The German Wife
Kelly Rimmer
6/28/22

I read this book way too fast. I didn't want it to end, but I couldn't stop myself from binge reading it because it was that good. Not only did I love the story, which was an idea I had never read before, but I also loved the premise that not everyone who is evil is purely evil. And not everyone who is good is purely good. Kelly Rimmer is a talented writer and storyteller and I will definitely look for more of her books.

I typically read historical fiction from this era. This was beautifully written and I felt was very well researched. In the beginning, I struggled with the different character names. Once I got about 15% in, I was so engrossed I couldn’t walk away. Absolutely 5 stars.

I was a really hard story for me to read. I received my ARC via Kindle Fire and the layout was very choppy, which made reading it a nightmare. I never would have guessed the format/ layout of a book could have such an impact on my reading enjoyment, but it did. I was almost going to give up… but i didn’t, I powered through.
Unfortunately, because of the layout, I found myself skimming and couldn’t really form any locked attachment to the characters, although I did sympathize with Sophie and what she had to go through - both in her past and starting a new future.

What a phenomenal book. Such a great story and pulls at your heart strings so many times.
Not my usual genre but I'm so glad that I had heard about this book and had the chance to experience this on my own.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley fir an early release of this book.

As a fan of many novels that take place in and in the follow up to World War II I appreciate that Rimmer was focusing on a story less widely told. I did feel like there was a tad too much 'justifying' and self rationalizing, but I do appreciate that the characters were complex. The struggles of families during these times were real and I thought RImmer did well covering these.

The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer was heart wrenching and uplifting at the same time. It was one of the best historical fiction novels I have read so far this year. The characters were vividly portrayed and so real that they found a way to creep into my heart and under my skin. Kelly Rimmer’s research on this book was extensive and thorough. It was so well written that the plot drew me in right from the beginning and held my attention until the very satisfying and well done ending. There were three distinct settings…Nazi Germany in the 1930’s, a small farm in Oakden, Oklahoma during The Great Depression and the devastating dust storms and in Huntsville, Alabama in the 1950’s. The story was told through alternating points of view from the two women protagonists and switched between the latter time periods and the present one in 1950. I have read several of Kelly Rimmer’s books and after reading each one I wonder how she will write one that is better the the last. Somehow she always manages to do it.

In 1930, in Berlin, Germany, Sofie von Meyer Rhodes and her husband Jurgen are happily married and very much in love but hardly making ends meet. Jurgen always had a passion for building rockets and envisioned that he would help land one on the moon someday. When the Nazi party came into power in Germany, Jurgen’s superior knowledge and talent in building rockets and understanding their unique mechanisms came to the Nazis’ attention. Jurgen was offered a high-level position in the rocket program. Although, Jurgen and Sofie vehemently opposed everything that the Nazis stood for, Jurgen was forced to accept the position. If he turned it down he and his family would surely experience dire and unimaginable consequences.

During The Great Depression, in a little town called Oakden, Lizzie and her parents and her older brother Henry lived on a farm. The farm was loosing money but the family was desperately trying to keep it in their possession. Then great dust storms appeared and seeped into every nook and cranny it could find. The streams and ponds dried up. One particularly bad dust storm caused tragedy to find its way onto Lizzie’s family farm. Lizzie and Henry were forced to leave the farm and reinvent themselves in El Paso, Texas.

In 1950, in Huntsville, Alabama, Jurgen was one of several German scientists that were pardoned for their involvement in the war and with the Nazis and was offered a high level positions in the American space program stationed right in Huntsville. Jurgen was brought over by the United States government after the war. His record was wiped clean by the government. He arrived in Huntsville a few years before Sofie could join him. When Sofie finally arrived with two of their four children, Jurgen was exuberant. He was finally a happy man being reunited with his family. The house Jurgen had purchased was on a street with other German families. Not everyone in Huntsville welcomed the German families. There were still lingering bad feelings that surrounded the horrific acts of Hitler and the Nazis. Then rumors started spreading about the Rhodes family’s involvement in the Nazi party during the war. Even their German neighbors turned their backs on Sofie and Jurgen. The American wives were just as vicious if not more so with their remarks and they wanted nothing to do with the newly arrived German wives but Sofie even more so. Sofie was outraged and disappointed to noice all the whites only signs on restaurants and other buildings in the town when she first arrived. She had left the anti-Semitic sentiment back in Germany. Now she was faced with prejudice all over again. The worst was yet to come. Someone threatened the Rhodes family with an act of violence. Could Sofie and Jurgen and their children find the safe and happy life they so desired in America?

The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer was poignant, gripping, emotional and riveting. I must admit that cried openly at parts and smiled at other parts. It was the kind of story that made me want to keep reading. The German Wife was about love, family, choosing, recognizing good and evil, right and wrong and having faith in others. It was an unforgettable historical fiction novel that explored prejudice and relevant questions that pertained to choices people chose to make and follow. The German Wife took a close look at what it was like for the women and their husbands living under the tyranny of the Nazis. I really enjoyed The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer and recommend it very highly.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House for allowing me to read this digital version of the advanced reader’s copy of The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Publication is set for June 28, 2022.

What is the highest price you'd be willing to pay to protect your moral values? Who would you sacrifice in order to stay true to yourself? How far would you go to protect a family member? "The German Wife" follows the stories of two women, Sophie, as she grows up in Germany and has a best friend who is a Jew; and Lizzie, who has lost both parents and the family farm to the dustbowls of the 1930s. Sophie's husband, Jurgen, is a lead scientist for the Nazi rocketry program and as Hitler's influence and power strengthen, the couple must make some devastating choices in order to protect their family. Lizzie's only remaining sibling, Henry, has returned from the war mentally shattered from what he witnessed at Buchenwald and Lizzie will do anything to protect him. At the beginning of the 1950's a group of German scientists and their families are relocated to Huntsville, Alabama at the "request" of the U.S. Government to begin work on the U.S's own rocket program. Sparks fly when the American families are told to help the Germans adjust to life in the U.S. Retaliation against their former enemies escalates in this small community. Author Rimmer allows the reader to understand the history, reasoning and motivations which lead her characters to take the actions that they do. Thoroughly researched, this title sheds a different light upon a very difficult time in world history.

This is an excellent book describing the beginnings of the rocket race program which had some of its earliest beginning in Nazi Germany. Taking place during different time periods, the two main characters are bought together in Huntsville Alabama where their husbands are both involved in the continuation of the this project. Going back and forth between Germany and the US, one learns why the relationship of these two women is so difficult and what they must do to overcome their differences. A must read for all those historical fiction readers.

I couldn’t put this down. A book that shows the other side of things. I can’t imagine being German during the war. They faced impossible choices.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early read.

Kelly Rimmer once again has written an outstanding book centered around World War II. Her use of dual timelines helps the reader fully understand her characters. She takes the reader from the dust bowl of the 1930’s to post WWII in the 1950’s while also incorporating the rise of Hitler in Germany. A brilliant German scientist, Jürgen Rhodes, and his family are victims of the Nazi Party as they struggle with their conscience and resistance. The war ends and the scientists are pardoned and permitted to work in America’s space program. Resentment and violence arise as they are integrated into society. The author expertly delves into the psyche of the individuals on both sides as she concludes the story. Well researched and well written! #TheGermanWife #KellyRimmer #NetGalley

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book!
Also thanks to Kelly Rimmer, whom I am now I big fan. I was so moved by All the Things we Cannot Say and was delighted to read this as well.
I love the back and forth both in timelines and narrator. The author takes a big bite here. She talks about the dust bowl of the 30s, the rise of Hitler, post traumatic stress disorder, the rocket program, and all of the trappings of WWII and even the impact of German families in America post war. What a big ask! But Kelly Rimmer delivers.
First we see what the characters have been through so we can see where the story is going. Characterization is well developed with the dual storylines. It also allows the reader to be included not only in the emotions of the German wife trying to establish herself in America, but what Americans must have been feeling while trying to reconcile a terrible war and all that the US had gone through since WWI.
This is a well done book and I enjoyed it so much. I keep saying I do not want to read any more WWII historical fiction and then I find another to give 5*
This review will be on Goodreads, where I store all of my reviews, and will recommend this to patrons and book discussion participants!

The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer is excellent! I loved it! Set in two time period and in two countries, the story weaves together the lives of Sofie and Lizzie. Sofie is the German wife with a major past and when her life crosses paths with Lizzie, the American housewife, tensions abound. Both Sofie and Lizzie are deep, complex characters and I loved unpacking them. They each had devastating things happen to them in the past which shapes who they are later in the story.
At 448 pages I never found it too long, in fact it was exactly right. It ends exactly where it should and I couldn't put it down once I got into the story.
The novel deals with several issues including racism and mental illness all while telling a riveting story.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this advanced copy which comes out June 28, 2022.

Sofie Rhodes has barely landed in the United States before a chance encounter at a picnic shows her just how few people welcome her presence. It’s Huntsville, Alabama, in 1950, and Sofie has just been reunited with her husband, Jürgen, one of Nazi Germany’s top rocket scientists, now in service to the US space program. Few of the Americans know Jürgen’s full history; the US government has erased his past to ease his transition into their service. But the arrival of a contingent of German wives and families leads to the spread of rumors: Jürgen was once in the SS; he supervised a prison camp; he belonged to the Nazi Party. Sofie and her children become outcasts.

The person most determined to keep Sofie outside their circle is Lizzie Miller, the wife of Jürgen’s new boss. Her determination is strengthened by her brother, Henry, a former soldier still suffering from PTSD and convinced that Jürgen is out to get him. Lizzie narrates her own history, from a Texas farm girl driven from her home by dust storms to her marriage to the head of this elite scientific program, in counterpoint to Sofie’s memories of Germany’s descent into fascism and antisemitism from the 1930s through the end of World War II. Lizzie’s story provides a contrast—a life of poverty within a segregated society that Lizzie sees without either endorsing racial separation or understanding how it benefits her as a white woman.

Sofie, in contrast, sees exactly what is happening to her homeland, and it repels her. Through her experiences, we see the true cost of living in a totalitarian state. She mourns the loss of her Jewish friends, skates the line between compliance and resistance to give them money and goods, attempts to flee the country, watches in despair as her husband is forced to stand by while his work is perverted for military ends. The slightest hint of reluctance, never mind refusal or rebellion, leads to beatings and imprisonment and threats to family and friends.

Is such compulsion inflicted on the elite enough to offset the brutal death of millions, the torture and suffering of the small minority who survived the camps? The author admits she has doubts, and so do I. But her book will certainly open your eyes and get you thinking, which is an achievement for any novel, especially one consigned to the groaning shelves in the section on World War II.

I expect to interview the author on my blog around the time of the book’s release in late June. Check the link below to see the Q&A at that time.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This is another heart wrenching tale by Kelly Rimmer set during WWII. In 1930 Germany, Sofie and Jürgen are struggling under the burgeoning Nazi regime. In order to not go completely bankrupt and lose their home, Jürgen must take a job developing rockets for the Nazi’s but both seriously oppose their ideals and the entire regime.

In 1930s Texas, Lizzie and her family are coping with the hardships of the Dust Bowl. The two stories converge in the 1950s in Huntsville, Alabama after Lizzie’s husband’s job brings them there, and Jürgen has been taken from post WWII Germany to work on a secretive US rocket program.

I found the book slow to start but the story picks up and you learn how each family made it through WWII and what they had to do to survive. Another well researched and beautifully written book by Kelly Rimmer!

I've really enjoyed Rimmer's books in the past, and the "German Wife" is no exception. One of the reasons I read historical fiction is to learn about the past, and I had no idea that German scientists were recruited after WWII to work on the US space program. One of the main characters is the wife of one of these scientists, and the book moves back and forth between her past experiences in German and her new experiences in the United States. Her viewpoint is contrasted with the American wife of one of the space program's directors, who has her own experiences shaped by the Depression and the Dustbowl.
If I have a quibble, it would be that it was hard at first to keep track of the characters at first, since the chapters go back forth in time and between characters. Chapter headings in the final version may help with this.
All in all, this was a very worthwhile read, and one that's explores WWII through the eyes of German citizens, which isn't often done in historical fiction, at least in the United States.

A story of hope and dreams, an end to an old life and new beginnings. It must have been hard for the real people this story is based on to put the past behind them, everything both sides had suffered, and try and start again after so much loss, death and horror.

I read The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer. This novel was so good and so revealing of the life that the Germans had to live while their military was invading other countries. The secrets they had to keep and the lies they had to tell to be able to live in a country filled with rabid Nazis were unbelievable. I loved reading this novel and it gave me a great insight as to the attitude of people at that time after the war.

Jürgen and Sofie von Meyer Rhodes and their children lived in Berlin. Everything was wonderful until the Nazis took power. Their wonderful life was over. They had to hide their true feelings because the young children were made to join young Nazi groups where they were indoctrinated in the Nazi regime’s codes. They would turn anyone in to the Gestapo who said or did anything against the regime. The oldest children of the von Meyer Rhodes family were schooled in the Nazi way. Jürgen was “invited” to be a part of the missile program. He had no choice. He and Sophie were also “invited” to join the Nazi party. Failure to do so resulted in Jürgen being arrested and beaten and his family threatened until he complied.

After the war, Jürgen was detained in the United States and was subsequently involved in the United States’ missile program. Sophie and the two youngest children stayed in Berlin until Jürgen could send for them.

This is the story of their coming to America, finding a home near Huntsville, Alabama and trying to fit in with the German community there. Americans were not happy that the United States had former Nazis working for them. However, they were not aware of the life they had to live in Berlin. They had to do things they didn’t want to in order to survive.

Kelly Rimmer is a masterful writer of historical fiction. I could not put this book down. The characters are well written, the plot moves forward at the perfect pace keeping my attention from the first page. This is a must-read for historical fiction fans. Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for this ARC. This is a thought-provoking one for book clubs and I will highly recommend it!

I love Kelly Rimmer's historical fiction novels, and this one is no exception. I am fascinated by stories about Germans in Nazi-era Germany. In this novel, a scientist is pressured to work for the Nazi space program. After the war, he and his wife resettle to the American south and work in America's space program. As a part of "Operation Paperclip", they are pardoned. I haven't read novels about this before, and it was very interesting and thought-provoking to place myself in their shoes, and also to revile and yet understand the feelings of those inthe community toward them.

As with all my favorite Kelly Rimmer books, this one is heartbreaking, eye opening, and beautifully written. The story is told from the perspective of two women: Sofie is raising her family in Germany in the 1930s and trying to navigate her life as Hitler comes to power; Lizzie comes of age in the 1930s on a farm in Texas during the Dust Bowl. These women find themselves to be neighbors in the 1950s after many years of struggles. Their histories drive them apart, but they are more similar than they realize. These two women will do whatever it takes to protect their families.

I loved this book. It is hard to read given the subject matter, but the storytelling is so powerful and well done. There are so many parallels in this book to our very recent history and current world events. It made me consider how much we have learned from WW2 and how much pieces of history could repeat itself. This is a book I will be thinking about for many years to come. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves historical fiction.

Thank you to Kelly Rimmer, NetGalley, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC of The German Wife.