I love WWII historical fiction, and this did not disappoint. It was a new angle, featuring a storyline I was very unfamiliar with—how had I never heard about Dachau porcelain until now?? I enjoyed the characters and very much sympathized with their hardships. I do wish the book included a section in the back that gave nod to the historical aspects, but perhaps that will be in the final version.

To start I really enjoyed reading this book – 5 stars. The story begins with a daughter trying to find out who her father is. Her mother survived the war in Germany, but never shared who her father really was. The story goes back and forth from the beginning of WWII and present day, but is easy to follow. Bettina a controversial artist (who is not Jewish) meets Max, a Jewish architect. They fall in love. They manage to stay together during most of the war. Bettina is pregnant with Max’s baby - Clara. Present day – Bettina has passed away – never revealing to Clara who her father was. Clara and her granddaughter now try to solve the mystery. When a group of porcelain figures come up during an auction they finally have something to investigate. This is the first book written by Sarah Freethy and I hope not the last.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins press for the opportunity to read this ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a wonderful debut novel! This is a great mix of historical fiction and romance. I look forward to reading more from this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

Thank you so much netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.
I have been so into historical fiction lately and this one was beautiful. It is absolutely one of my top historical fiction reads of the year. This absolutely stuck with me and I loved the dual timelines

Thank you netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I looooveeeeee WW2 era historical romance novels, and this one has beautiful writing that just pulled me in; mind you, it does take a bit to set the story up and the pacing is quite slow at first, but once it gets going, it's a great story.

I love the alternating timelines, it keeps the story moving, I think.

I really enjoyed this.

The writing style is so immersive I could see everything and felt like I was right there in the room in every scene.

Clara is as such a strong character that I loved following her through her search for answers.

Bettina and Max and their story was so amazing I would recommend this story. It kept me wanting more and more.

I had never heard of this porcelain shop in Dachau before and this was intriguing to read about. The SS and their destruction of humans to have this porcelain factory that made fine porcelain to further the love of their country just seems so out of place to me.

This was a great read!

The Porcelain Maker is very well written, and the book's premise is excellent. I struggled to get into it as it was a very slow start. I would start to get into the ~1930s timeline and get invested, and then it would change to the 1990s timeline. It was hard to connect and route for the characters when it changed so much at the novel's start. I wish there had been more of a love story at the beginning on how the main character's parents got together. It seemed like they met, and then suddenly, they were living together in the next chapter, and there wasn't much of a love story. The description for the book says it is an epic story of love, but I saw loyalty to each other, and yes, there was love, but I don't know about epic. They went through trials, but for me, there needed to be more detail to make me truly be in love with them as a couple. It was anti-climactic when the main character found out who her father was and what had happened. There is so much leading up to it, and then she finds out, and that's it. The ending wraps up nicely. This book would do well as a movie since it would show more about the character's feelings, and I didn't get that from the book. Overall it is a good book and worth the read. I just wanted more details in certain areas and more information to make the story more compelling.

I love World War II ere historical fiction and this one did not disappoint. This was a wonderful, yet heartbreaking story. The story captured me from the beginning and I felt connected to the characters throughout the book. Highly recommend!

The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy captures your heart and mind immediately. It is a story about love and loss during the 1920’s and 1930’s in Germany. A young architect, Max, and a lovely avant-garde artist, Bettina, meet in Berlin. But as their relationship deepens, Nazism takes root in Germany. It is a story about survival and sacrifices during difficult times. Sarah Freethy uses such vivid descriptions of the characters’ actions and feelings that you feel as if you are a part of the story. This is a book I could not put down because I wanted to learn more about Max and Bettina. The story also takes place in current times as Bettina’s daughter Clara tries to discover more about her own identity. Clara is persistent in her quest for her past as she uncovers one clue at a time in spite of the hidden secrets. I highly recommend this book to readers who love historical fiction and stories of survival and courage in the face of love and loss. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

While I enjoyed this book, it did seem to be a slow read. I had a hard time sticking with it. I did finish it because I wanted to know what happened to Max and Bettina, and I enjoyed the plot. I just wish it had been harder to put down.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of "The Porcelain Maker" in exchange for my honest review.

The story is told from two perspectives. In Germany between the years 1925 and 1946. In the US and England between 1993 and 1994. Clara Vogel goes to an auction in Cinncinati in August 1993 where she bids on porcelain animal figurines that all bear the mark of the SS. She believes that these figurines will lead her to answer the greatest question of her life - who her father is. The figurines lead her to an assisted living facility where Ezra Adler a sculptor from Europe lived until a month ago when he passed away. When Clara looks about Ezra's apartment she finds a photo of her mother Bettina dated 1941 in Dachau. Clara is sure that the Porcelain Maker of Dachau is her father. She joins forces with her daughter Lotte to learn as much as she can about her mother's life. Bettina who has passed away was very secretive and told very little of her life to Clara. Clara is trying to balance out her fear - wanting to know what happened but scared that she will learn something awful.

In Germany in 1925 Max Ehrlich is an architect and he meets artist Bettina Vogel. Bettina's brother is a brown shirt and doesn't approve of his sister being an artist or her spending time with Max who is Jewish. They make plans to follow Max's family to Switzerland but Bettina's brother has Max arrested while Bettina is waiting for him at the train station. To protect her unborn child - all she feels she has left of Max, Bettina marries an evil, vile man named Karl Holz. His sister Liesl is even more ambitious than Karl and hopes to climb the social ladder through her brother, to her status matters above all else. She is cruel and mean to Bettina at every chance.

While at Dachau Max manages to use his architecture experience to be sent to the Porzellan Manufaktur Allach where he meets Ezra Adler. He creates fine porcelain figurines and is reunited with his beloved Bettina when he recognizes that the pieces he is creating are from her paintings. Clara finds a way to be at the factory painting the figurines so she can be close to Max. It seems that there is always something conspiring to keep them apart.

When Clara meets Holger Ostendorf she learns all the missing pieces of her life and she and her daughter find a way to honour the life and legacy of Bettina Vogel.

There is a lot of tragedy in this story, a lot of hope and it is all beautifully written and very sensitive to the subject.

Such a touching book! The descriptions of Germany are beautiful. The descriptions of Decau are heartbreaking. One woman looking for the truth and the path she takes to find it leads her on a journey of discovery about her mother in Germany just before WWII and the horrors that were inflicted on anyone who didn't go along with the Nazi rules. Beautifully written with wonderful insight into the horrific history of one of the world's saddest times.

One of my favorite reads this year. The imagery is haunting and the story absolutely captivating. The Porcelain Maker is a must-read for historical fiction fans and romance fans alike. The author does a beautiful job juxtaposing the horrors of Nazi Germany with the beauty of art and love in many forms. The pace is arresting - I simply could not put this book down once I started.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting swept up in the romance of Bettina and Max's early carefree love affair; their budding romance made all the more inviting when you know of the unrest to come. The WWII story is interpolated with Clara's story set in the early 1990s and her quest to find out who her father was. The gumbo of art and love as a powerful measure of resistance and hope carried this tale to new heights; the bonus being that the plot was also extremely well-executed and supported by engaging characters. Each character served a critical role in the richness and momentum of the story and I was invested in the where-do-they-each-end-up? until the very end.

Highly, highly recommend this great book. For those who do not read, I hope they make it a movie! A really special story.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley.
I read a lot of WWII historical fiction, but the love between these two people still moved me as much as anything I have ever read. If you were in love with a Jewish person in Germany as WWII began, would you have hastened to leave or would you have stuck it out, waiting for the world to come to it's senses? A dual timeline story between the 1990s and the 1940s as their love story is shared with us.

The Porcelain Maker is another World War II that unearthed another facet of the Nazi plans. It amazed me how a group so unfeeling about people had such an interest in acquiring and producing art. This story showed so many people and how they succumbed to the Third Reich or managed to use them.
Great book! Thank you NetGalley!

I cannot believe this is a debut book. This is my favorite historical genre to read, and this book was wonderful. It kept me engaged from page 1 until I finished it a few hours later. A wonderful story with great characters and an engaging plot. FANTASTIC! I can't wait to see what this author comes up with next. A must read for all fans of WW2 historical novels.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this eARC.

Sarah Freethy's The Porcelain Maker is grounded in a fascinating story of artists caught in the turmoil of World War II, struggling to survive and sometimes using their art to survive (a porcelain artist in Dachau). For me, this book was a bit of a difficult read. I had issues with the characterization and the dialogue. So, I can support this book as a glimpse into an interesting era and the people in it, but the actual book was maybe less rewarding for me.

I love historical fiction and in the end I loved this book which was set during World War II and in the 1990s. However, it was very slow going at the beginning and it took me more than a minute to really get into it, but I am glad that I did, because when it was all over, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters could have been more developed, it could have gotten to the point of the plot a little bit earlier, and I could have been made to care about what was happening sooner. However, I hung in there and was rewarded for my time and effort, because by the end of the book I was fully invested and was glad that I didn’t give up too soon. I recommend this book to those of you who are willing to read a slow paced beginning in order to enjoy a good story in the end. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

Sarah Freethy’s The Porcelain Maker gives us the dual timeline story of Clara’s search for her father’s identity. The only clue she knows is that he was the porcelain maker at Dachau. Clara hears of an auction of ceramic figurines, marked by the Nazis, that is taking place in Cincinnati. She arrives to bid on the items and asks if there is any word of the seller, hoping it will lead her to a name. She goes to a senior residential center where the seller has recently died. Upon getting permission to look at his room, she finds a picture of her mother with two other men.

She returns to England and enlists the assistance of her daughter, Lotte, to help her find out the truth. Their research takes them from London to Dachau in hopes of piecing together her history and why her mother chose to remain silent about her lineage. Clara learns of her mother’s family and their role in all that happened to her mother during the war. She learns of how the porcelain figures are a part of who her parents were during the war and ultimately why she never met her father. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy. Opinions expressed are my own. This book is set for publication on November 6, 2023.

#netgalley #arc #bookstagram #theporcelainmaker #sarahfreethy #stmartinspress

This is the third time that I have written a review on this book. I am thinking that I must not have saved the other times that I wrote it. This book is about two generations. Bettina and her daughter Clara. Clara’s story is more recent- the 1990s, I believe in the United States. She is searching for her father. Bettina’s story is the 1930s in Germany and she is searching for love. Bettina is an artist specializing in porcelain. I am not sure why but this book was a little difficult for me to stick with and at times to follow. I honestly think that it was my problem and not the books. I didn’t feel like I was invested enough in the book to care much about the characters. Clara would have been a “fringe friend “ and I probably would not have known Bettina at all. I’m sorry if this doesn’t make sense but it is honestly how I feel about this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest review.