This was a unique and very moving book about love, sacrifice, and the choices we make. A dual timeline historical fiction-- 1990s and 1930s/1940s about a German woman and Austrian Jewish man and their love and circumstances to try to be together. I highly recommend for historical fiction readers.

Solid historical fiction novel told in alternating timeframes across one family. Bettina and Max fell in love before the Nazi regime took hold. As one Christian and one Jew, can their love story survive the Nazi takeover and the Holocaust? Will the next generations of their families ever discover the truth?

This dual timeline novel takes place during WWII and in 1993. Bettina is an art student, following in the Kandinsky’s school of art, when she meets a Jewish student of architecture, Max. Their relationship is a problem from the beginning, since they are in Germany where marriage to a Jew is prohibited. Their relationship deepens, but as the situation in Germany worsens, their relationship is fraught with danger. In 1993, Clara is still mourning the death of her mother, but more than that, hoping to find her real father when final mutterings by her mother admit that Karl Holz is not her real father. Clara flies to Germany to try to find the truth, bringing her daughter Lotte with her. The story of art determined degenerate by the Nazis enriches the story. Well written and recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy is a fascinating novel set in two different time periods. The historical fiction is well researched and fascinating. I have read many books about this time period but I’ve never read one quite like this one. Here is the story of art in the midst of war. I think readers of this genre will enjoy this book. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

The story begins at a small art auction where Clara Vogel buys all of one very specific type of porcelain. The search for the maker of the porcelain will hopefully lead her to her father. The art is from the Nazi regime and Clara's determination leads her to learn about her mother and father and their story of how love and art would be destroyed in war.

This is a touching and heartbreaking story as you’d expect with love and war at its core. Not being familiar with the way the Nazi's dealt with "deginerate" art, this book was wonderful at dealing with the history and making the terror of war very real.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the digital ARC.

The porcelain maker is a deep and richly nuanced novel. I was late finishing this for review on NetGalley but am thankful I took my time to read it slowly and savor it. This is a beautiful story of love and sacrifice, despite the ugliness in the world around.

I think this was a well written story that took hold of my heart and held on. Anything that deals with history needs to be shared. Needs to be read. We certainly don't want to have any of it repeated.

What happens in this story was horrible. The way a family treats each other is horrendous. Bettina's brother was a very sadistic person. Cruel to the marrow of his being. I didn't like him. Of course I don't like any Nazi that I've ever read about so this would not be any different.

This is a love story and a story about how awful things were during WW2. The love between Max, a Jew, and Bettina, a German, is beautiful. They fell in love despite the odds against them. Despite the fact that Bettina's brother was a German who wanted nothing more than to dominate her. He seemed to hate women. Actually I think possibly he hated all things and was a very unhappy person. Bettina fell in love with someone she wasn't suppose too. She could not stop her feelings even if she wanted. Much like most humans in the world, we just don't get to choose who our hearts yearn for the most. Sometimes you have to make a decision that goes against everything you ever thought to protect a person you love above all else. That is what happened in this case.

This story is very heartbreaking. It's about a man who makes porcelain figurines in a prison for people who are just not good enough. Jews, disabled, homosexuals, are anyone that is not perfect. It's also about how much Max loves Bettina. What he is willing to do to protect her. What happened between them that caused her to marry another. A German at that. A Nazi German.

It's also the story of Bettina's daughter. Her search for her father. She wants to know who he was and enlists her daughter's help in finding out all she can. Clara, Bettina's daughter, goes all the way to the United States to purchase porcelain figurines and one in particular. From there she starts her search. She ends up in Dachau.

From the darkest days in history to the late 1900s we follow this story. It's told from two timelines and interwoven in a way that keeps you wanting to know more. Will they ever find their way back to each other. I can't tell you that but the story between is told with heart, soul and the deepest feelings. It's part happy and a lot sad, but well worth reading.

I hope everyone that reads this genre of book learns something and teaches it to their children. We do not want history to repeat itself. Do not think it can't. We had the Indians, then the Slaves, then the prisoners in concentration camps. Mostly Jews but also other innocent people. We don't want a repeat of any of these.

This is written by a debut author so expect a few mistakes. It's not perfect but it's perfectly worth reading from start to finish. Well done in my humble opinion.

Thank you #NetGalley, #SarahFreethy, #StMartinsPress for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

Five big stars and several boxes of kleenex worthy.

A WWII novel about an artist,Bettina, and an architect, Max, that fall in love; one being Jewish the other not. The story is told in alternating chapters with first taking place in the late 30s to early 40s Germany to the 1990s in Cincinnati, Ohio and Europe. Clare, Bettina's daughter, is trying to find out who her father was as her mother would never really disclose who he was. So, Clare and her daughter, Lottie. set out to find out what they can about a porcelain figure that her Bettina had.
This story details what happens to Max as he is imprisoned by the Nazis and held in the concentration camp of Dachau. Max becomes the porcelain maker of Dachau. There was an actual porcelain factory in Dachau which is the inspiration for this novel.

This book is absolutely wonderful! It's a beautifully written story that will keep you turning the pages to see what happens next. This book will stay in your mind long after you turn the last page. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of historical fiction.
I received a complimentary copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley and was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Porcelain Maker is a dual time period story that revolves around an unknown part of WW2 history that was new for this reader. I was lucky to get both the digital arc in audio and kindle format - I love being a hybrid reader. Both worked nicely, the reader for the audio was stellar bringing this story to life.

The past story begins in 1929 giving the history of Bertie and Max's relationship and what transpired until they meet again in Dachau concentrate camp. In Dachau there is a porcelain factory where this story gets its inspiration.

Jump ahead to 1993 as Bertie's daughter seeks to trace her roots and find out who her father really is.

The Porcelain Marker is an intriguing story that was well written, mysterious and heart breaking, given the time period how could it be anything but. Definitely a good fit for those HF readers who like something different.

I love the author notes, I miss them especially in a story like this. It would have been great to know the author's inspiration and what was fact vs fiction.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press and Macmillain Audio for advanced copies in exchange for a honest review.

The Porcelain Maker is a heartfelt yet heartbreaking story about the Bauhaus Movement. Told through dual timelines, the story is filled with art, love, hope, and heartbreak. In the present day, Clara and Lotte are determined to find the identity of Clara’s father through the traces of a porcelain piece. During World War II, Max and Bettina met and fell in love. As Nazi Germany imposes more restrictions and increases dangers to Bettina & Max's relationship, with the enlisted help of friends, they flee to Bavaria. Max gets captured and sent to Dachau to work on creating the most exquisite pieces of porcelain, which were much sought after by the Nazi regime. Bettina hopes to seee Max again.

This was a great debut, and I enjoyed reading the book. I had never heard about the Bauhaus Movement before. It was eye-opening to learn about what the Nazis were attempting to do at this factory and their belief in the making of these porcelain pieces. The storyline was great, but I hoped to see Clara and Lotte’s storyline more developed. Most of the book was focused on Max and Bettina, and I felt like Clara’s storyline could have been expanded more. I highly recommend this book if you're a fan of history fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and to St. Martin Press for my copy of the book.

Based on real people and events this is historical fiction set in WWII told through duel timelines. The story begins in the United States in 1993 when a woman named Clara purchases porcelain artifacts from a German WWII factory. Clara knows that these porcelain objects are integral to her recently deceased mother Bettina’s secret past and is determined to find out why. In 1937, Bettina, a German artist meets and falls in love with Jewish architect Max. As it becomes evident that there’s an increasing realization of German invasion Bettina and Max plan to meet at the train station to escape from the city. On his way to the train station Max is captured, beaten and sent to Dauchau. Because he’s an artist in training, he is forced into labor at a porcelain factory creating Nazi approved art. Meanwhile Bettina realizes that she is pregnant with Max’s child and quickly marries a high ranking German officer to be an upstanding citizen but also in the hope of finding out what has happened to Max. This is a story of undying love, perseverance, hate and human sacrifice. Knowing how many novels have been written about WWII and its history I still recommend it for anyone interested in reading historical fiction. This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a highly emotional read but absolutely excellent! As someone who has read quite a bit of WW2 era historical fiction-I still gravitate to books set during this time. The Porcelain Maker, especially with being based on real events, was a fantastic read for anyone who enjoys this genre or is just starting out with it.

I found this book to be very interesting and intriguing. I would recommend this a friend because this is a book for everyone. I really enjoyed emerging myself into this book and it was just wonderful. This book evened my eyes to quite a few things and it’s one of those books that I’ll think about for quite awhile.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.

Sometimes I struggle with historical fiction, but the dual timeline and romance of this one really made it enjoyable to read. While heavy at times, because, WWII.... Still a good one I'd recommend.

3 ⭐️ — no happy ending!!! i know this is a wwii story but it was bleak from start to finish. i found it difficult to connect with the characters, they could have been fleshed out more, and the ending was completely devastating and unsatisfying. it felt rushed at the end, and I think the pacing throughout could have been better to give a better flow

Important things you need to know about the book:

Pace: The pace of The Porcelain Maker was medium throughout most of the book. It did speed up towards the end (when Bettina tried to flee Germany with Max).

Trigger/Content Warning: The Porcelain Maker contains content and trigger warnings. If any of these triggers you, I suggest not reading the book. They are:

Antisemitism (graphic)
War and War themes (graphic)
Violence (graphic)
Classism (moderate)
Dementia (moderate)
Depression (moderate)
PTSD (moderate)
Alcohol Consumption (moderate)
Dead Bodies (moderate)
Suicide (minor)
Starvation (moderate)
Grief (graphic)
Confinement (graphic)
Gun violence (moderate)
Murder (graphic)
Concentration Camp (moderate)
Genocide (moderate)
Mass Murder (moderate)
Abusive Relationship (minor)
Mental Health Hospitalization (minor)
Sexual Content: There is sexual content in The Porcelain Maker. It was not graphic.

Language: There is moderate swearing in The Porcelain Maker. But there is offensive language used (slurs against Jewish people).

Setting: The Porcelain Maker is set in several locations. In Bettina and Max’s section of the book, the locations were various parts of Germany. In Clara’s book sections, the settings were Cincinnati, London, and Germany.

Tropes: War, Combining Real and Fiction Events, Including Historical Figures as Characters, Dual Timeline, What Life was Like, Survivor’s Guilt, Death Used as Catalyst, Bittersweet Ending, Alternation POV, Trauma

Age Range: I recommend The Porcelain Maker to anyone over 21.

Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

Max and Bettina fall in love in the golden years between World War I and World War II. But, with the rise of Nazism, Max is soon captured and thrown into Dachau. What saves him from manual labor is an unexpected friend he had made at Allach’s famous porcelain factory and his talent for creating porcelain figures. Desperate to save Max, Bettina will do anything to save him. That includes planning a daring escape from Allach with Max. Will that escape happen?

Desperate to find out her father’s identity, Clara starts on a journey tracing her roots with the sparse clues her mother left her. But, what Clara discovers will shake her to her core and make her question everything she knew about her mother. Will Clara find out who her father is? And why didn’t her mother tell her?

Main Characters

Max Erlich: I liked Max. He truly loved Bettina and was willing to step back to let her shine. I was enraged with how he was captured (I was yelling at my Kindle). Then, I knew his plotline would go two ways: a happy ending way or the way that would shatter me (and Bettina). So, I wasn’t surprised by how it ended.

Bettina Vogel: This woman was strong. She knew her mind from the beginning and wasn’t about letting anyone tell her what to do. She had a plan to get out of Germany before Max was captured. But, when he was arrested, her plan had to be adjusted a bit. I disagreed with her marrying the SS guy, but I understood why she did it. What I didn’t understand was her after World War II. What was done to her messed her head up, but willingly not telling her child something that important made me scratch my head. Still, regardless of her choices, I liked her a lot.

Clara Vogel: I felt terrible for Clara. At times, she was chasing shadows and rumors about her father. I liked that her doggedness got her answers. That scene at Dachau, talking to a Holocaust survivor and looking at records, gave me chills.

My review:

When I started to read The Porcelain Maker, I was expecting it to be like other World War II/Nazi Germany books. The main character is captured by the Nazis, forced into concentration camps, and either done to them or seen horrendous things. But not in this case. In this case, while the horror of Dachau was there, it was muted and kept in the background. Which is what made the violence and racist remarks that Max endured at the porcelain factory even more shocking.

This book was an emotional read for me. I grew up in a predominantly Jewish community in Massachusetts. Several of my neighbors, friends, grandparents, and teachers survived concentration camps during World War II. Nothing was talked about, and seeing those inked, blue numbers wasn’t out of the ordinary for us. It wasn’t until a local woman started talking to the middle and high school about the Holocaust and what she endured that I truly got a sense of what happened.

The Porcelain Maker has three separate storylines. Those storylines follow Max, Bettina, and Clara. Max and Bettina’s storylines merge at the beginning of the book, but they separate once they move to Allach. Each storyline was well-written, and each had its twist that surprised me.

The storyline with Max affected me the most. I genuinely liked him and wanted everything to turn out well. But, after he moved to Allach with Bettina, I felt that everything that happened to him (and to her) was predestined. I wanted to change how the author wrapped up his storyline. I wasn’t surprised, but it wasn’t something that I wanted to happen.

The storyline with Bettina also affected me. As I said in her character section, I thought she was strong. Once the Nazis put Max into Dachau, everything she did was to protect her baby and, ultimately, to work towards seeing Max again. Did I agree or like everything she did? No, but I did understand. I also understood why she was so broken in Clara’s recollections. Living through something like that and with what was done to her would scar anyone.

The storyline with Clara intrigued me. I liked seeing her journey to finding out who her father was. What I liked even more was that the author set the storyline in 1993. There were few computers or internet access back then (I remember using dial-up in 1994 or 1995 for the first time). Clara had actually to do the research. I liked how she got one tiny breadcrumb after another, eventually leading to someone who knew her father. I won’t lie; I did get emotional while reading her storyline. I got all the emotions and then some.

The end of The Porcelain Maker was perfect. I won’t say anything about what was written except that I liked it. And the epilogue was just as good. Talk about a tribute!!!!

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Sarah Freethy for allowing me to read and review this ARC of The Porcelain Maker. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

I'm not going to replay the publisher's description of the book but get right to my reaction to it. The Porcelain Maker is everything historical fiction should be! Sarah Freethy does an excellent job of engaging her readers' interest and placing them in each scene with her vivid descriptions and complex, compelling characters.

A love story which crosses generations, combined with the raw horror and intense brutality of Naziism, its view on art and culture (that deemed worthy to be embraced and that thought so offensive it must be eradicated), and a mystery as well, kept me flipping pages throughout. This was a book that I could nestle up with and which I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

My thanks to St. Martin's Books for permitting me to read a DRC of the book via NetGalley. All views and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

Simply heartbreaking. As the Nazis began to assert greater control and deliver greater fear, Max and Bettina fight for their love and their life together. Known as the Porcelain Maker, Max’s work is applauded but his identity is hidden for good reason. With the tragedies of the war in the forefront, this book will tug at your heartstrings until the very end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Wonderful story of a daughter (1993) unraveling the mystery of her parents. Max and Bettina are her parents (1929) and the story of the horrors of WWII and Dachau. Unbelievable strength and bravery to protect those you love.