Oh, my heart!
The more I read of this book the more I knew I had to continue it. The characters are so realistic in this dual timeline book. Taking place during the turbulence of WWII and more modern times we see an emergence of some characters during both timelines. I loved the grand elegance of the Edel Hotel in Berlin. I love books with hotels and this one was exciting: this hotel kept made me want to cry buckets and it's new and improved resurgence was unexpected but welcome with visions of days gone by full of glamour linger in the corners of my mind. It was uplifting to see such strong female leads The story has such a heartwarming ending, it'll uplift your spirits. This is one you'll not want to miss.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Lili Rodenberg and her husband Marius run the Edel Hotel. It’s a prestigious hotel located in Berlin. Its guests are among the most wealthy. The war is raging on just outside the beautiful, grand entrance. There seems to be no end on sight. Lili is Jewish, hiding in plain sight, walking among the very people that she despises. She knows that if any of the German officers find out her secret of being Jewish it would surely be the end for her and her family. Even thought they fear of being caught they use their wine cellar to hide Jews in until they can be transported to a safe location. Shortly after her husband Marius is called up to fight in the war, he is soon missing in action. Lili must do everything she can to protect her daughter, search for her husband and protect those she is hiding.

The Secret Hotel in Berlin written by author Catherine Hokin is a heartbreaking historical fiction that will leave you inspired. I was captivated from the very first page and was engaged until the last page was turned. I felt such empathy for Lili and Marius. They risked everything to keep others safe. And my heat broke again when Marius went missing. I am always amazed at the risk that people took and knowing the tragedy that would come if they were caught. I loved this story of hope, courage and sacrifice and I highly recommend it.

The Secret Hotel in Berlin by Catherine Hokin provides the reader with a fascinating insight into life in Berlin during World War Two. It’s told in a dual timeline format which effortlessly moves back and forth between Berlin in 1990 not long after the wall has come down and the early 1940’s as a prominent hotel in the city plays host to the powers that be that have inflicted untold violence, brutality and terror upon so many. It’s not often a story in this genre focuses on the aftermath and is set in the 1990’s so I found this aspect of the storyline to be informative and very interesting. Although, I will say the elements of the plot set in the past held my attention ever so slightly more. Not that there was anything wrong with reading with Lucy’s modern day storyline as it helped to bridge the gap between the past and the present and deliver much needed answers but the past always seems to draw me in and refuses to relinquish its grip.

March 1990 and Lucy has arrived in Berlin to scout locations for new hotels her boss Charlie hopes to buy as the city reopens itself to tourism following 50 years of a split between East and West. The scars of that time are still clearly visible and there are a lot of stories to be unearthed. Lucy visits the Edel Hotel, one of several on her list, and once she steps through the doors despite its state of disrepair there is something that speaks to her. There is history soaked into its walls and clearly an important story waiting to be told. Once it’s decided this will be the next hotel the company wants she sets about overseeing it’s transformation. Little does she realise upon beginning this journey that many remarkable and shocking things happened there during the war and now is the time to attempt to right many wrongs and injustices.

Lucy throughout the story was the conduit linking the past and the present. She too is suffering from her own emotional trauma and in taking on this job she begins to see some small similarities to her own story and it only serves to fuel her fire in uncovering the truth and hopefully clearing someone’s name. She meets architect Adam who turns out to be the grandson of Marius the owner of the hotel during the war. Adam did not know he had any ties to the hotel until the wall came down. His history has been kept from him. But why? Adam initially, remained aloof and distant regarding learning more about his family and there must have been a reason that he didn’t jump at the chance to discover more. As the renovations begin and Lucy finds out that the last recorded owner of the hotel, that being Lili Rodenberg, was murdered by the resistance because of her connections to Hitler and his inner circle she is desperate to learn more and to see how it connects to Adam’s family and of course whether this was true at all.

I loved the subtlety of the connection/friendship that developed between Lucy and Adam and with the discovery of a diary their story goes on a different trajectory. One which will see them both work together attempting to uncover the exact truth. For the Lili represented in newspaper articles is painted as a demon and someone who betrayed so many but he can not reconcile with that fact. Soon the hotel and its renovation became more than just a job for Lucy it took on a more personal level and as the layers of the past were slowly and deftly pulled back I became completely engrossed in the story and thoroughly enjoyed the chapters set in the past.

Lili arrives in Berlin from Liepzig in 1929. She is Jewish and attempting to shed her old skin and keep her heritage a secret. She lost her mother to Spanish Flu and her father to a braying mob outside the synagogue and this hurt and pain will be a driving force for everything she does for the remainder of the book. Lili was a brilliantly written character so full of drive and ambition and as the years pass by and she acquires her own flower shop and meets and marries Marius and becomes an expert at playing hostess and running the Eden Hotel the reader sees her grow and mature. Yet that need for revenge never dulls inside her and with the rise of Hitler and his National Socialist party and all the laws, brutality and degradation inflicted upon the Jewish population she knows she can play a vital role in eliminating such cruelty from the world. Usually, I would find it disconcerting for a timeline to be moved forward quite rapidly over the course of just a few chapters but here it worked perfectly. I understood its necessity in setting the scene in how Lili came to be in Berlin, what fueled her and how her marriage to Marius developed and led to the birth of her daughter.

The details of the Eden Hotel during the war were incredible. It seemed to be a place out of this world where every need and whim of the German elite were met with little fuss and Hitler and his cronies could meet knowing there business would never be passed on. The descriptions of the hotel were stunning and I could picture everything so clearly in my mind. What really struck me though is the way life continued on as normal in this area whilst probably just mere streets away so much pain and suffering was being inflicted on anyone who was Jewish. Lili herself was in a very dangerous position and even more so when Marius is forced to enlist in the fighting and she is left to manage the hotel herself. If anyone had discovered her true heritage everything would have been over in an instant.

Instead, I admired her resourcefulness in how she used her position to her advantage. She put on a brave face day after day serving those who would have her killed in an instant had they known who she really was. I don’t know how she did this but it just goes to show the strength of character and fortitude that she possessed. I loved how she became involved in Resistance work and that she was able to glean information whilst serving Hitler at his private lunches. It was almost like a kick to his face that someone who he would have despised so much was right under his nose and he had no idea. Fear had made her run from her faith and hide who she was but she never forgot her roots and was determined that those who wrecked her world would one day pay.

The plot itself moved along at a good pace and there were plenty of twists and turns especially as Lucy and Adam edged further to the truth in the present. I felt we learned things in the present that at the time didn’t make sense given what I was reading about in the past and I did wonder how would things be explained. But the author had everything so carefully planned and I really enjoyed the last quarter or so of the book as things began to become clearer and in particular one aspect started to make itself known and I was thinking how was this possible? Would it seem laughable for it to come true but Catherine Hokin made it work very well. Lili is an inspirational character, whose story will stay with readers for a long time once they have read the final word. The ending was deeply satisfying and I felt like I had been taken on a rollercoaster of a journey packed full of emotions, devastation, heartbreak, resistance, hope and love. The Secret Hotel in Berlin is a book I would definitely recommend as you’ll be caught up in the bravery and sacrifice of some inspiring and impressive characters.

Lili walks a treacherous fine line as someone who reinvented herself after she moved to Berlin and then as an affable person and “friend” to the despicable scum of the earth that controlled the city in the 1930s and 40s.
I liked how Hokin connected the two stories between Lili and Lucy between the first part of the 20th century and then in the last decade of the century.
I wasn’t too keen on Marius but toward the end he grew on me. I felt the sorriest for Gabe because she had been robbed of so much and no wonder she was the way she was.
Once again the author immerses readers into one of the most truly frightening times in history.

What a wonderfull read, Lili and Lucy are very well thought out points of view. And even though they are made up characters they feel real. I loved the oldschool glamour that The Edel represented.
I always tend to like novels that play out in a hotel because hotels are always fascinating. Unfortunately The Edel is not an existing place because I would love to visit it.
I knew close to nothing about the DDR but this did made me go for a deep dive again. Thats exactly what made me love this book. A fictional story with enough real life woven through to make it believable.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this awesome book

its a dual time line but man is it heartbreaking to read.... the war years and 1990 oh man i cried buckets over this storyline

berlin... at the height of the war with the extermination of the jews and one womans attempt to help those in need but with her own background in jeopardy and her role within in the hotel ...hiding in plain sight never got any easier for her....oh the risks she took

this one will have you on the edge of your seats....its a compelling read....

The Secret Hotel in Berlin by Catherine Hokin is a dual timeline historical fiction of Berlin during WWII. Hokin has intricately woven facts from inner Berlin during WWII with the 1990 reconstruction of reuniting East and West following the fall of the Berlin Wall. With fictional characters who hid their Jewish backgrounds in order to survive, who also helped in the underground escape of Jews, and had lived in communist East Berlin. So many threads to tug in this gut-wrenching historical fiction. Such realistic characters that have the reader feeling the pain, the sorrow, the confusion of such a chaotic time in history.

Releases July 12th. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this dual timeline book.

It was very well written and the descriptions were how you could imagine the places whilst reading as well as the characters.

The two stories of the past and present linked beautifully and the ending was just what I thought it would be, which gave the story a perfect ending.

Those that love reading WW2, you won’t want to miss reading this book.

I highly recommend it.

Rating: 4 stars

I really enjoyed The Secret Hotel in Berlin. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the etc copy provided.

This historical fiction story follows a dual timeline between ww2 and the 90s after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I felt like the writing was absolutely engaging and descriptive and made me feel truly part of the story. I also enjoyed the strong female main characters as well as her story during a time when it was truly a scary time during ww2- and the risks lots of people took to keep Jewish people safe at the risk of their own lives.

I would’ve finished this book sooner had I started it not so close to a busy holiday with family- and was so excited each time I picked it back up to find out more and follow more of the story.

This was absolutely an awesome read and will definitely be a recommendation for any fellow book lovers who enjoy historical fiction.

A very moving story following the lives of Marcus and Lily who own a hotel during world war 2. Lily is a Jew and has kept this secret hidden even from her husband. They host functions to Hitler and his men and Lily hates it but puts on a front. When she is given the chance to help some Jews sin the end as things worsens she knows she has to help,
The story is a must for any reader of this time era. Enjoyed it from beginning to the end.

An unforgetable WWII story. It was very well written. I read long into the night. Catherine Hokin is a fantastic author.

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

Sadly, this isn't one of my favourite Catherine Hokin novels. The dual timeline is set during WW2 and the 1990’s. The WW2 timeline was interesting a story filled with courage, bravery, resistance and love. The1990 part, I felt Lucy's side story wasn’t needed and her relationship with Adam was missing the chemistry. Lily's story was inspirational and gripping. The love for her husband and daughter was beautiful. The ending was heartfelt. 3 ½ stars

I would like to thank Bookouture, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this complimentary copy for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#TheSecretHotelinBerlin #NetGalley

Dual.timeline. a strong heroine. Family secrets and healing from old wounds. It sure sounds right up my alley. I really likes this book, i loved the 1990s timeline , better that the 1930s 1940s. Timeline. The past timeline felt a little bit flat at times. But I still recommend this book.
Thank you to netgalley for letting me read this e arc in exchange for an honest opinion

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for this eARC.

This is a good read about courage, fear, hope and love set in Berlin. The story has dual time lines and moves from past to present day effortlessly. The writing is beautifully descriptive, and the story flows well with the author portraying her characters so vividly they jumped out of the pages and became alive in my mind when reading. I thoroughly enjoyed the two story threads that fit the plot perfectly and in my opinion makes this such a good book to read. The ending is exactly what I hoped for and gives The Secret Hotel in Berlin great closure. If you're a fan of WW2 historical fiction give this a go. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

4 stars

THE SECRET HOTEL IN BERLIN by CATHERINE HOKIN is a well told story of tenacity and courage, with a beautiful love story, which takes place in Berlin from the years running up to the Second World War right up to 1991, giving us insight into the horrors of Hiller’s regime, the fear he and his henchmen instilled into the citizens of Germany, especially the Jews and anyone who dared to help them. We also sees the horrors of the war with Russia and the hardships caused by the erection of the Berlin Wall……
There are unforgettable characters, perhaps the most stunning of which is the Edel Hotel……..
The relationships between the characters are well portrayed, with love, fear, and guilt playing a part. The way in which Lili acts the admiring hostess whilst hiding her real feelings is admirable. In fact, Lili’s life shows unconditional love and self discipline from start to finish.
There are secrets, many of which are uncovered when Lucy Stretton finds Lili’s diary and shares it with Adam Rodenberg, with whom she is bringing the abandoned Edel Hotel back to life for her boss Charlie Compton…….
There is so much to say about this inspiring novel, but I will not say any more……
I cannot recommend the book highly enough.
I was given a free copy of the book by NetGalley from Bookouture. The opinions in this review are completely my own.

Where to start. There is so much to this book and I have made so many notes that it’s hard to decide what to focus on. Historically and culturally, the book is very accurate, and it’s clear that it is written by a historian who has done her research. The setting and events are so well described that you feel that you are there, walking through the hotel, hiding in the basement or struggling through the snow in Russia. You’re as angry as Lili after her visit to Himmler’s office and feel just as powerless as she did. Marius choosing one option over being corralled into the SS, makes one understand the difficult situation “regular” Germans were in. Excellent character development on Lili and Lucy (and even Adam’s mom) who change throughout the book. The author brought so many pieces of history together such as the evil in WWII, the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the administrative upheaval former DDR offices found themselves in, buildings that had been appropriated by the government, and the long term effects of both WWII and the DDR on people. Bringing all of these aspects together in one story makes this such an enjoyable book to read. Lots of puzzle pieces which, in the end, make a beautiful story. There’s a lot more to say, but it wouldn’t be fun to give it all away. Grab your own copy and curl up with a cup of tea. You’ll love this very satisfying and well-written book.

Many thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for an ARC. All opinions are my own. I was not required to leave a positive review, but was very happy to do so!

The Secret Hotel in Berlin is a captivating historical fiction novel set against the backdrop of World War ll. It is a timely tale of love, forgiveness, and redemption. The story is centered around the opulent Hotel Edel in Berlin.
Lilli Krauss moves to Berlin following the death of her father. With her inheritance money she purchases a floral shop at the early age of seventeen. While in Berlin, Lili becomes acquainted with Marius Rodenberg and they marry, but Lili is hiding a secret- she is Jewish. Marius and Lili run the Hotel Edel together and it becomes the desired location for Hitler’s regime.
As Lili witnesses the death and destruction in the city, she hears rumors of the SS rounding up Jews and taking them away to camps. She finally reveals her secret to her husband as is determined to do something to help protect the Jewish refugees.
As the story unravels, you learn how Lili’s bravery puts her life at risk and the lives of her child and husband. It is a heroic tale of bravery, determination, and selfless love against all odds. It is an extraordinary story that you will not be able to put down!
Catherine Hokin has crafted a historically accurate World War ll story that is heart-wrenching a times. Lili’s story carries through to the 1990’s when her journal is discovered by the hotel’s new manager during the restoration of the Hotel Edel. It is a beautifully inspired novel that is a must read for lovers of historical fiction.

This is a story that goes between WWII and the early 1990’s. It follows a family and how the war affected them. It was an interesting book with characters you could relate to. There was heartbreak, hope and shows how resilient people can be. Thank you to net galley for an danced readers copy.

The Secret Hotel In Berlin by Catherine Hokin is a powerful dual timeline historical novel that I read in just two sittings.
The action is set in Berlin, mostly surrounding a hotel, during World War II and in 1990. The hotel was a favourite of Hitler and the leading Nazis in the war years, then fell into Soviet hands as it was in East Berlin. After the wall came down in 1989, it was privately purchased. Now it has the opportunity to be renovated and brought back to life.
Walls came down in hearts too in 1990. Families torn apart by the Soviet controlled East Berlin, had erected walls to protect hearts but it had the opposite effect and actually hurt hearts. Now these hardened hearts need to be softened, renovated and brought back to life. Now is the time to build bridges instead of walls.
Sacrificial love was a major theme. There was love that let go, in order that others might thrive. The love remained when all else was gone. The memories remained. And a hope for restoration one day remained.
We witness the bravery during the war years as a young Jewish girl fled her home town due to Nazi persecution, re-invented herself and hid in plain sight, right under the noses of the leading Nazis. Dismissed as ‘just a girl’, she was able to learn of secrets to help disrupt the Nazis plans. She also had a social conscience and wanted to help Jewish people trying to flee the Nazis.
Even towards the end of the war, the Nazis were re-writing history as they tried to bury the truth. With the destruction of the Berlin wall, comes the hope that the truth will finally be found and a character vindicated, and a life celebrated instead of smeared.
Hurting people, hurt people. A daughter kicks back against her mother. A son also kicks back against his mother. Neither realise the sacrifices their mothers made in order to keep their offspring safe. “It’s never possible to fully understand a past you haven’t lived through.”
We see that there is no glory in war. “War started with hope and ended with horror, regardless of whether victory was won or lost.” There are no winners, only death and destruction, and ruined lives. “War was pain and fear and dying men screaming for their mothers.”
All the characters were wonderfully drawn. They were easy to empathise with, and their bravery was inspirational.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Secret Hotel In Berlin. I always love Catherine Hokin’s books.
I received a free copy from the publishers. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.

Absolutely incredible. I’m a huge fan of WW2 fiction but this is quite possibly one of the best examples of this genre I’ve ever read. Beautifully written, with a plot that covers both WW2 and the fall of the Iron Curtain in Berlin - totally unique and wonderfully plotted, this is 100% a book I would recommend. I can’t wait to see what she does next!