wp-1586456080447.jpgWelcome to my stop on the The German Heiress blog tour sponsored by TLC Book Tours! Thanks to TLC for the invitation!

My Thoughts:

Clara Falkenberg was nicknamed “the Iron Fraulein” during World War II because she operated her parents large iron business. An heiress before war, she is now potentially in ruin with interrogators at her door.

Clara flees in hopes of finding her friend, Elisa, and quickly sees her home city in ruins. As she searches for Elisa, she meets Jakob, who works on the black market and is also seeking Elisa. All the while, the officer is still looking for Clara to make her answer his questions about potential war crimes.

While this is definitely historical fiction, there’s great tension and suspense throughout. Where is Elisa? What did Clara do? It’s a thoughtful story of the Germans who were caught in between acting ethically and morally and perhaps their own survival. It’s dark at times and twisty. I enjoyed the relationship Clara had with Jakob.

Overall, The German Heiress made my mind spin, and I appreciated that.   It was a captivating read.

I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

About the Author:

About The German Heiress

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (April 7, 2020)

“Meticulously researched and plotted like a noir thriller, The German Heiress tells a different story of WWII— of characters grappling with their own guilt and driven by the question of what they could have done to change the past.” —Jessica Shattuck, New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle

For readers of The Alice Network and The Lost Girls of Paris, an immersive, heart-pounding debut about a German heiress on the run in post-World War II Germany.

Clara Falkenberg, once Germany’s most eligible and lauded heiress, earned the nickname “the Iron Fräulein” during World War II for her role operating her family’s ironworks empire. It’s been nearly two years since the war ended and she’s left with nothing but a false identification card and a series of burning questions about her family’s past. With nowhere else to run to, she decides to return home and take refuge with her dear friend, Elisa.

Narrowly escaping a near-disastrous interrogation by a British officer who’s hell-bent on arresting her for war crimes, she arrives home to discover the city in ruins, and Elisa missing. As Clara begins tracking down Elisa, she encounters Jakob, a charismatic young man working on the black market, who, for his own reasons, is also searching for Elisa. Clara and Jakob soon discover how they might help each other—if only they can stay ahead of the officer determined to make Clara answer for her actions during the war.

Propulsive, meticulously researched, and action-fueled, The German Heiress is a mesmerizing page-turner that questions the meaning of justice and morality, deftly shining the spotlight on the often-overlooked perspective of Germans who were caught in the crossfire of the Nazi regime and had nowhere to turn.

Social Media

Please use the hashtag #thegermanheiress, and tag @tlcbooktours and @williammorrowbooks.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Photo by Carstein Klein

About Anika Scott

Anika Scott was a journalist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune before moving to Germany, where she currently lives in Essen with her husband and two daughters. She has worked in radio, taught journalism seminars at an eastern German university, and written articles for European and American publications. Originally from Michigan, she grew up in a car industry family. This is her first novel.

Find out more about Anika at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Have you read The German Heiress, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR