especially Nina and Magda. I loved the dual timeline that was WWII and Berlin Wall. This was well researched and so filled with emotion. Lots to think about with choice in this novel. Well done!!!!!

1930s and 40s Berlin. Magda is horrified by the Nazi rise to power but uses her position as secretary to Himmler to obtain information. 1980s East Berlin: Magda's granddaughter Nina struggles to comply with the oppressive nature of life. She yearns for freedom but uncovers family secrets at the same time...
The Secretary is an emotive and fascinating dual timeline novel. It features two generations of the same family living through dangerous times when they seek to challenge the ideologies in power.
I was interested in Nina's timeline as I know very little about life under regime of the GDR (East Germany). I do remember the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 but was unaware of the significance. However, Magda's timeline was much more familiar to me and was captivating in a haunting way due to the atrocities she is witness to.
The contrast and comparison between the 1940s and 1980s is impressive. Two regimes of oppression and control. Violence and brutality, secret systems of crime and punishment. Both timelines had been well researched to allow the author to bring them to life.
The two main women are brave and determined, unhappy to sit back and accept the regime in power. Both women are also driven by love but this takes a less prominent role in the narrative. The personal relationships of Magda have greater impact on events in the book and I did feel like her character was more developed.
The Secretary was a fascinating historical novel but not for the fainthearted due to the emotional and threatening historical content.

The Secretary is a powerful story of hope and bravery in the face of evil, portrayed through the character of Magda during the Second World War. But then the ramifications of this are explored through Magda’s Granddaughter, Nina throughout the 1980’s.

The author has thoroughly researched the history and politics of Berlin and she has then successfully penned a novel that I would highly recommend. This is the second Catherine Hokin novel that I have read and once again, her writing is impressively descriptive and educational.

I found the plot to be very cleverly thought out and the pace of the story flowed well between the dual timelines. The characters are deep and incredibly well-developed. This informative novel is filled with tension, twists and turns that made it a really compelling read.

I am grateful to the publisher, Bookouture, via NetGalley for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a while to recover emotionally from this book! As many of you know, I was born in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), i.e., the Russian-occupied part of Germany. I was 14 when the Wall fell and the two Germanies reunited.
The Secretary is written in two timelines. On the one hand, you have the World War II timeline and story of Magda and, on the other hand, you have Nina and her life in post-World War II East Germany until the revolution which resulted in the fall of the Iron Curtain (and the Wall in Germany). Catherine Hokin did her homework 100%. All the historical details regarding life and the historical events in the GDR are very accurate. If you want to know more about Germany during the Cold War, this book is a great start! I felt a close connection with Nina. My life was in part and could have easily ended up being entirely like her life. You see, my family was a family of Germans who refused to join the Communist party and who got into trouble with the regime on multiple occasions because of our resistance. My uncle and his wife spent many months in an East German jail for trying to escape to West Germany. We believe that my uncle's own father, my grandfather, ratted him out. My grandfather was a passionate supporter of the East German government and its policies. The rest of the family saw the system for what it was: a system in which the Nazis were replaced by a party who pretended to be a Communist party, but was actually a totalitarian system. If the Wall had not fallen back in 1989, I would not have a college degree now and I truly believe I would either be in a Russian gulag, German prison, or even dead right now. Just like Nina in the book, I made some jokes about the conditions in East Germany that the government officials did not find funny at all. Just like Nina, I could not just stand by when injustice occurred. That is what made this book such an emotional story for me. I have read many WWII stories, but the combination of a WWII story and a pre-1989 East German story made me super nostalgic, extremely emotional, overwhelmed me at times, and resulted in me taking a little longer to finish the book because I had to take breaks to process what I had just read. Magda's story didn't make it any easier for me to finish the book. The gripping story of her bravery and loss added another level of emotions for me. I had to stop multiple times since I was reading in public and didn't want to break down in tears in front of strangers over a book. If you haven't experienced this part of history yourself, you may not be quite as emotionally attached to the characters, but you will definitely feel all kinds of emotions when reading this book! If I could, I would give this book more than 5 stars on Goodreads!

The Secretary by Catherine Hokin. Bookouture, 2021.

This wonderful, dual timeline is a compelling story, both impossible to put down and difficult to read. Readers will immediately engage with Magda, a secretary in WWII and her much loved granddaughter Nina living in late 1980s East Berlin. Magna’s story was especially hard to read, knowing more about the Nazi history, what happened and what to expect. I knew much less about life jn East Berlin before the end of the Cold War and dismantling of the Berlin Wall.

I love dual timeline books, especially books that show shared likenesses between different family generations. This book is much more than that, it is an education, so well written that we see life up close through the eyes of each of these women as they struggle to do what they see as right.

It is difficult to do this book justice in a short review.

Warmly recommended.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of The Secretary for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. #TheSecretary #NetGalley

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this novel. The review is my own and was not influenced in any way.

Unfortunately I was disappointed with this novel. The premise is great, the dual timeline of WW2 and Cold War/Fall of the Wall is rich with conflict and story. The majority of my dissatisfaction with this novel is in the way it's laid out: Magda's chapters span vast swaths of time (sometimes 2 years within a single chapter) but the narrative seems to skip far forward in time with no warning and I was routinely jarred out of the story to flip back to the chapter heading and check "oohhhh yeah - 1941 to summer 1942..." etc...

Overall 3.5 stars.