I found the idea of this book more interesting than the book itself turned out to be. I’m admittedly extremely picky about historical fiction but I thought the story of the Nazi birthing homes for “racially pure” babies would be fascinating. Unfortunately, I found the characters to be flat and uninteresting and the writing style was not to my taste (lots of telling not showing).

Haunting and powerful first come to mind after reading this book.

Coburn takes the reader inside Hitler’s breeding program to create “perfect Aryan babies. The program was real and part of the atrocities committed in Germany during Hitler’s reign.

I became engrossed in the fictional stories of Gundi, Holden, and Irma. Though I will say I felt more sympathy really for Gundi and Irma. Hilde I pitied more as she was a fanatic for the Third Reich and was so easily fooled into believing the false propaganda. At times I wanted to smack her because she annoyed me that much.

The book’s ending left me bereft. Open ended and left to the reader’s imagination as to the fate of the characters.

I always love me some historical fiction. Especially some WW11 era historical fiction. I found the subject of this distinctly intriguing because there isn’t a wealth of information out there about the Lebensborn Society. In fact, it seems that the author and I learned about it the same way, through Man In The High Castle. Only difference is she was able to take that information and create this story, which had to have been a challenge for the author, who has Jewish heritage. This story is brought to life through the eyes of three typical German women living through the war. Irma, an older German woman who has tried to ignore the plight of the Jews, and she ends up at a Lebensborn home after a bad breakup. Gundi, a soon to be mother, who while she is considered “racially pure”, her baby’s father is Jewish, and she ends up at the Lebensborn home through coercion more than choice. Lastly, the easy to hate Hilde, a real Hitler girl, who goes full bore on the Nazi propaganda. I really wanted to hate Hilde, because she can be quite awful, but I also felt a little sorry for her because she seems to not really like herself much and she spends her time chasing someone to love her for her, or whomever she can make herself into to fit in. This becomes a wonderful blend of fiction and real life history. A pleasure to read. If I have one gripe, it is that we never learn what happens to Leo, Gundi’s boo. I would have loved an epilogue on him. Review posted to Goodreads, Amazon, Litsy, Instagram, Facebook, and LibraryThing.

Coburn did a lot of research into this story. This was the first time I’ve heard about Lebensborn and the Third Reich’s way of breeding and providing children to its supporters. I found the book disturbing that this happened to these girls. I enjoyed that there were 3 main characters but Hilde was my least favorite being how entitled she thought she was. A good historical novel for this time period and perhaps we will hear more about what happened next to these characters after the war was over. This will make an excellent book club selection.

I've read a lot of things about the Third Reich in my time, thanks to my grandfather who was obsessed with it. I had never heard of the Lebensborn Society, and like the author, had to go looking it up.

This book does a good job at showing Germany - a slice of Germany, at least - in the months right before the Second War broke out. It gives you a good feeling of the atmosphere for the different parts of the society, and how everything managed to happen the way it did.

This is a fictional account, of course, but it is so well done I want to go and find out what happened to the characters, like I usually do when reading war memoirs. In that vein, I look forward to the next book.

What I love about historical fiction is that you always learn something interesting about the past. I never knew about the Lebensborn Society. In this story three women in Nazi Germany are engaged in the workings of Lebensborn House. Each one of these ladies has her own set of conflict issues and there is a different outcome for each. Gundi is the perfect Aryan woman with a secret. Hilde’s desire to impress members of the Nazi party leads to her ultimate decision. Irma finds a place where her nursing skills and beliefs are respected and needed

Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn is based on historical events inside the Lebensborn Society maternity homes. We are introduced to three (fictional) women-Gundi, Hilde, and Irma. These three women were part of the breeding program to bore "racially fit" babies to be raised as part of New Germany. I found this story really interesting. I had no idea about these maternity/breeding homes and it's quite appalling to be honest.

Powerful read. Told from differing viewpoints you get to know what life in the Nazi breeding program was like for them. Through their choices and loyalties you see how this program affected the lives of many. I hadn’t heard of the program before but found this book to be a great read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you NetGalley, Jennifer Coburn and Sourcebooks Landmark for hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

The first 65% of this book, I highly enjoyed, but for some reason, it just got to the point to where I felt that nothing was really happening in the story. It got somewhat repetitive for me. I did not know the Nazis’ Lebensborn program/home existed. I really enjoyed learning and reading about this. I connected most to Gunde’s character. Hilde's storyline got very sill at one point for lack of a better word, talking about writing a play and being an actress. Although the last half of this novel dragged a bit for me, I still would recommend it for any historical fiction reader. It just wasn't my top historical read by any means. I would definitely read more by this author in the future. 3 stars.

I appreciate historical fiction set in WWII that involves little known events that occurred during the War. I had no knowledge of the existence of the Lebensborn Society prior to reading this book, and I'm so glad I read this book. The Author's Note reflected just how much research was put into this book, and it refreshingly read like a 'real life story' rather than a loosely based or far-fetched historical tale. I really enjoyed reading this book! 3.5 stars!

Cradles of the Reich might be Jennifer Coburn’s first foray into the historical fiction genre but I promise that I couldn't tell. This novel is incredibly well-researched and eye-opening, and it makes me shudder to know Lebensborn Society maternity homes were a thing during WWII. As if what the Nazis did to the Jews wasn't bad enough, they had to have breeding homes too? The novel follows 3 different women, Gundi, Hilde, and Irma who is a nurse at one of the homes. I liked the way their stories ended up overlapping, but Hilde's was by far the hardest for me to read. The mentality she had toward Jews made it a struggle to read from her viewpoint, but I think it was a very important POV to showcase in the story. These women (Hilde barely one at all being just 18) brought this time in history to life for me and I thought Coburn really captured the essence of what it would be like to be in each of their situations.

For some reason, I am always a big fan of historical fiction on audio, and I happened to really enjoy Cradles of the Reich that way as well. Even though there are 3 viewpoints, the sole narrator is Natasha Soudek and while I would have loved 2 more people, I thought Soudek did an excellent job bringing all 3 women to life. The author's note is an important thing to check out, and I was really glad the audiobook included it. I’ve noticed that authors don’t always add these, and I feel like they are super important when you are dealing with history, so I was happy Coburn made the choice to write one. This does end up being a rather emotional read and in my opinion, the end was a bit of a cliffhanger. I completely understand and appreciate why it was left like this, but man I just wanted more. I really hope Coburn will write more HF in the future, but I loved her writing so much that I will definitely check out whatever she ends up getting published next.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Wonderful, yet disturbing, story of the Lebensborn program that played a part in Hitler's intention to create the perfect German race. Through the various female characters, we learn how young female specimens of the Aryan race were impregnaged by Nazi soldiers to bear Germany's next ideal generation.. Infants and toddlers - orphans of the Polish invasions - were also part of the adoption program. Families, loyal to the Reich, were incentivized to adopt and raise these children in the name of the future of Germany.

Well worth the read for an education but also a well written and documented story..

This was a slow read but such a good and interesting story. The subject matter heavy but it is done in a way where you learn about the plights of each girl throughout the story as it unfolds. Gundi was by far my favorite character and I found myself wanting more from her perspective as well as everything to turn out well enough for her. Irma generally just wanted to do the best for people despite everything and I love how her story ended. Hilda was an interesting perspective to have in the story and it was also a sad to watch her story unfold and unravel. While this book did take me a minute to get through it was interesting to read about the homes.

This was a very difficult topic to read about, and yet an important one. This less covered part of WWII is portrayed with such depth and sensitivity that I could not tear myself away from this book!

I enjoy reading stories about various aspects of WWII and definitely have learned so much about things I would have never even imagined. Such is the case with this story I was not aware that part of the Reich was assigned to seeking out and increasing the number of blonde haired, blue eyed children to make a new Arian race to carry on a new "Germany" Unbelievable! I found the book a bit slow moving and it took me some motivation to keep reading. By the last page, I was glad that I did.

When you read this informative, horrific, excellent historical fiction story, make sure to read the acknowledgments at the end of the book. This was yet another piece of history that I knew nothing about, another piece that was kept out of history books, another piece that is tragic yet should not be forgotten. The author did an excellent job of researching and weaving this story about three women who find themselves at one of the Lebensborn Society maternity homes in Germany.
My only complaint is I was so invested in Gundi, Irma, and even Hilde, that I wanted the story to continue so I could find out exactly how things were going to work out for them!
If you enjoy historical fiction, this is a must-read. Even if you aren't a big HF fan, this is an important piece of history that made a page-turning story, thanks to the author.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!

This book is set in Heim Hochland, a Lebensborn home during WWII in Germany. I had never heard of the Lebensborn program before this book, which surprised me because I have read a lot about Nazi Germany and WWII.

The main characters are Gundi, Irma and Hilde. Gundi is involved with the resistance, Hilde is convinced the Reich is perfect and Irma is kind of in the middle. I liked that each character had a different perspective, but I did feel they were a bit one dimensional. I was really bothered by Hilde and how utterly clueless she was. Not just about the Reich, as many people were, but also about men and relationships and that sort of thing.

I definitely learned a lot from this book and the research that went into it but have been very thorough. Even the tiniest period details were there. But overall, the story wasn't quite as exciting as I was hoping. The ending felt a little rushed, but I didn't mind the fact that not all the loose ends were tied up. I will definitely recommend this for readers that don't mind if there's not so much action. Thanks @netgalley for the ARC!

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book, in return for a fair and honest review.

I found this book compelling. I would say I "enjoyed" it, but it's hard to enjoy a book about Naxis, especially about their breeding programs. Basically, the idea was to increase births among "perfect" Aryan women, however they got pregnant. Our main character, Gundi, is a student, who got pregnant by her Jewish lover. However, her family doctor didn't know who the father was, and informed the Nazis in charge of this program that he had a lovely Aryan unwed mother. Everyone assumed that her childhood friend was the father, so they swooped her off to Heim Hochland, their breeding farm.

There were also a whole group of non-pregnant, "perfect Aryan" girls, who were kept there to provide sex to Nazi officers, in the hope that they, too, would become pregnant.

A second main character was Irma, a nurse who came to work there to try to start a new life for herself. The third woman we focus on was Hilde, a devoted Nazi, who became pregnant by a Nazi officer and was brought there. After she had a miscarriage, she started doing everything possible to try to get pregnant again, seeing this as her ticket to achieving a high position in the Nazi hierarchy.

Focusing on three such different women made the book particularly interesting, seeing Gundi's strength, Irma's growing awareness, and Hilde's desperation. It was, I think, a tricky job for the author to try to give us insight into each of the women - it was easy to like and admire Gundi and Irma, and it would have been quite easy to despise Hilde. Ms. Coburn was able to provide enough insight into Hilde's past to at least generate some understanding. I think the book was stronger since we could see what was going on through multiple perspectives.

A fascinating book, with a different plot than most of the WWII books I've seen.

Hands down the best book I’ve read this year, and definitely one of the best I’ve ever read that is set in this time period. I’m such a fan of historical fiction, and I was not disappointed with this. It covered an area of the war that I knew nothing about so that was really interesting, and it was so incredibly well written. 100% a book I’d recommend.

Growing up, my mother, who was a WAAF in London during WW2, told stories of the atrocities of Hitler. She was as a plotter in an area that rumours weren't gossip, but truth. This book is about the Lebensohn. Women and girls were taken by the Nazi's, impregnated by "superior specimens" of German soldiers to create the Third Reich's future perfect Aryan society. This book is captivating and well written. So accurate to stories my mother told me.
Thank you NetGalley for providing this copy, the opinion expressed in this review is solely my own.