#The School for German Brides is by author # Aimie K. Runyan. This is a novel that takes place in WWll. A historical novel about Hanna who is sent to a horrible bride school to be molded into the perfect Nazi wife. She finds her life forever intertwined with a young Jewish women about to give birth......
Thank you for the advance copy,
# Netgalley and # William Morrow

I wanted to love this one but it started out too slow for me. I did power through the book because it was a WWII subject that I knew about my name. Mainly because my great great aunt before she meet her GI American future husband at the end of WWII had been forced to attend. That other than mentioning she never wanted to talk about because it was horrible time in her life. This book while a hard read is worth the read, as it shows that women even German women weren't safe during the Nazi rule.

After the initial pages, I found myself not connecting with the story or characters, so I decided to pass on this book. Did not finish

The School for German Brides by Aimie Runyan. Pub Date: April 26, 2022. Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟. To say I loved and was completely immersed in this novel is an understatement. Told through the experiences of three young females from different backgrounds against the landscape of WWII, the reader gets varying perspectives of what it meant to be a young female during this time period. The author portrayed the German side with Hanna being forced into a relationship with an SS officer, her friend Klara and then Tilde with the Jewish perspective as a young dressmaker who ultimately falls in love and gets pregnant. Hanna and Klara attend a school on how to be a German bride and discover Tilde in her current situation. I loved everything about this novel from the time period to a fresh perspective in a genre that is very populated. I highly recommend this book and you won’t be able to put this one down! Thanks to @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review. #bookstagram #bibliophile #bookworm #igreads #williammorrowbooks #theschoolforgermanbrides #netgalley

In the SCHOOL FOR GERMAN BRIDES, Aimie K. Runyan weaves together the stories of two women of different circumstances in Germany as Hitler takes control. Runyan shows just how little control these women had over their lives, especially when those who are supposed to protect them can’t or don’t. My heart broke over and over for Tilde, Hanna, and their friend, Karla. They were placed in situations and had to make decisions that they should not have had to.
This story was a reminder of how bad life in Germany under Hitler was for everyone. I love how Runyan continues to write stories that present views of history I haven’t heard of or thought about. Runyan’s stories are a must-read for me, and this one reinforced her status. Grab a copy of THE SCHOOL FOR GERMAN BRIDES and enjoy!
Thanks to the publisher for the chance to read an advanced copy. All opinions are my own and freely given.
#TheSchoolforGermanBrides #AimieKRunyan #WilliamMorrow

This is the first book I have read by Aimie Runyan and I am not disappointed. Every chapter left me guessing what would happen next and anticipating the cliffhangers. I loved the backdrop of Hitler's Germany and the World War 2. I worried about the German brides and cared about them. I cheered and cried for them. This is a good read and a page turner.

The School for German Brides is the story of three German girls in the beginning days of WWII and how their very different lives and upbringings bring them together in an unusual way. First we meet Hanna who is sent to Berlin from the countryside to live with her Aunt and Uncle after the death of her Mother. Her Aunt and Uncle hope to marry her off to an officer and improve their status in the Nazi party. Hanna just wants to go to University and become a doctor like her Mother was, but Hitler has forbidden women from becoming doctors. Instead, the party wants all German girls to get married and become mothers. Hanna is soon introduced to Klara, a girl from a wealthy, high-ranking party family. At first these two seem to be like oil and water, but appearances aren’t always what they seem. Lastly is Tilda. A Jewish girl who along with her mother was abandoned by her aryan father when Hitler outlawed mixed marriages, her aryan looks and name allow Tilda to move a bit freer than other Jewish girls. Tilda is a skilled seamstress and is sought after for her dressmaking skills. Tilda also teaches Klara how to sew.

These three girls navigate the early days of WWII, of tightening controls on the Jewish population, Krystal Nacht, pressure from family to marry early and produce children for the Reich, and soon move from acquaintances to having to trust each other with their lives.

This is a story of survival, a story of friendship, a story of perseverance. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, especially WWII. Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A story of three young women caught up in the trauma and stress of the start of WWII in Berlin. A seamstress, who is half Jewish , and two young women of marrying age who she becomes acquainted with. They forge a remarkable bond over a shared trauma. A story unknown about the cultivating of young women to be the brides of the SS men.

I read this book in preparation for an interview with the author for A Mighty Blaze. The book showed a lesser-known story from WWII, namely the grooming of German brides for SS officers, which was an interesting new way to learn about that time in Nazi Germany. I found myself having sympathy for these young German women in ways I had not previously considered, and it was well-written and entertaining. It kept my interest and had some really clever plot twists. I have already recommended it to others.

I’m continually surprised to read new and different takes on WWII fiction. In the School for German Brides, the story follows different young women. Hanna, a German girl still reeling from the loss of her mother, is sent to live with her well to do aunt and uncle in Berlin. She catches the eye and attention of a very high ranking Nazi official who her aunt and uncle are delighted to have their niece be courted by. However Hanna is not interested and wants to study to be a doctor. She’s forced into an engagement she doesn’t want and sent to attend “Bride School.”

Tilde is the point of view and she’s a Mischling- she’s half Jewish. Her father is German and she looks more German with her fair skin and light eyes. Tilde’s father has abandoned both his wife and daughter when WWII begins because the Nazis are taking away business from Jewish and Jewish sympathizers… or so he says. He divorces Tilde’s mom and they are on their own running a fabric store. She meets and falls in love with Samuel who she quickly marries. But when he is torn from his family, he chooses them instead of his new family with Tilde and their unborn baby.

This book was really fascinating. I wasn't familiar with the bride schools, but it sounds sort of like becoming a debutante. It’s so hard to think of what these women had to endure as such a young age. Both of them really didn’t have anyone looking out for them except themselves. My heart really broke for both of them, but especially Tilde who keeps getting abandoned.

Thank you to @suzyapprovedbooktours, @bookishaimie, and @williammorrowbooks for my ARC copy. The School for German Brides is on sale now!

A wonderful book, so well written! It was an attention holding read. I will be looking forward to a follow up book

This book lived up to my expectations, as the story of two very different women in Germany during WWII is told. Hanna was sent to Berlin in 1938 to live with her aunt and uncle, Nazi Party members, who could offer her more than her father. Hanna was not a typical young woman, with goals to be like her mother, who was a physician, at a time German women were supposed to stay home and raise families. Tilde’s father abandoned her and her mother once the Nuremberg Laws were passed, and as a non-Jew, he is not want to risk his association with them. The common denominator between them is Klara, a classmate of Hanna’s, and a customer of Tilde’s dressmaking skills. As their stories are told, it’s hard to put down this book. The characters were engaging, and the story line progressed quickly, I highly recommend this work of historical fiction by an author I have previously read and appreciated. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Fans of historical fiction, like me, have read lots of books about people in the resistance during WWII or about those who politically opposed Hitler or those who hid Jews. Any decent thinking person will ask from time to time, "why did so many people allow this to happen?" I've gotten cynical enough to say that the bigger question is, "why did anyone at all take risks," because most people either believed in what Hitler offered them or they were willing to go along for the ride and shut up. What The School for German Brides does is take a teenager from a small town, whose father is a storekeeper, a daughter of a wealthy powerful family in Berlin and a half-Jewish young woman and sees what happens when their lives intersect.

Hannah's mother was a medical doctor, barred, as a woman, from practicing anything but midwifery under the Nazi regime. She quietly served people in their rural community with medicines she made, totally against her husband's wishes and Nazi law.. But now, she is dead. She was hit by a car. Hannah's father is sending her to Berlin to live with his brother and his wife, a very wealthy childless couple who are active in the party and friends with people in high places. Hannah's mother talked only to her about her concerns about Hitler. Now, she is being groomed to meet and marry an eligible officer and attending "BDM" meetings (the league of German girls).

Hannah has a year of school to complete. The only person who is kind to her is Klara, daughter of a "good family" whose parents are similarly grooming her for the proper marriage to advance their political and social interests. Klara's temperament makes her open to different people. She is artistic, loves fashion design and had dreams of Paris, but she is resigned to the fact she must conform in Nazi Germany to the expectations of her family and society. She will occasionally talk to Hannah about her frustrations with the changing role of "good" German women, now relegated to home and hearth and childbearing.

Tilde is older than Hannah and Klara. We meet her selling fabric and notions in a first floor shop in Berlin. Her mother is upstairs making clothing in their apartment for a living. Tilde is a first-degree Mischling according to Nazi genetic classification. Her father is a non-Jewish lawyer who married her Jewish mother. He divorced her when he understood he would lose his place in the world if he stayed married to her and Tilde has not seen him since. He remarried several months later. It is 1938 and the shop still has business. It is unclear whether customers realize Tilde is half-Jewish. Tilde also has a job teaching girls how to sew and Klara is a customer. Tilde goes to Klara's house each week and she finds the artistic young woman a talented student. They are friendly, but not friends. As things are heating up in Berlin, with Jewish families disappearing and Kristallnacht only months away, we see Klara and Hannah heading closer to marriage to the right officers and Tilde falling in love with Samuel, a Polish Jew who makes stringed instruments and plays exquisitely.

This is not a book about the school for German Brides itself, although way at the end it appears and we learn about its purpose in preparing women to be good Nazi wives and mothers. It is about three young women, two of them still teenagers, who intersect and who are changed by their relationships. It explains how some people are inextricably drawn to doing what is right and to helping others try to survive, even as they conform outwardly to expectations. Runyan tells a compelling story and this is a "couldn't put it down" book.

While the title of the book was The School for German Brides, I didn't really learn anything about this school until I was half way through the book. I found this a bit puzzling and really wanted more information about this school for German brides.
Basically, the story is about three German women trying to survive as best they can as the war escalates. Hard decisions need to be made. What strengths they had to have to survive.
Overall, it was ok read for me. I did read it to the end and have to say the last part of the story did get better.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

3,5 round to 4 for Goodreads
"The law is not the truth... it is only a glimpse into the values of man at any given point in history. Don't confuse the laws of man with the word of God."

I was very excited to read this book. I love historical fiction, especially about WWII. But I also love reading form the POV of the other side. Not EVERY German was bad and I think its important to know their POV as well. While I loved the characters and the story itself, the title mad me think it was going to mainly focused on German Brides being molded into the perfect German arm piece, while being silently defiant and helping the "enemy". While this did happen a tiny bit, but the book felt incomplete to me.

What I Liked: I loved the characters !! Hanna was really a strong girl. While she was German, being forced to live with her rich aunt and uncle after her very sweet, empathetic mother died- she was still not willing to loose who she was and let the fear or the luxury change who she was inside. And Tilde- she was definitely my favorite. Her German father abandoned her and her mother when the Jewish people became "less than" and that destroyed her. She worked so hard to hide who she was to protect her family, but also wanted the love her father took from her. She was so strong and brave especially when it came to protecting her mother and that her baby. I loved her!! Even Klara, she seemed a little snooty at times, but turned out to be a lifesaver!

What I didn't like: I wish there would have been more "Bride School" I wanted to read about what the brides-to-be of very loyal official German officers had to go through and we didn't get much of that. I wanted more of the love story that started developing and more of the resistance these girls worked behind the scenes.

Overall, it was a great story. I think if the title wouldn't have implied the book would be about a Bride School, and more about the lives of German girls living in Berlin at the beginning of the war, on both sides... it would have been a lot better.

triggers: Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Murder, Racism, Violence, War, and Rape
prejudice- this book is not as graphic as most WWII books, but still does mention the hatred Germany had towards Jews, Gypsies and others.

Thank you to Netgalley, William Morrow and Custom House, and Aimie K Runyan for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Aimie Runyan does a wonderful job at writing this story from the point of view of young women engaged to Nazi officers. It is a different approach and she certainly makes it work. The story of Hanna, Klara and Tilde is a complicated one but not as complicated as the way that they are intertwined.

The School for German Brides examines the impact of social and political beliefs on the lives of three young girls living in Germany 1938 and beyond. First, Hanna Rombauer, following her mother’s unexpected death has been sent to live in Berlin with Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Otto, Hitler supporters. Hanna’s aspiration is to study medicine at university following in her mother’s footsteps. Hanna is befriended at school by second teen, Klara Schmidt. Klara’s parents, active in the Nazi Party, have grand plans for Klara to marry an SS officer. Aimee K. Runyan’s discerning insights into the strained social settings the teens are thrust into cause readers sincere stress and angst. Events hosted by Charlotte and Otto and the deplorable, disgusting plans that involve Hanna are unimaginable. Third, Mathilde Altman, a Mischling- mixed Jewish and Gentile, is an amazing seamstress and she and her mom live in fear for their safety. They earn a meager living with a fabric shop while Tilde’s dream of studying law disappears. Runyan’s novel is filled with historical background and political views of women’s “duty” to Germany. Young girls, groomed to be in service to the Fatherland are encouraged to join the BDM- Bund Deutscher Madel or Band of German Maidens, part of the Hitler Youth. “Schools for German brides” taught that “motherhood is your sacred duty…the very reason you were born.” Hanna, Klara, and Tilde cross paths at the school for brides, the luxurious Villa on Schwanenwerder Island. Each young woman is at a crossroads, facing life changing decisions. Runyan’s novel is compelling and intriguing as readers find out how the girls serve their country and find one last gesture to honor the memory of their friendship.

A WWII historical fiction that leads you to believe it will be a different focus than what you normally read. The title and synopsis are very misleading. The majority of the book is NOT about school for German brides. You are about two-thirds into the book before the school is mentioned. And even then, it is glossed over. Three primary characters, Hanna, Klara, and Tilde, have three different viewpoints. It was interesting to see how each woman handled their situation during Hitler’s reign of terror. Of all three of the women, I felt so much emotion for Tilde. I was not deeply invested in the book and it fell flat for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow & Company for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

The School for German Brides is a book about 3 women and the different paths they have chosen but somehow end up diverging in WWII.

The author has written a beautiful story that will immediately draw you in and have you holding your breath at times to see what happens next.

I highly recommend this book for all those that love WWII history and fiction.

Thank you to #netgalley and #williammorrowandcustomhouse for allowing me to read the eARC of this book.

Pub date: 4/26/22
Genre: historical fiction
In one sentence: Hanna and Tilde are caught in different situations during WWII - Hanna to be married to an SS officer she despises, and half-Jewish Tilde alone with an unborn baby - can Hanna save them both?

I enjoyed this twist on WWII historical fiction - Hanna and Tilde's distinct perspectives helped flesh out what life was like for women during the war. The title misled me a bit, as the narrative begins before the bride school, but I enjoyed getting to know these women. Runyan did a good job connecting the two characters using third character Klara, and the plot twisted and turned enough to keep me interested without feeling over the top.

If you enjoy WWII historical fiction, this is a good pick!

Thank you to William Morrow and Aimie K. Runyan for providing a NetGalley ARC in exchange for an honest review.