Historical fiction is my go to genre, especially books based on WW2. I had heard about the nazi breeding program but had never read a book on it. Unfortunately, I felt this one was a miss for me. I couldn’t connect with the characters and felt the ending was very abrupt. I had so many unanswered questions. Overall an okay read.

Cradles of the Reich was a very interesting study of the Lebensborn Society in Nazi Germany and how Hitler tried to create thousands of more Aryan children. The three main characters-Gundi, Hilde, and Irma represented three different members of German society. What went on at Heim Hockland, the palatial life style lived by some of these girls was very informative. I had thought these homes were bare bones where girls were virtually locked inside. Not the case here. Some parts of the book were a little slow moving,, but the last 5 or 6 chapters were riveting. It is always great when people do the right thing in the end. The resistance was filled with thousands of people who tried to bring down Hitler and his ideology and to make the world a better place. Jennifer Coburn….thanks for the great research.

This was a very interesting historical fiction book. It centers around the lives of three women during WWII and Hitler's rule. I did not know a lot about this portion of the war prior to reading the story. I found it sad, but informative. However, I did not always like the characters, and found the story lagging at times.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Cradles of the Reich was an incredibly well written book that focuses on a part of world war 2 that I really did not know much about. Coburn did a masterful job of highlighting three different women’s experiences with the Lieberborn, one being a nurse thrust in a situation that challenges her own beliefs.

This is an excellent account of a little known atrocity that occurred during WWII that not a lot of people are aware of. This book is based on historical events regarding the Lebensborn Society whose main goal was to produce a master race of perfect Aryans based on Nazi eugenics.

This story takes place at Heim Hockland, a mansion in Bavaria which is a maternity hospital and brothel, where babies are taken from their mothers after they are born to be adopted by officers of the Reich. The story is told from three points of view; Gundi Schiller is a 20-year-old college student who is in love with a Jew and is pregnant. Hilde Kramer is an 18-year-old who wants desperately to have a baby by an SS officer and work for the SS. Irma Binz is a 44-year-old nurse who ended a relationship and took a job offer to go back to nursing. The three women cross paths at Heim Hockland which makes this book an unputdownable page-turner.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC of this fantastic book that the author did an excellent job covering this little known atrocity from WWII.

I’m amazed that I continue to learn about new things from WWII/Holocaust. I had no idea about the Lebensborn societies. This was a very intriguing historical fiction read, I was glued from the beginning to the end. Each woman was so different from each other, but yet was living among each other in the same place. It was tough to put down this book! I enjoyed the author’s note explaining some facts behind the writing of this book. I would recommend this read! Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Hitler’s new Germany was going to be an Aryan paradise and he had maternity homes created to ensure his vision came to fruition. Thousands of “racially fit” babies were bred like animals and adopted into “good” German homes while the Third Reich was in power.

Gundi Schiller is the picture of motherhood according to the Reich’s standards. She is of good German stock and is exactly the type of girl Hitler wants representing Germany’s future, except the Nazi party has no idea she is with the resistance and in love with a Jew. She is forced into a maternity home when her family doctor reports her pregnancy. The entire time she is pampered in a maternity home, she frets over what her baby will look like and how she will get her and the child to safety if her child should come out looking like the father.

Hilde Kramer is Gundi’s total opposite. Though she is not the party’s physical ideal, she is a zealous follower. When her relentless flattery catches the attention of a high ranking SS officer, he arranges for the now pregnant Hilde to take refuge at the maternity home until she delivers. Hilde is honored to have a baby for the Reich and considers her actions in service to her country. She will quickly learn what she can actually contribute to the party.

Irma Binz’s life did not turn out at all like the expected. Turning away from nursing after the Great War and losing the love of her life, she ends up in a boarding house waiting on her fiancé to stopping dragging his heels and marry her already. When she has hit her limit she takes a job nursing at Heim Hochland, a maternity home, in hopes of finding a new future. Instead she finds out what is really happening at these homes.

Through the three women we find out what the Lebensborn Program was all about both in appearance and actual events in the homes. This is another fantastic contribution to the World War II historical fiction genre, and the only I’ve read that focuses on this specific program within the Reich.

Thank you to Netgalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and Jennifer Coburn for the advanced copy of the book. Cradles of the Reich comes out on October 11th. All opinions are my own.

While all of Nazism destroyed, what happened to women and children is despicable. The master race was desperate to raise up a new generation of obedient Nazis.
Kidnapped, adopted, or murdered if there were defects, these innocent children had no say.
Humanity must be brainwashed and dehumanized in order for the superior race to flourish. Woman are degraded and given one task, no matter how vilified, to produce children for Hitler.
The evil root of hated for other races of people flourishes today and will end treacherously.
This is a dark, detailed story of the sexualization of young Aryran women willing to do anything for Heil Hitler. Or, is all as it seems?

Interesting subject and characters. I enjoyed getting to know the characters but, ultimately was disappointed in the ending. It seemed too abrupt. I felt like there was probably lot more exploration to be done with two of the characters — Irma and Hilde. I guess if the author had said all she wanted to say, that’s ok. I did enjoy most of it.

I have read many books about Germany during WWII and the Holocaust. It's one of my favorite genres. But this book told a different story than any I have read previously. It's always good to read a fictional book and learn a little factual history. This story is about three young women from different backgrounds and different areas in Germany. One was a true believer in the Riech, one was on the fence, and one pure Aryan female was about to marry a Jew. Motherhood in Germany was critical and considered to be one if the greatest sacrifices a female could make for her country. One of these three young women became a mother but refused to serve the Riech. I enjoyed reading this book and I hope there's a sequel on the way because I was not crazy about the way it ended. There were too many loose ends, too many questions left unanswered. All in all, I would give this book 4 stars out if 5.

OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS this book was insane and I loved every single second of it. Highly recommend!

4.5 stars rounded up. A really interesting and informative look at the Lebensborn Society - and yet another layer of how infiltrating, ingenious, and horrendous the Nazis were. If you want to indoctrinate a society, start with children who are innocent and don’t know any better but to believe you. I’m always a bit flabbergasted at their evil brilliance whenever I read again at how to well they did this with typical, unsuspecting German families.

I enjoyed the 3 perspective approach with the main characters of Gundi, Irma and Hilde. It provided a really intriguing story and a good look at both how each aspect of the culture - against, indifferent, for - dealt with something that came across as innocent and helpful but underneath was disgusting and depraved.

The only thing I wish was different was that more was fleshed out at the end and the story continued a bit. I was a little disappointed at the lack of closure but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. Opinions are mine alone.

Gundi, a pregnant university student, is sent to live at Heim Hochland, a Nazi “maternity home”, until she has her baby. Here, she meets Irma, a nurse in her 40s with no children of her own. Then there is newcomer Hilde, recently pregnant by a high ranking Nazi officer. Other girls they meet in their temporary home are being carefully selected and groomed to to breed “racially fit” babies and show the new age of the “German mother”. In a deeply disturbing look at a real place that existed in Nazi Germany, these women make the kind of connections that carry them through a very dark time.

This time in history is so fascinating to me. It’s shocking that human beings did this to one another, and it wasn’t even that long ago! I have read a lot about Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps, but this was the first I read about the Lebensborn Society where women were groomed to breed “perfect” children. Jennifer Coburn clearly did her research when creating this novel (that is based on very real places and events). She even included an author’s note explaining some of her findings. It was so twisted to read how people were brainwashed by Hitler into doing horrendous things to others. The resistance - the helpers - restored my hope in humanity. It’s important for this story to be told, for respect to be given to those who lost and risked their lives. The author did a beautiful job creating complex characters while tackling a very heavy subject. Thank you to Netgalley, Sourcebooks and Jennifer Coburn for the ARC! “Cradles of the Reich” is available October 11th!

This review will be shared to my Instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly 😊

As a fan of Holocaust and WWII fiction, this book is one of the different types of historical fiction book I have read.

Based on the real events, the story talks about three women whose life have been impacted by the Nazi rule--Hilde is an ambitious woman who will blindly be loyal to the Nazi regime by producing a pure "Aryan" race child, Guddi who secretly was in love with a Jewish boy named Leo and was pregnant with his child and Sister Irma, is a nurser. All three are living in a place called Heim Hochland, a place for breeding perfect Aryan children.

The author must have done tremendous research although the names of the characters are fictious. I like really reading Hilde's and Guddi's parts, particularly the ending as well. The story is well written, taking you back to those times and making you feel like you are living in that era. All those propaganda about making perfect Aryan children race, Hilde's blind loyalty towards the Nazi regime was all too realistic and the author has done a tremendous job writing tactfully on those topics. This also shows the courage and bravery of these women living during the Nazi regime.

If you are fascinated with historical fiction with women as central characters, then this book is one for you. Wort five stars

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Fascinatingly chilling! Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn immediately drew me in and kept me turning pages late into the night. Richly developed characters and an intriguing story line captured my interest. This is historical fiction that leaves one longing to learn more about the disturbing subject matter. Five stars for Cradles of the Reich.

Cradles of the Reich follows the lives of 3 women in Nazi Germany, whose paths cross at Heim Hochland, a Lebensborn Society maternity home where pregnant Aryan single moms give birth to babies that are put up for adoption and where young girls are groomed to produce "heirs for Hitler" through Nazi officers who come to the home for "parties".

I believe this is the first time I heard of the Lebensborn Society and its role for creating an Aryan nation. What they have done is very chilling and appalling and the author brought that out very well. Coburn has done her research on this aspect of Nazi Germany. I really liked the characters of Irma and Gundi but not so much Hilde, who I thought was a spoiled brat with an entitlement attitude. The book was very interesting and hard to put down, especially the last part of the book.

There were a lot of loose ends that weren't tied up by the end of the book, like what happened to Leo and Gundi's mother. I also thought that Hilde's story ended abruptly. I also felt that some of the physically intimate scenes were portrayed in more detail than what I would have liked.

All in all, I enjoyed the book.

Rating: 4 out of 5

This book was provided by NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark in exchange for a review.

The Nazis did many things a modern society might consider extreme or outright insane. Amongst them, their breeding program, Lebensborn. I am interested in that era, so I learned about it some time ago and let the knowledge sit around the mind palace unused.
The author of this book, though, did no such thing upon learning of the program and instead did her research and wrote a book about it. So, kudos on that.
Now, by itself, just going by the author’s other work, I’d never pick up a book of hers. She seems to specialize in women’s fiction, maternal fiction if that’s a thing, estrogen heavy kind of Lifetime TV crap.
But the subject interested me, so I checked it out. And sure enough, it ended up being exactly as expected: estrogen-heavy, women’s fiction, but a well-researched one with meticulous attention to detail and an interesting subject. A peculiar combination, but it worked…to an extent.
The author may not have the pure literary talent or emotional range to turn this into a Schindler’s List, but she does her level best, her fairly decent level best, to tell a tale of three intersecting narratives, three females (two young, one older) caught up in a hideous experiment at a terrible time in a country gone mad.
War dramas are a popular genre and this is the sort of book that’s sure to find its audience among the fans. Perfectly readable, somewhat engaging despite all those heavy Lifetime undertones, plot-wise the book is ok, but the historical fiction aspects of it elevate the entire production. The author even talks about it in her extensive afterword, all the research she did.
If you’ve never heard of Lebensborn, this is a good (fictional) primer on the subject. And surprisingly timely, since reproductive rights seem to be such a huge thing lately. Sadly.
If this book does nothing but serve as a fresh reminder that society that wishes to control and manipulate its women and their reproductive rights so viciously is doing something wrong.
But then again, if people learned lessons from books, the world would be a very different place. Thanks Netgalley.

Three women end up in the Lebensborn Society in Nazi Germany in connection to their obligations to the Third Reich. As they live together and with others dedicated to the cause of adding soldiers to Hitler’s cause, they encounter heartache, triumph, and the sobering reality that all is not as it seems in the war years. Author Jennifer Coburn’s dedication to the subject matter shines in a plot that ultimately plods toward the end in her book Cradles of the Reich.

In Berlin, Gundi Schiller is undergoing the greatest humiliation she has ever known: a full-fledged physical with two male doctors present. One of them is her family doctor, someone she’s known for years and trusts. In fact, Gundi came to him ready to share the knowledge that she was pregnant, although she didn’t want to name the father. Bad enough she got pregnant out of wedlock. If anyone found out her lover is a Jew, her life as well as his could be in danger.

Instead, when Gundi arrives at the doctor’s office, she discovers another doctor there who examines her in the most invasive of ways. He declares her ready to live at Heim Hochland, the Lebensborn home in Bavaria where women considered the finest and purest examples of German blood go to bear the children who will become the next generation of the pure Aryan race. Despite her protests, Gundi learns soon enough that no one is asking her opinion. She will go; end of story.

In another part of the country, high school student Hilde Kramer wants to climb the ranks in the Reich. She’s ready to do anything to promote the cause and make sure the German race succeeds above all else. A short-term office job gives Hilde a start, but when she becomes the mistress of a high-ranking German officer she figures out right away that having his baby will bring her acclaim faster than anything else. Never mind that the officer doesn’t care much about what happens to her; Hilde knows once she has his baby, he’ll leave his wife and her own star will be on the rise.

Irma Binz comes to the Lebensborn home ready for a major change. The man she thought was the love of her life seems to have betrayed her; Irma doesn’t know for sure, because she didn’t stick around long enough to find out. All Irma wants to do now is take care of the young women coming to Heim Hochland and help them deliver healthy babies. After all, the sooner they drive out the Jews, the better. Everyone knows that stories floating around about Jews being tortured or killed are just fake news.

When the women arrive at the Lebensborn home, they will be forced to confront their fears and their prejudices. Gundi wants to continue helping the secret resistance against the Nazis but despairs over how to do it from the Bavarian countryside. Hilde discovers that being the mistress of a German official means spending a lot of time waiting for his mood to favor her. Irma learns the truth behind the rumors about the Jews and finds herself questioning whether everything she’s ever known is a lie.

Author Jennifer Coburn delves into historical fiction for the first time with mixed results. Her research into the Lebensborn program is one of the book’s strongest points. Coburn has gone out of her way to recreate for readers the extent to which the Lebensborn mothers were pampered in stark relief to the way Jews were being herded like cattle to concentration camps. Those unfamiliar with the existence of these homes will find these parts of the book an eye opener.

Less successful is the progression of the stories of the three protagonists. While Coburn does make some efforts to braid their plots together, at several points throughout the novel the women speak and live independently. Their interactions feel cursory at best.

The character arcs of all three don’t seem to get equal treatment. Irma changes the most but has the least to lose. Hilde’s “change” feels less genuine and more an adaptation to less-than-ideal circumstances. Gundi’s desperation rings true, but given that she already supports the resistance it doesn’t feel like she has much room to grow as a character.

Those who haven’t heard about the Lebensborn Society in Nazi Germany will definitely benefit from reading this novel. Others might want to look up nonfiction resources for information.

We meet Gundi, who is very against Hitler and works against him alongside the Jews, Irma who is pretty much in the middle and can’t decide what she wants, and then Hilda who is extremely for Hitler and does just about anything she can to move up in rank. This book had tons of potential but felt extremely unfinished. All three of them had compelling stories to tell, and yet all three fell short, and we were left with tons more questions than answers. Does Gundi ever find Leo? Why does Irma give up so easily and just seem to accept her fate? In the beginning, she seemed like a much stronger woman. What happened to Hilda? I can’t even remember how her story ended.

I would’ve normally recommended this book as I usually really enjoy the Hitler-era books and learning more about what happened, but this book just didn’t deliver and I felt could’ve gone through a few more edits to clean up a few things left unanswered.

Thank you for this ARC that was generously provided by the publisher and author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to Net Galley and Sourcebooks for this EXCELLENT arc to review.

This is the story of Irma, Gundi, and Hilde. 3 different women with 3 reasons that are in one of the many maternity homes in Germany during the war where Hitler wanted to breed the perfect German children. Excellent writing, story telling, and insight into Eugenics. Enjoyed reading this. I gained an insight into another horrible thing Hitler did. Highly recommend this.