by Marion Kummerow
Publisher: Bookouture
Pages: 282
Format: eARC
Buy the Book: Amazon
Goodreads: Berlin, 1941: Margarete Rosenbaum is working as a housemaid for a senior Nazi officer when his house is bombed, leaving her the only survivor. But when she’s mistaken for his daughter in the aftermath of the blast, Margarete knows she can make a bid for freedom…
Issued with temporary papers—and with the freedom of not being seen as Jewish—a few hours are all she needs to escape to relative safety. That is, until her former employer’s son, SS officer Wilhelm Huber, tracks her down.
But strangely he doesn’t reveal her true identity right away. Instead he insists she comes and lives with him in Paris, and seems determined to keep her hidden. His only proviso: she must continue to pretend to be his sister. Because whoever would suspect a Nazi girl of secretly being a Jew?
His plan seems impossible, and Margarete is terrified they might be found out, not to mention worried about what Wilhelm might want in return. But as the Nazis start rounding up Jews in Paris and the Résistance steps up its activities, putting everyone who opposes the regime in peril, she realizes staying hidden in plain sight may be her only chance of survival…
Can Margarete trust a Nazi officer with the only things she has left though… her safety, her life, even her heart?
Kritters Thoughts: Another World War II historical fiction, but again another angle that made the book feel unique even within this sub genre that has quote a plethora of work. A bombing of a home changes the life for the Jewish housemaid who survives and takes on the identity of the daughter of the family to escape and hopefully start a new life where she can survive the wrath of the Nazi regime, but she doesn't account for the brothers that want to find their surviving family member.
This was an interesting combo of historical fiction with a little romance on the side. Margarete is hiding in plain sight as she is trying to hide in a place where the identity she was born into is hated by many and she just wants to survive. Without technology and the things we live with now, I wondered while reading this book how often people were able to take on identities and hide to escape what was going on. I would love to read an article or a piece of non fiction that recounts the people who did something similar to Margarete to survive the war.
I have read one other Marion Kummerow historical fiction books and I loved it also, so I hope to read more of her backlist and the books that are to come in the future.
Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row
Ebook 2021 Challenge: 87 out of 100
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of this book free of charge from Bookouture. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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