I was particularly interested in this book because while I have heard of the “Lebensborn children” I did not know much about the program, and what I did know was a bit contradictory/confusing. Suffice it to say, this meticulously researched book gave me ALL the information I needed. The heroine yearns and strives to “Look Upon the Sun” but this is a very dark book. It has been a long time since I read a book that brought the cruelties of the Third Reich to life so vividly.

I thought I had read enough about Lebensborn, but this book was a refreshing take on it. The fact of the program, while central, is not the point in and of itself. The book is character-driven and it was so interesting to see how she managed all the things that came into her life. Highly recommend as I really got into this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC #sponsored

I normally do not read Historical Fiction, but I really enjoyed this book. It has made me rethink Historical Fiction books! I felt for the main character and wanted to give her a big hug! I would definitely recommend this book.

A Perilous Secret

Ilse befriends a Jewish boy at school. They fall in love and sneak around to meet each other. This is forbidden because in pre-WWII Germany she was forbidden to talk to Jewish students by her parents. Too late she finds that she is pregnant and unwed. Her boyfriend and his family have gone to America to escape the anti-sigmatism in Germany.

Now she is afraid and doesn’t know what to do. Her girl guide leader tells her about Lebensborn where she can have the baby. She doesn’t realize what she is getting into.

She has led everyone to believe her boyfriend was the son of a neighbor that has been missing overseas in the German Army. She is now afraid because she is about to have a Jewish child and anyone finds out they may both be killed for her deception. She must find a way to survive in the home and keep her secret.

This was the story of a scared young girl that got into a terrible situation because she though she was going to a good place and doing the right thing. What she sees in this place horrifies her and she must find a way to redeem her self-dignity with losing her life in her defiance.

This was a good book about a subject in WWII that I have not read much about. It was interesting to find out one more atrocity committed by the Nazi’s and very sad indeed.
The author redeemed Ilse in the end and she resisted the Germans.

Thanks to Shannon St. Hilaire for writing a story on this sad subject and making it a readable book about a sad subject, to the Book Whisperer for publishing it, and to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to read and review.

Imagine you are a young woman in Germany in the late 1930s. You have bought into the propaganda about racial superiority and about the obligation of German women to have multiple children. You find yourself pregnant, which is both exciting and scary. However, when you go to tell your boyfriend about the pregnancy, you discover that he and his family have fled the country. Unbeknownst to you, your boyfriend is Jewish. You have committed a grave crime. Your father finds out that you are pregnant (but not that the father is Jewish) and beats you and kicks you out of the house for disgracing the family by becoming pregnant out of wedlock. You know your job as a housekeeper will not last long once the pregnancy is revealed. To save yourself and your unborn child, you apply to join the Lebensborn, the secretive program to breed SS officers with “pure” German women, claiming that the father is your employer's son, who died in service to the Reich. That is the situation facing Ilse in "To Look Upon the Sun."

Ilse's situation has already caused her to start questioning what she believes, and life in the Lebensborn home makes her doubts increase. However, to secure a future for her son and herself, she has to enmesh herself deeper in the SS, and she has to maintain the facade that she is a believer, which she struggles to do. She will eventually find herself in the role of a cook and will use her knowledge of plants/herbs to keep herself from conceiving, and secretly keep other residents from conceiving. She will also get a firsthand look at how the Reich treats "undesirables." Yet, her small acts of rebellion will rarely be enough to protect those she comes to care about and will cause her lots of problems. She will save herself, but at great cost.

This was a powerful book. Not what I was expecting but an interesting read with a powerful message. Great for WWII fans.

This WW11 novel tells the tragic and courageous story of Iles, a young German (’Aryan’) girl who had the ‘misfortune’ to fall in love with a Jewish man, only to discover, after he had fled Germany, that she was carrying his child. To save her child and herself, she finds herself in a Lebensborn home, a Nazi birthing and breeding programme where pure Aryan girls are well looked after so they can produce babies for the Master Race. Based on careful research this is a horrifying yet strangely life-affirming story that once again reminds us never to forget. Thankyou to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a digital ARC.

The author paints a frightening picture of Germany under Hitler and the Third Reich. Not a pretty picture. Stressful for everyone. I can appreciate what the author portrayed, but it was difficult subject matter to read. Well written.

In this World War II historical fiction novel, readers enter the Nazis’ Lebensborn program with teenage Ilse in the 1930s. After her son is born, Ilse must keep his Jewish heritage a secret; the program only wants to reproduce pure Aryans, and the fact that Ilse has kept this secret speaks to her tenacity and strength, qualities which come through over the entire novel. Ilse, even after the birth of her son, remains in the program and tries to navigate the fancy cage of the Lebensborn homes and hospitals. Using her botanical knowledge to her advantage, Ilse does her best to manipulate the Lebensborn system to keep herself safe and not pregnant, but this only makes her position less secure. Bringing the double-edged sword of Lebensborn and the Nazi breeding programs to life, St. Hilaire has clearly done her research and brought the hidden horrors of this program to life in this historical fiction novel. St. Hilaire’s characters, especially her protagonist Ilse, are complex and difficult figures, with challenging circumstances and hidden motivations that bring different factors to play. With all of the moral complications and the traps that the Lebensborn program and the Nazi party place for Ilse, the world is becoming more and more dangerous for her -- if she makes it out.

I was quite impressed when I discovered that To Look Upon the Sun was Shannon St Hilaire’s debut novel. She chose to tell the story about the program called Lebensborn that was developed by the Nazis. Its purpose was to propagate “pure Aryan” babies between the elite SS officers and pure stock young and able German women. Some considered Lebensborn to be no more than a brothel and many treated the women that chose to abide by the requirements set forth by the Lebensborn Society unkindly and without respect. Shannon St Hilaire more than proved her ability as a talented storyteller in this book. She was able to present a side of the Lebensborn program that I had not previously considered. To Look Upon the Sun portrayed the feelings of being entrapped within a system that signaled danger, evil, heartbreak and wrongdoings to Ilse, the main character. All of the characters were well developed and believable. It was well plotted and paced just right. Shannon St Hilaire also delved into what life was like in Germany before World War II and the Holocaust began.

To Look Upon the Sun was about a young seventeen year old girl named Ilse who grew up in Bremen, Germany. She lived alone with her father. Both Ilse and her father supported the Reich and Hitler when he came to power. Ilse was a member of the Bund Deutscher Madel (BDM) part of the Hitler Youth movement. When Ilse discovered that she was pregnant she turned to the leader of her BDM group, Fraulein Glucks, for advice. Ilse had been told over and over that after all, it was the duty of every German woman to give birth to at least six children. Fraulein Glucks assured Ilse that the father of her baby would do the right thing and marry her but in the event that that didn’t happen, she told Ilse about the Lebensborn Society and gave her a pamphlet which described it in great detail. Ilse, a daughter of a carpenter, had been intimate with Felix Weidemann, a brilliant mathematician and son of a lawyer. When Ilse went to Felix’s home to tell him about their baby she learned from a neighbor that Felix and his family had secretly left Germany in the cover of the night. The neighbor also shared the fact that the family was Jewish. Ilse had never suspected that Felix had been Jewish. That meant that Ilse had committed one of the worst crimes in the eyes of the Nazis. Her baby would be a Mischling, a child born by an Aryan parent and a Jewish parent. If anyone ever found out about this both Ilse and her baby would be in grave danger. Ilse knew that she had to keep this information a secret. No one could ever find out what she had done. When Ilse’s father discovered that she was pregnant he attacked her physically and verbally and kicked Ilse out of the only home she had ever known. Ilse found herself not only homeless but she was broke as well. She knew that she had no choice but to apply to live at a home run by the Lebensborn Society. What would happen to Ilse and her baby once she was allowed to live under the roof of the Lebensborn Society? Would she be able to keep her secret?

Shannon St Hilaire’s research for To Look Upon the Sun was impeccable. It was interesting and informative how Ilse’s notions about the Reich evolved and changed the longer she lived in the home run by the Lebensborn Society. Among other things, Shannon St Hilaire included pertinent details about many horrific crimes the Nazis instituted in the Lebensborn homes which included sterilization, euthanasia and the Aktio T4 program. Ilse experienced a constant feeling of dread, danger, realization of how the Nazis were treating the Jews and homosexuals who worked in the gardens of the Lebensborn home when Ilse worked in the kitchen as the cook, a constant fear for survival, a nagging and unrelenting feeling of heartbreak and an awakening of anger to the atrocities the Nazis were responsible for. To Look Upon the Sun was hard to read in parts but I found Ilse’s resilience throughout commendable. I admired how she learned to think for herself and how her perspective changed over the course of the book. Be sure to read the author’s note at the conclusion. She explains why she chose to wrote about Lebensborn and other things she learned while she conducted her research. I highly recommend To Look Upon the Sun by Shannon St Hilaire and I look forward to seeing what she writes next.

Thank you to Book Whisperer for allowing me to read To Look Upon the Sun by Shannon St. Hilaire through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book very much. Pre-WWII Germany, 17 year old Ilse is alone and pregnant. She is thrown in Lebensborn, where pregnant women are held. She does all she can to trick and lie to them to protect herself and baby. The author tells a gritty, story that needs to be told.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The start of WWII, Hitler’s denouncement of the Jews. Ilse falls in love with Felix, not realizing he is a Jew. She becomes pregnant and discovers having a Jewish baby is unacceptable to say the least. She researches soldiers who have died fighting for Germany and comes up with a name and testifies it is his baby. A huge secret she has to keep.
She goes to Lebensborn to have her baby. The author refers to it as a “Nazi Breeding Program” where girls are sent to have babies with true Arayan blood, but are forced to have the babies adopted to keep up the “pure blooded” population. Thousands upon thousands of women at that time were sterilized if there was any hint that their blood was not pure. Ilse struggles to keep her lie a secret as she desperately wants to keep her baby.

Not an easy read as it is a reminder of Hitler’s demands and the effects it had on the Jews and the world. The author writing is excellent and I recommend this book as the consequences of Hitler’s actions should never be forgotten.

Courtesy of Netgalley and The Book Whisperer, I received the ARC of Look Upon the Sun by Shannon St. Hilaire. This pre WWII historical novel relates the story of the Lebensborn program to breed pure Aryan children for the Reich. When seventeen year old Ilse finds herself pregnant, she finds herself taken in to this environment, trapped by lies she fabricated to continue her pregnancy. As she realizes her predicament, her knowledge, strength and resilience develop along with her determination to escape. This compelling narrative is well written and well researched, revealing the depth of the relatively unknown components of the Lebensborn system. Highly recommend!

To Look Upon the Sun grabbed me from the very first page and didn’t let go! Ilse, a young woman (teenager actually) in a small town in pre WWII Germany, finds herself pregnant. She is thrown out of her home by her abusive, intolerant father. With the help of a friend she finds herself in a home for unwed mothers. What she doesn’t realize is that it’s a Lebensborn - a place designed for women of pure Aryan blood to give birth to Nazi babies for populating the SS. At first Ilse is a supporter of the Reich, but as she learns more she begins to question what she has been taught and decides to keep her baby rather than give it up to the Reich. This momentous decision changes her life in any number of ways.

There are tons of WW II novels out there, many of them really good, but this is the first one I’ve read that took me inside the Lebensborn movement, and its brutality, cruelty and inhumanity. To Look Upon The Sun is based on real people and provides a window into a lesser known yet devastating program. Anyone interested in this time period should read this book!

Ilse lives alone in the country with her father just before World War II. She is seeing a young man in town from a prominent family. When she arrives at his house to tell him she is pregnant she finds out Felix is Jewish and has escaped Germany. When her father throws her out of the house she does the only thing she can think of which is to join Lebensborn and hope her child doesn't look like the father.

I had heard of Lebensborn but this story exposed a lot of things I had no idea about. They were treated badly and the girls only worth was bearing children. While there was a true horror to what some of the girls went through I didn't feel a lot of real emotion in the writing. I had sympathy for Ilse but I don't feel I really rooted for her. Sometimes she just couldn't catch a break and made some strange decisions along the way. This was an important subject to expose and I'm glad I read it. There was a mention that this was part of a series but I'm not sure I will continue.

I think I need to reread Jane Eyre.

Thank you to Netgalley and Book Whisperer for providing me with a digital copy.

To Look Upon the Sun immediately gripped my heart and held it tight until the very last sentence. Shannon St. Hilaire tells the story of Ilse, a young 17 year old German girl living in Germany during WWII. She learns she is pregnant and goes to her boyfriend’s house to let him know, only to find to her shock that he and his family have fled because they are Jewish. She is horrified as she has been indoctrinated to hate the Jews. Suddenly she has nowhere to go and sees a way to save herself by applying for the coveted Lebensborn program. She lies about the father and lives in fear that her lies will be revealed when the baby is born.
St. Hilaire’s extensive research is so very evident throughout the remainder of Ilse’s devastating time within this program. Her skills to tell of the horrors and inhumane treatment through the eyes of a seventeen year old kept me so very engrossed in the story that I resented any intrusion on my intent to finish this read in one sitting. I enjoyed watching Ilse’s total commitment to the Nazi party begin to change and loved her spirit to determine what she could do to thwart their prowess. Loved the connection to her mom through her book on botany and herbs which continued to develop throughout this story. I also loved her connection to Hannahlore. The ending was pure perfection. I so appreciated the author’s note and all the additional information St. Hillaire gleaned from her extensive research. I had heard of the program but this read brought so many of the moral issues and dilemmas to light, especially to those babies and children’s treatment after their birth and most particularly after the war.
Many many thanks to Shannon St. Hilaire, Wild Sage Books, and NetGalley for allowing me the honor of reading an arc of this incredible read, published on April 10th.

In the shadow of pre-WWII Germany, 17-year-old Ilse finds herself alone, pregnant, and penniless. This type of story has been told before but in this book you will be drawn in and you will want to read as it is such a strong story, emotional, at times unpleasant and always heart-breaking.

This is a book that has been well researched and well written. The characters pertinent to the story, the story is powerful, gripping and real. This makes you think of all the horror in the world, past and present and makes you feel for all the women in this story. I couldn't put this book down.

Thank you NetGalley and Book Whisperer for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publishers of To Look Upon The Sun for the ARC of this book. This is the story of Ilse, a young girl in pre World War II Germany, who discovers that she is pregnant outside of marriage, and that the father of the child has fled the country because he's Jewish. If the authorities knew this her life and the life of her child would be terminated. So she makes a decision that will change the course of her life forever. She joins the Lebensborn program where an attempt to produce pure blooded children through the use of young pure blood German girls is in place. I love how Ilse tries to take back control of her own body, which the Powers That Be seem to think they own, and in her own way fights for herself and the other girls who are being used for this nefarious purpose. Prior to reading this book I knew very little about the Lebensborn program. Shannon St. Hilaire has sparked my interest and I will be looking for more information on the children born into this program.

This was probably the most unexpected tale I have read in the WW2 era to date. This book takes you inside the breeding program perpetuated and pushed within Hilter's regime to create a perfect Arayan race. Most have heard and learned about the concentration camps, but few have heard about the push for those who had pure German blood to procreate. There were so many surprises within this book and so much history peeled back in a way that I had never learned before. While horrifying to consider what human history includes, the author brought to life the indomitable spirit of those who were oppressed and on the receiving end of the atrocities of the Nazis. I look forward to reading more from her!

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this as it was something completely different from the 'normal' ww2 books and explored a different story. You can tell it was very well researched, and the author just brought this to life. I am definitely going to be keeping this author on my radar.