Ellie Midwood

Germany 1942-1943

In the face of evil the bravest will shine...thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action.

This is the incredible true story of Sophie Scholl, a rebellious German girl, who risked everything to lead a revolution against Hitler’s regime. Moving to Munich to live with her brother she felt lucky to attend the university. Along with the same thinking students Sophie became sympathetic to the resistance movement that was slowly taken form among the students. Liberty show more and freedom was the group’s vision and soon The White Rose Network was in action making pamphlets and secretly delivering them and as they reached farther and wider audiences, Sophie became bold and taking risky decisions...till one day it all came crashing down...someone reported Sophie and her brother Hans to the Gestapo.....

What a heartbreaking story that moves between the group’s activities and Sophie and Hans arrests and trials in 1943. The characters are so realistic it feels as they are beside you narrating their experiences. Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, Willi Graf , Christopher Probts (real people) also play outstanding roles in bringing to life scenes that I simply got caught up in. The history and storytelling flows beautifully and meshes with skill. This is a very moving novel of young people risking their lives for the greater good and by far not an easy read. From the start we know most will not survive the war and most will suffer a terrible ending.

Ms. Midwood is one of my favourite historical fiction authors. Her stories are so riveting and well-done it is hard to pass on them. Kudos to you Ellie for bringing us moments in history told in ways that are not only informative but very captivating.

I had the chance to receive this book from Bookouture via Netgalley for an honest and unbiased review. show less

Gruppenführer’s Mistress is the continuation of the story of Annalise, a Jewish girl and a spy deep in the offices of the SS. Along with her husband, a highly placed SS officer, she is using her job to get information to the allies while doing everything in her power to redirect as many captive Jews and POWs away from the death camps. It is a precarious road she walks. Threat of discovery stalks her every move. Old enemies, and new ones, make it that much harder for her. She has found an show more unexpected and sometimes unwitting ally, her boss, chief of the RSHA. All he wants is to make her his.

To say this book is well written is an understatement. The characters are so complex and driven that they fit into the tapestry of the real life historical figures dotted throughout the story as their equals. I absolutely love how the author has made the Nazis human. Nazi Party war crimes are so heinous that it is so easy to sit back and judge it as a whole, making it easy to forget it was made up of individuals. Those who were just following orders and lived with it any way they could because they couldn’t see a way to protect what they loved by doing anything else. Those who found a way to work within the system to bring it to an end, yet still had to make hard decisions for the greater good that would scar their souls forever. Then there are the true monsters, who would have unleashed their evil on the world anyway and just lucked out to find a vehicle like the German war machine to amplify what they alone could have accomplished. It is a rich tapestry to set an unconventional love story against and Ellie Midwood has met the challenge admirably.

I thought the first book was good, This second installment in the series was a pulse pounding, page turning ride. This book reminds me why I have a rule against reading series books before I have all of the parts, because I get to the last page and...!
I am breathlessly awaiting the next book.

I gratefully accepted a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review show less

In this, the third book of the Girl From Berlin Series, Annalise finds herself in the final days of the second world war. Torn between her first love, husband Heinrich, and true love, lover Ernst, she has a front row seat as the Third Reich collapses. Her counter intelligence activities should have bought her safety from the forces closing in on Berlin, but that doesn’t keep her from despair when the city and all those she loves are in jeopardy.

I don’t envy the position Annalise finds show more herself in. To be balanced between the men she loves while watching what is left of her world fall apart, is heartbreaking. I touched on a point in an earlier review how not black and white the world is. The author has once again and more definitively shown how a war machine like the Nazis is made up of individuals that are simply trying to survive. No excuses are made for the horrors inflicted on the world, yet it is brought home clearly how easily good people can do bad things even in the name of doing good. The attention to detail is once again the finest point of the story. The reader feels what it was like to be trapped in a Berlin about to collapse at the end of a long war. The sacrifice of doing the right thing when it would be so easy to turn a blind eye was evocatively made clear.

I will admit the love story did not turn out the way I thought it should, but then that is why I am reading and Ellie Midwood is writing. It is a beautiful story full of nuance. The tale of the girl from Berlin and all the men who loved her is an instant classic.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review show less

Gruppenführer’s Mistress is the continuation of the story of Annalise, a Jewish girl and a spy deep in the offices of the SS. Along with her husband, a highly placed SS officer, she is using her job to get information to the allies while doing everything in her power to redirect as many captive Jews and POWs away from the death camps. It is a precarious road she walks. Threat of discovery stalks her every move. Old enemies, and new ones, make it that much harder for her. She has found an show more unexpected and sometimes unwitting ally, her boss, chief of the RSHA. All he wants is to make her his.

To say this book is well written is an understatement. The characters are so complex and driven that they fit into the tapestry of the real life historical figures dotted throughout the story as their equals. I absolutely love how the author has made the Nazis human. Nazi Party war crimes are so heinous that it is so easy to sit back and judge it as a whole, making it easy to forget it was made up of individuals. Those who were just following orders and lived with it any way they could because they couldn’t see a way to protect what they loved by doing anything else. Those who found a way to work within the system to bring it to an end, yet still had to make hard decisions for the greater good that would scar their souls forever. Then there are the true monsters, who would have unleashed their evil on the world anyway and just lucked out to find a vehicle like the German war machine to amplify what they alone could have accomplished. It is a rich tapestry to set an unconventional love story against and Ellie Midwood has met the challenge admirably.

I thought the first book was good, This second installment in the series was a pulse pounding, page turning ride. This book reminds me why I have a rule against reading series books before I have all of the parts, because I get to the last page and...!
I am breathlessly awaiting the next book.

I gratefully accepted a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review show less