Tag: WW2

Book Review: War Girl Ursula (War Girl #1) by Marion Kummerow

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War Girl UrsulaAbout the Book

Berlin 1943: Compassion is a crime.

A prisoner escapes. A guard looks the other way.  Why does Ursula Hermann risk her life and brave the Gestapo to save a man she barely knows?

Ursula has always lived the law, never broken the rules in her life. That is until the day she finds escapee British airman Tom Westlake and all the right she’s worked so hard to maintain goes wrong… He runs. And she does nothing to stop him.

Torn with guilt about what she did, Ursula battles with her decision when suddenly Tom returns, injured and pleading for her help. This is her opportunity to make things right. But shadows from the past tug at her heart, convincing her to risk everything, including her life, in order to protect a man from the nation her country is fighting.

As they brave the perils and dangers of the ever-present Gestapo, will Ursula find a way to keep Tom safe? Or will being on the opposite sides of the war ultimately cost both of them their lives?

Format: ebook, paperback (136 pp.)    Publisher:
Published: 26th July 2017                       Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find War Girl Ursula on Goodreads

My Review

The book’s startling opening scene, once one appreciates the unusual nature of the event taking place, plunges the reader into the atmosphere of wartime Germany.  Frequent Allied bombing raids on Berlin are making the city a dangerous place for its citizens who are also coping with food shortages and the increasingly authoritarian measures of the Nazi government.    ‘During these awful times, death lingered around every corner, and nobody could trust to live to the next day.’  In addition, informers are everywhere.  In the case of Ursula, her sisters Anna and Lotte, and their mother, very close to home indeed.

In Ursula, the author creates a believable picture of someone who has always followed rules unquestioningly and has a strong streak of patriotism.  ‘She prided herself in accepting her fate with grace.  She did what was expected of her.’  However, as events unfold, even Ursula finds herself questioning the harsh measures introduced by Hitler’s government and wondering if the things taking place can be justified, even in time of war.  Working as a prison guard she sees firsthand the awful treatment meted out to those who dare to oppose the government – imprisonment, torture and execution.  ‘Days turned into weeks, and with every personal story Ursula came to know, her faith in the infallibility of the Führer and the Party was hacked away blow by blow.’

When Ursula finally acts as she does it has even greater significance because it is against her natural instincts and involves an agonising moral decision.  As local priest, confidante and ally, Pfarrer Bernau observes, ‘…things aren’t black and white.  Right has become wrong, and wrong has become right.’  However, it turns out that beneath that quiet, respectable exterior, Ursula possesses an inner core of steel.  Isn’t true courage facing up to your worst fears and trying to do the right thing anyway?

Ursula’s story is a timely reminder that there were plenty of Germans who became appalled by the actions of the Nazi government and demonstrated exceptional bravery in trying to help to escape Jews and other people made the focus of the government’s prejudice and hatred.

At the end of the book, the author skilfully sets up the story for the next in the series –War Girl Lotte – with some dramatic news for Ursula, her sister and mother.  War Girl Ursula is a slim novel but it is packed full of period detail and references to actual historical events that makes it feel completely authentic whilst at the same time being a thoroughly entertaining read.  It has two central characters, Tom and Ursula, that this reader found it easy to root for.  I was fascinated to read in the Author’s Notes that some of Marion Kummerow’s own family history also inspired part of the story.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Dramatic, authentic, engaging

Try something similar…The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford (read my review here)

Marion KummerowAbout the Author

Marion Kummerow was born and raised in Germany, before she set out to “discover the world” and lived in various countries. In 1999 she returned to Germany and settled down in Munich where she’s now living with her family. She’s written several non-fiction books about Munich and Germany and published in 2016 her first historical fiction.

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Blog Tour/Extract: Her Hidden Life by V. S. Alexander

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Her Hidden Life Blog Tour Banner

I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Her Hidden Life by V.S. Alexander. Unfortunately, the book hasn’t yet reached the top of my TBR pile, although I’m eager to read it based on some of the glowing reviews from other book bloggers.  For instance, Beverley Has Read called it ‘a well-written, well-plotted and…well-researched historical novel which ticked lots of boxes’.  Ginger Book Geek was ‘hooked from the moment I read the first sentence.’

Based on a true story, Her Hidden Life is described as a sweeping, heroic love story perfect for fans of Dinah Jeffries and Gill Paul.  I have an extract from Her Hidden Life to whet your appetite.  Incidentally, you can read a fascinating article by the author about the writing of Her Hidden Life here.

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Her Hidden LifeAbout the Book

It’s 1943 and Hitler’s Germany is a terrifying place to be.  But Magda Ritter’s duty is the most dangerous of all…

Assigned to The Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat, she must serve the Reich by becoming the Führer’s ‘Taster’ – a woman who checks his food for poison. Magda can see no way out of this hellish existence until she meets Karl, an SS officer who has formed an underground resistance group within Hitler’s inner circle.

As their forbidden love grows, Magda and Karl see an opportunity to stop the atrocities of the madman leading their country. But in doing so, they risk their lives, their families and, above all, a love unlike either of them have ever known…

(Her Hidden Life was published under the title The Taster in the US)

Format: ebook, paperback (400 pp.)    Publisher: Avon Books
Published: 3rd May 2018                         Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Her Hidden Life on Goodreads

 

Extract: Her Hidden Life by V. S. Alexander

In the first years of the war, Berlin had been spared. When the attacks began, the city strode like a dreamer, alive but unconscious of its motions. People walked about without feeling. Babies were born and relatives looked into their eyes and told them how beautiful they were. Touching a silky lock of hair or pinching a cheek did not guarantee a future. Young men were shipped off to the fronts – to the East and to the West. Talk on the streets centered on Germany’s slow slide into hell, always ending with ‘it will get better.’ Conversations about food and cigarettes were common, but paled in comparison to the trumpeted broadcasts of the latest victories earned through the ceaseless struggles of the Wehrmacht.

My parents were the latest in a line of Ritters to live in our building. My grandparents had lived here until they each died in the bed where I slept. My bedroom, the first off the hall in the front of the building, was my own, a place I could breathe. No ghosts frightened me here. My room didn’t hold much: the bed, a small oak dresser, a rickety bookshelf and a few items I collected over the years, including the stuffed toy monkey my father had won at a carnival in Munich when I was a child. When the bombings began, I looked at my room in a different way. My sanctuary took on a sacred, extraordinary quality and each day I wondered whether its tranquility would be shattered like a bombed temple.

The next major air raid came on Hitler’s birthday on April 20, 1943. The Nazi banners, flags and standards that decorated Berlin waved in the breeze. The bombs caused some damage, but most of the city escaped unscathed. That attack also had a way of bringing back every fear I suffered as a young girl. I was never fond of storms, especially the lightning and thunder. The increasing severity of the bombings set my nerves on edge. My father was adamant that I leave, and, for the first time, I felt he might be right. That night he watched as I packed my bag.

About the Author

V. S. Alexander is an ardent student of history and the arts and loves writing historical fiction with strong women protagonists. The author of several novels and short stories, Alexander’s first novel for Kensington Publishing was The Magdalen Girls, an Amazon best seller, set in 1962 Dublin. The author lives in South Florida where summer is never far away.

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