This was a very difficult but important book to have read. Quite honestly, I was seduced by the cover and had I actually read the summary of the book, either on NetGalley or Goodreads, I might not have ever read it. I have taught Holocaust literature in 13 out of my 20 years of teaching and have numerous books about the Holocaust and Hitler and have had my fill. Or at least I thought I did.
The author, Adriana Allegri, took a very emotionally wrenching subject and rendered it very realistically, no doubt through exceedingly meticulous and comprehensive research. I have not read Holocaust literature from the perspective of Germans. She faced an uphill battle, needing to convey pure evil in some Nazi characters portrayed in the book, without turning them into cardboard figures, as well as Germans who were themselves in danger because they were not purely Aryan, who faced gut wrenching decisions as they had to portray themselves as Nazis while trying to save Jews, making morally ambiguous decisions.
I learned a great deal about the Eugenics movement in Nazi Germany as well and while it is something I had always heard about, it is hard to read too much about. I never knew any specifics about these homes where they hid what they perceived to be the less inferior infants and young children before they reached their deaths or about what anyone tried to do to change or alter these outcomes. I don't know if I will be able to do this, because there are already so many unhappy things in the world right now, but this book has made me interested in researching the Eugenics movement.
The love and romance between Allina and Karl was moving and so realistically drawn as well as necessary for the book. It would have been impossible to read about such a grave and distressing topic if we could not see any joy or connect to the characters. In other words, the book would have been too unbearable and relentless to read without this.
This book should be on high school curricula everywhere. Obviously, the book, Night, is important and it is a memoir but this book could serve a similar purpose and perhaps be a bit more palatable.
Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this wonderful book, in exchange for my honest opinions.

The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri is a very well written and engaging debut novel about the Lebensborn Program in Germany. It is an entertaining, fast paced story about WWII which is based on actual events. A truly moving story with strong characters in it. This is one of those books that keeps you reading late into the night.

The story centers around a young woman named Allina and the Nazi run Lebensborn program. An important SS officer, Karl takes a liking to Allina . Not all is as it seems. Even in terrible times romance can bloom. Together they work to help others and even save some of them from the horrors going on around them.

This book arouses a gambit of emotions in the reader from fear, panic, anger, grief, and hope in the good in some humans during horrific times. A must read for fans of historical fiction. I highly recommend this book to everyone, and look forward to this author’s next book.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book.

Adriana Allegri’s The Sunflower House is a harrowing yet deeply moving exploration of courage, resilience, and love in the face of unimaginable horrors. This meticulously researched debut sheds light on the notorious Lebensborn Program of Nazi Germany, weaving historical truth with a story that feels personal and profound.

Allina Strauss is an unforgettable protagonist. Her journey from a seemingly idyllic life in a German village to the heart of a chilling eugenics program is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Allegri masterfully captures Allina’s internal conflict as she navigates the constant threat of exposure while risking everything to protect the innocent lives in her care.

The setting of Hochland Home is hauntingly vivid, a stark reminder of humanity’s capacity for both cruelty and compassion. The romance between Allina and Karl adds depth and complexity, balancing the darkness of their reality with the hope and defiance that love can inspire. Their shared determination to resist injustice is both compelling and deeply emotional.

What sets The Sunflower House apart is Allegri’s ability to weave historical detail seamlessly into a narrative that feels intimate and raw. Themes of identity, sacrifice, and redemption resonate long after the final page. This is a story that doesn’t shy away from the atrocities of the past but also highlights the resilience of the human spirit.

A must-read for fans of historical fiction, The Sunflower House is a poignant tale of loss, survival, and the enduring power of love and resistance. Adriana Allegri has crafted a debut that will stay with readers for years to come.

TW: SA, murder, and all of the things that made WWII so very horrific.

“Doctors are all well and good, but they have no understanding of God‘s time. Promise me you’ll try to live with hope.”

“You remind me of my granddaughter.” 🤢

Let me first say this is a debut author/novel. It’s insane that this book can be that well written, thought out and researched for someone publishing their first novel and then for the prose to be so on perfect. The pacing of this book was everything it should be, my attention never left this story.

A gripping tale of sacrifice and resilience in the face of the darkest days of world history. A reminder that not everything is as it seems and there are good people everywhere, sometimes hiding in plain sight, just waiting for the right moment to take decisive action potentially changing the course of history.

While this book was sad, it also provided hope and connection to the main characters.

I think this would make a fantastic movie. Just remember to bring those tissues.

The story begins when Katrine's mother, Allina, falls from a step stool spraining her wrist. While looking in her closet she finds a wooden box with a swastika on the front. Her mother raised her alone and Katrine never knew anything about her father and now she is horrified to think he was a Nazi. Allina finally tells Katrine her secrets. As a young girl in the late 1930s Katrine was in love but after her village was destroyed she finds herself in a Lebensborn home, Hochland House, under the patronage of a gruppenfuhrer who raped her.

There is so much going on here. The characters were well developed, some not so likeable. The focus here was more about the children. In other books I have read it looks at the women more and the life they lead seducing the officers in order to bring more children into the Reich. This also looks at things from the point of view of the German people that weren't necessarily believers but had been put in a position of having to play along to survive. There was love and sadness and bravery and resilience. I can't recommend this story enough.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital copy.

I’ve read a few World War II books that mentioned Himmler’s program to produce a race of perfect Aryan children, but this book explores it in much more depth. Allina’s family is gone thanks to Hitler’s men. After being raped, she ends up in one of these houses where the women have babies and the babies are adopted by good German families. She becomes a caretaker in the nurseries. Allina meets a German soldier who works secretly to help Jewish children. Without giving away too much of the story, they fall in love and work together to make life better for the children in her care. Allina and Karl as well as some of the supporting characters are all wonderfully drawn as real people who rise to the occasion in horrific circumstances. I’ve read quite a few books that take place during World War II; this is definitely one of the really good ones.

Through historical fiction books I always learn so much and The Sunflower House is no exception. Another eye opening and shocking WW2 historical fiction novel. This story sucked me in, broke my heart, taped it back together and then broke it again. So many emotions were felt while reading this story of The Sunflower House. We follow Allina throughout this book as she navigates how to survive in a very dark and challenging world after being thrown into a Nazi baby making factory.

A must read WW2 historical fiction novel from a debut author! It was well researched and impactful. I read this book in a day!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read "The Sunflower House" in exchange for my honest review.

The author tells a true event in history through this moving and thought provoking story. It begins in 2006 in Ramsey, New Jersey where Katrine is called to pick up her 86- year old mother Allina in the hospital ER. She has a sprained wrist, contusions and a bump to her head. Her mother fell from a step-stool in her room and when Katrine goes to right things in the closet, she finds a wooden box hidden under the floorboards. Her mother has been keeping her past from her and the book follows the story that Allina tells.

It all started back in the summer of 1938 in Badensburg, Germany. Allina's parents died when she was 3 months old and the older sister of her father took her in. Her aunt and uncle raised her as their own. There were many secrets and things that you just didn't talk about. In the fall of 1938 her uncle dies and is buried 1 day before Gud arrives and 2 days later her aunt Claudia is dead. A young Allina is taken by Gruppenfuhrer Gud to Hochlan Home - part of the Lebensborn program. Here she is put to work by Marguerite Ziegler caring for mothers and babies. She comes under the protection of Karl von Strassberg. He protects Allina from Schwester Ziegler and Gud. She makes friends with a young mother who risks all to baptize her baby Tobias. When they learn from Karl's friend Markus that dozens of children have simply disappeared from Hochland Home, they decide to do something.

Allina also learns from Karl that her uncle, Dieter Strauss was the leader of a resistance group. He vows to continue his work to help children and to help his housekeeper. When things start to get dangerous, they devise a complex plan to get Allina and their daughter Katrine to safety in Switzerland with Karl's aunt Adele. A lovely spirited woman who is a true force of nature. After fleeing to America Allina raises her daughter but there are generational secrets, identity and assimilation to deal with.

A truly moving book with characters that you grow to care about as the story goes on. There are parts that are difficult to read.

Debut author Adriana Allegri accounts the horrors of WW2 from the view of Alina Strauss, a young women who survived the massacre of her home town. She is brought to work within a Lebensborn home, or baby factory, and home of Hitler’s eugenics program in Germany.

I love books like this one that provide insight into another perspective of the atrocities that surround WW2 and prompt jumping down a google rabbit hole. The books started strong and got me hooked, but the pace slowed and I had difficulty staying engaged despite a great story. I feel like maybe it was because a lot of the action occurred outside of the main characters realm or I was not brought far enough into the fear or concern that Allina, the main character, was feeling. I do recommend for historical fiction lovers that want a unique perspective but might not be engaging enough to hold those that are new to historical fiction. Looking forward to reading more from Allegri.

This book was phenomenal and devastating at the same time. A historical fiction that takes place during the holocaust and follows a FMC that tries to make a difference. I had tears a good chunk of the time. Highly recommend.

This book is absolutely incredible. There are so many horror stories we have heard about World War II but one of the ones I didn't have a lot of information about was how Himmler's eugenics program really worked and what that meant for the women and children of Germany.

Allina has been raised by her Aunt and Uncle and does not find out about her true identity until things get very scary for the Jewish people of Germany. She is spared and finds herself at the Hochland House where she is able to work as staff caring for the babies that are being born as a contribution to the German race.

This book is incredibly well researched and although a work of fiction is based on so many facts. The author has included details of their research and other publications that can bring more education on these stories.

I cried at the end of the book even knowing where the tale would eventually end as the heartbreaking story of Allina comes to an end as she finally explains to her daughter Katrine why she has always kept secrets.

This book is incredible and if you enjoy historical fiction you will enjoy it. Please take care of yourself as there are quite triggering details and not everyone may be in the space to read about them.

The Sunflower House is now available wherever you purchase or borrow books

This is another excellent WWII historical fiction book. We're all familiar with the horrendous things the Nazis did to the Jews, but this book sheds a light on some of the horrendous things they did to their own "pure-bred" Aryan women and children as well. Allina Strauss's life is turned upside down when the Nazis invade her quiet home town. After losing everything and everyone she loves, she's brought to Hochland Home - one of many baby factories in the Nazi Lebensborn program commissioned by Heinrich Himmler. In these homes, Nazi soldiers come to mate with pure Aryan women who are there to pop out babies and help grow the Aryan population. These women actually believe they are doing their service to Hitler. Luckily for Allina, she's asked to be a baby nurse and not immediately pressed into servicing the soldiers. At Hochland Home, Allina meets senior SS officer Karl and there's an immediate spark. But he's a Nazi officer, how can she trust him? Both Allina and Karl are harboring deep, dark secrets. As they find their way to each other and fall in love, they embark on a noble mission to protect as many children as they can. This a heartbreaking story based on true events, beautifully written with well-developed characters. Adriana Allegri's debut historical novel is excellent and I highly recommend it! Thanks to #netgalley #TheSunflowerHouse #AdrianaAllegri and #StMartinsPress for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Beautifully heartbreaking. I can’t think of any other way to describe or review this novel. Please experience it for yourself.

Wonderful 4.5/5 ⭐️

After completely bawling my eyes out, I am now going to attempt to write this review. While at first I feared this was going to be a type of Nazi sympathizer book, I found myself mistaken. I’ve read many WWII historical fictions, which typically center around the Holocaust. This was in fact, not that. It was a different perspective of a German family, with Jewish heritage, trying to hide in plain sight and survive. While it’s easy to look at the eyes of this from 90 years later, living in that moment had to have been challenging. It made me wonder what I would do in a situation like that. I suppose I’ll find out in the next few years to see how the cards fall for America’s democracy…

I AM UNWELL. This broke me 😭 How can a book be so beautiful and painful at the same time. At times this made me very emotional as a mother and it was hard to read but it’s a story that needs to be known. Read it.

Allina Strauss has the idyllic German pre-WWII life, but it is not what it appears to be. As the country's antisemitism is getting worse, Allina learns that she is half Jewish - and then her life changes even more. Her small sleepy town is destroyed by Nazis and she is taken to work in a state-run baby factory. The women there are to submit to soldiers in order to increase the pure-blooded German population since birth rates were dropping as the war begins. While tending to the children Allina makes choices that can put her and those she loves at great risk.

I received this book months ago from but didn't read it until I received the audiobook accompaniment (so I am a few days past the pub date) - but OMG this book tore into me as fast as I tore into it! I am a bit over the whole WWII historical fiction genre but this one is absolutely worth reading! The storylines are engaging and the characters have wonderful dimension. This novel brings some of the horrors of Nazi Germany to light that don't get spoken of as much as well as ones we are all very (unfortunately) familiar with. I appreciated the perspective of the half Jewish woman hiding in plain sight which made her a bit more empathetic as a character. I ended up listening to about half of it and reading the other half; the narrators did a great job (there were 3). If you enjoy historical fiction then this is something that needs to go on your TBR!

4.5 stars

Thank you to netgalley and st martin’s press for the ARC to review

I blew through this book in a day! I quickly become invested in Allina's story. I was inspired by her bravery and resilience. This is a story about generational secrets. I loved the exploration of what it costs to tell those secrets and what it costs to keep them. It had multiple narrators and occasionally flipped between two timelines but thankfully the story stayed mostly in the past so I was able to get fully immersed in Allina's story. This was such an emotional read I couldn't put it down. I definitely recommend this book to fans of historical fiction and WWII. It was so fun to read about an aspect of WWII history that I was unfamiliar with.

Wow. This is one of those historical fiction novels that I knew would absolutely break my heart. And it did, but I couldn’t look away. The Sunflower House is about a woman, Allina, who is forcefully made to work by the Nazis in a Lebensborn house in WWII Germany after her entire town was massacred. To put it bluntly, the Lebensborn program was basically a eugenics-based baby factory devised by Heinrich Himmler. Women thought to have ideal genetics, ie seen as pure “Aryan,” were housed in homes to produce as many children as possible with the goal of repopulating Germany with the “racially pure” citizens. In the novel, Allina becomes involved in a mission to sneak as many of these children as possible out of Germany to the safety of England and other countries unoccupied by Nazi forces.

This book hit me on so many levels. It’s impossible not to get emotionally invested, and I definitely shed more than a few tears (especially knowing this novel is based on true events). Now, the novel isn’t completely sad! There is a beautiful romance that develops as well as beautiful friendships. There is a ton of suspense, so the novel is never remotely slow or dull. It was absolutely unputdownable!

I have nothing negative to say about this beautiful novel. It’s safe to say I will read absolutely anything Adriana Allegri writes from now on! This is a must read for everyone, not just historical fiction fans.

Big thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the gifted eARC!

Allina is exposed not only to her personal history, but also the Nazis just as she is coming of age. In quick succession, she loses her beloved uncle and aunt along with her innocence. Having lost everything, she is forced to become someone else in order to save her own life.

Unable to trust anyone, Allina had to learn to love and trust all over again. But can she do that with a senior SS officer? Can’t you trust him with her secret and her life?

The story is written and takes a different approach from many of the other World War II historical fiction books I’ve read. It’s not just about the survivors. It’s not just about those who resisted. It’s also about their children. Because history happens and it’s meant to be shared and handed down.