I love reading historical fiction! And this one is no exception! It is full of hurt and action. There was a lot of that during WWII! Give this a read you won't be disappointed! Thank you Mary for a great book!

I love historical fictions and have read many. However, this is one of the few I have read from the perspective of the German side. For a good part of the book, though I wanted to follow the Family through their journey, I found it very slow and almost did not finish. Thankfully I stuck through it as in the end I did enjoy the book. If you are in the mood for a slow build, then this book is for you.
Thanks to Netgalley and Book Whisper for the free copy.

An emotional journey of a family caught in the throes of war. Got to read the story through a different perspective. Thoroughly enjoyed it

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

This is an eye-opening account of WWII from the German perspective.

Josef Haupt is anti-Hitler and anti-Nazi! But when he is forced to become a Nazi supervisor or be sent to a concentration camp, he must make the best of the situation.

The reader learns about the hardships his family and others must endure to survive during these times. The end of the war is not the end of the story for many people, as the Russians come to punish those who worked for the Nazis.

Rich in historical detail, this novel told the story of a German family during WWII and the difficulties they faced. The writing and research was excellently done
Many thanks to The Book Whisperer and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Overview:
Following Margarette and her families struggles during WW2, a large German family who owned and ran a farm. Their lives turned upside down by the reign of Hitler. Highlighting the raw and honest account of German citizens who were opposed to Nazi ruling and struggled to morally accept the fate dealt to them and their friends/ neighbours.

Review:
A heartbreaking story of family, love and loss.
It really highlights the tragedy’s faced by German citizens who were victims of war in their own country.
This was truly a great read, I could not put it down. I adored Margaret and her father Joseph. It hit home how love always wins and family is the true meaning of peace and happiness.
I cried multiple times. This book is so important to highlight the German citizens and the devastation they faced to endure a war they did not support or believe in, to turn their backs on their friends and neighbours due to their religious beliefs is terrifying and heartbreaking. Based on a true story.

This is a good read, but at times it is a tough read. The setting is the beginning of WWII. This is the story of a Prussian farm family. They are prosperous. The reader observes as life worsens gradually as they are pulled into the Nazi regime as it pushes into their world. At the end, it is a story of survival. If you enjoy WWII fiction, try this book for a different angle. I read an electronic version courtesy.of Net Galley.

An interesting story about a well to do German man and his family. Showed the good, bad, and ugly of life during and after WWII.

The story of the Haupt family growing up on a large farm in East Prussia, 4 boys and 4 girls. It starts before the Second World War and highlights the opportunities the family has, education and every means to live well. One day The father Josef and one of his daughters Margarete head into town for groceries. Dad sees one of his very good friends, an elderly well respected man sweeping the streets. He approaches and asks him what on earth is he is doing. The gentleman ignores him, but the gestapo don’t! He is ordered to the police station. He is interrogated and screamed at for talking to a Jew. It is the era of Hitler! The family has a choice, support the Reich or……..How their life changes, it is a very sad emotional story. Albeit a fascinating one that is extremely well researched and written but be aware it is the war and there are some very powerful agonizing accounts. It is based on a true story of the authors family and reminds us that not all Germans were against the Jews.

Good Town written by Mary Louise Wells, is my Number #1 Book of 2023! And I mainly read mystery thrillers, so this book was new to my fertile my literary mystery mind. It's a story about a East Prussian Catholic farming family. Joseph Haupt is the initial main storysetter with Dorothy's and the crop of four sons in birth order, followed by an equal number of daughters. Their town is being torn apart as the Nazis are quickly replacing the town's interstructure. As the Haupts continue to work their family farm, the Nazis force the use of foreign POWs as farmhands. As each son is systematically drafted into military service, Joseph feels he is losing his control. As the waging war continues, Hitler begins to pull in his forces as well as making Haupts and townspeople into prisoners. First into cattle cars, then their mode of transportation devolves to by foot. This heart-wrenching WWII historical fiction is a true 'tissues needed'! I so enjoyed my first Mary Louise Wells' work and although I got emotional, it's a good feeling!
I highly recommend this outstanding novel of 'complicity and courage'!!!

This is a book you just have to read. it is a beautifully done WW2 novel, and it will stay in your heart for a long time. I do recommend taking time to read this book, as it is very well written.

During WWII, Josef, a famer with a large family, is forced to work for the German Reich. Ashamed of his new position, he turns away from his Jewish neighbors as they are humiliated and removed from town. His eldest daughter Margarete is forced to grow up fast as one by one her brothers are conscripted into the military. As the war draws to a close, the family is stuck in Soviet occupied Germany, where they are chased from their home, beaten, raped, and left destitute.

The book alternated between Josef and Margarete's points of view. At the beginning of the book, Margerete was a young child and her point of view did not contribute much to the book. I wish one of her brother's was featured instead of, or in addition to her. The plot moved a bit slowly. Overall, 3 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to @marylouisewells for writing such a great read focusing on a little explored aspect of the devastation caused by the Nazi regime with additional harm from the Soviets. In following a family from a region squeezed between Germany and Poland we see the good and bad of WW II. I would follow this family further if given the opportunity. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher, Posit Publishing for this arc of #goodtown to read and review, all opinions are my own.

This book gets in your feels...

The fact that it's based on a true story really got me. I grew up hearing, "How could the people who lived there let that happen? Didn't these people know? Couldn't they smell the crematoriums? Why didn't they do anything?"

This narrative tells the why.. It tells the reason some of the people made the choices they had to. It tells the horrors and atrocities of war. It tells the difficult decisions a father had to make for his children. It tells the treatment of those in power, at one point the Nazis another the Russians, toward those they control.

Majority of the book is told through the eyes of Josef and Margarete. There are sprinklings of other voices, but mainly these two characters. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever asked the questions posed above.

I was giving the opportunity to read this book by NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Good Town by Mary Louise Wells is an important contribution to the genre of WWII historical fiction because it gives us a realistic look at life inside rural northeastern Germany starting in 1937 and continuing through the early post war period. As briefly explained in the book, the setting of East Prussia is significant in that it was no longer part of Germany after WWI, so it was territory Hitler was seeking to repatriate. As Germany was loosing the war this area fell to the Russians and today is divided between Poland and Lithuania.
Good Town is the story of the ethnically German Haupt family. Josef Haupt is a prosperous and well-respected farmer living with his wife and 8 children (4 sons and 4 daughters) on the outskirts of the medieval town of Guttstadt (translation: good town). These are essentially good people, not without weaknesses and biases, but they are moral individuals. Josef commits a serious infraction, He is caught speaking in public to a Jew whom he has known and with whom he has done business for years. As a result, he is forced to become the Nazi party’s local farming community leader or face dire consequences for his family and his farm. Despite the moral and ethical dilemma this poses for him, as someone who does not support the Nazi philosophy and agenda, there is really no choice when it comes to making the decision to do what is required to survive and protect his family.
Yes, Germany was the enemy, but not every German was the enemy in the sense the leadership was. Many were simply cogs in the wheel of the Nazi military machine. One cannot read this without seeing the parallels on both sides of the conflict. Deteriorating conditions, bombings and personal loses were much like what was being experienced by countries in which Germany was the aggressor. The postwar situation was even worse, as the Russians retaliated for the treatment they had received at the hands of the Germans and the Poles made every effort to expel the remaining Germans from territory newly ceded to Poland.
For me as a reader, Good Town was thought provoking, soul searching and powerful. These are things I have said when I read other novels of WWII and the Holocaust. The degree may be different but the thoughts and emotions are grounded in the same human experiences of trauma.
The only drawback was in writing style and pacing in the first 1/3 of the book. Its slowness and simplicity made me question whether the book was meant for a YA audience. As this was not the case in the remainder of the book, it may have been purposeful. Overall my response to the book was very positive and it has my strong recommendation. The storyline is absorbing, the characters are realistic and the history accurate.
Thank you to to author, the publisher The Book Whisperer, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC.

Good Town is a gut wrenching story that will tug at all of your emotions. This book had me turning the pages so fast to see what would happen!
Not only is this an amazing story, but it is based on true events. It tells the story of a Catholic, German family, living in East Prussia. It focuses on Josef, a pious husband and father of eight, and his daughter Margarete, a young girl coming into womanhood. It is a heart wrenching story of one family’s survival. I didn’t want the story to end, but I loved the ending!
I never knew that East Prussia, which is now mostly part of Poland, was once part of Germany. I went down a rabbit hole of research, and I learned so much about the war and people in East Prussia. Many thanks to the author and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

READ THIS BOOK IF YOU
Want to “ugly” cry
Are looking for a “different” type of WWII story

I read books about World War II all the time, generally from the point of view of the victims on the camps. This is a different, but equally compelling story about other victims of the war. It was a good story based on some family history. Difficult reading because of the subject mattter, but worth the read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review.
I have read many books on the holocaust though this is the first coming from the gentile Germans experience. A heartbreaking story told via a loving and beautiful family who endured a living hell as well as many other Germans. This book opens your hearts and minds to so many people who you may not have even thought about when the words Holocaust, Hitler or Nazi are heard…this brought me to tears many times.

This was an intriguing book and offers a perspective not seen in the World War II genre. What would happen if your family found themselves on the wrong side of history. Humans are complex and often history is complex. The characters are multidimensional and the story is handled with compassion. There is reference to atrocities and hatred, but I did not find it overly graphic. Overall a very engaging read.

The setting of Good Town is in East Prussia and traces a well to do Catholic family during the unimaginable hardships of the Nazi occupation. The choices they made and how they were treated shows another face of Nazi brutality. If Hitler were not bad enough, the horrors of the treatment by the Russians were equally brutal. . But goodness, kindness, breeding, and love of family will help these people rebuild their lives once more. Every book on the Holocaust offers different insight and this one is no different. The characters were vivid, the writing was excellent. I recommend it highly.