Really enjoyed this book. Great plot and engaging, believe characters. I was drawn right into the story. Would definitely recommend.

I thought this was well-written and easy to read. Fascinating history and attention to detail. Truly loved getting this peek into Audrey's early life.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I loved reading about the early life of Audrey Hepburn. This book read like a novel and painted a picture of what it was like for her growing up during the war.

Matzen’s biography provided insights on Audrey Hepburn’s childhood in the Netherlands during World War II, it spent a great deal of time on her family’s actions during WWII and the greater landscape in The Netherlands during the war. Doing this allow Matzen set the scene to help the reader understand Hepburn’s actions later in and her rebellion against her nazi sympathizing parents as a teenager. Overall, Dutch Girl was interesting but it was not what I expected. It’s worth a read but prepare yourself to spend much a great deal of time not following Audrey Hepburn.

Everyone knows the beautiful actress Audrey Hepburn as depicted in her many classic films. Many have written biographies about her stardom. Dutch Girl shows readers the years Audrey spent as a young girl in the Netherlands countryside during German occupation in WWII. These were the years that shaped her life and led to her work UNICEF ambassador; years of hunger, fear, subterfuge.
Robert Matzen has done a superb job of thoroughly researching various interviews and sources to reconstruct these seminal years of Audrey's life. I learned so much about Hepburn that I was completely oblivious to. I admit that I was one of those people that thought Audrey was related to Katherine Hepburn. This biography not only taught be about Audrey, but also aspects of WWII history I was unaware of. It was an enlightening read.
#DutchGirl #NetGalley

Audrey Hepburn is such an icon. She was popular well before my existence, but growing up her movies are the ones I love to watch. Roman Holiday anyone? I still watch it. This book focuses on young Audrey Hepburn during Hitler's tyranny, but it does cover her entire life. It wasn't as captivating as I imagined it would be and the author was a bit repetitive.

This book was hard to read at times. It was so informative and interesting. The author did wonderful research for this book. I was always have been a huge fan of Audrey Hepburn as an actress and for all of her humanitarian work. When I saw this book I new I wanted to read it.

This is a book about Audrey Hepburn but not the movie star person who we got to see in Breakfast at Tiffany's, My Fair Lady and many other Hollywood Films. This is the young Audrey who was a teenager during the years of the Nazi occupation of her homeland. It reads more like a history book of the war in the Netherlands than it does as a biography of a Hollywood icon and was a well researched look at how Audrey grew up and how it affected her later life.

When Audrey was 11 years old, the Germans began their occupation of the Netherlands. As a child, life didn't change much for her but as time went on and the restrictions gotten worse her life began to change and she had to give up her much loved ballet lessons. In 1944, her life took a turn for the worse when the Allies started bombing the town that she lived in. She and her family spent much of their time in the cellar of their home hoping to survive while bombs exploded all around them. Following that came the 'hunger winter'. There wasn't enough food and many people starved to death. Audrey commented that this was the first time she had ever seen starvation of such a large scale. She had a lot of determination to go from a starving young girl to a Hollywood icon in such a short period of time.
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Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher.
I love Audrey Hepburn since the movie Breakfast at Tiffany.
She is a women of class and great heart.
Love her story
Thank you

I read this some time back and realized that I forgot to review it. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot about Audrey Hepburn as a child and young woman. She has always been a favorite actress of mine. I had no idea she had lived thru so much and endured so much. What an amazing life. I had a lot of respect for Hepburn before but even moreso now.

This book is highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy to review.

I knew pretty much nothing about Audrey Hepburn's life before reading this book, and had never read any detailed history about what happened in The Netherlands during World War II, so I learned a lot. I appreciated the author's deep research, though I did feel his prose got a bit excitable at points as he tried to recreate experiences for the reader like being in the middle of a battle; that isn't a bad thing, exactly, it just felt like a little Much to me. Recommended for film fans as well as WWII buffs.

This is a marvellously detailed book. Knowing it is endorsed by Audrey's son is really important if one wants to be sure of its veracity.
Very cleverly the author has highlighted episodes from the film star's life which illustrate a point from her Dutch girl life. Had he attempted a chronological slog I doubt one could have stayed with the horror that her early life was. Too gruelling to read about and one would imagine almost unendurable to experience.
I did know the misery she witnessed in Holland spurred her to become a UNICEF Goodwill ambassador in later years. I also knew a sketchy outline of the privations endured by the Dutch Resistance but even so it is very harrowing - just to read never mind to live through.
I remember as a 14 year old reading how Audrey considered being mother to her first child of far more importance than her sparkling career. With this background filled in it becomes more understandable.

As one of the world' greatest icons, still even 20 years after her death, she is still regarded as not only beautiful but a person most others wish to emulate. I imagine very few would really want to swap lives with her were this history more widely known.
Quite apart from the constant fear for her own life and that of those she loved, the illnesses arising from lack of nutrition would be enough to make her life hell. Add to this her burning ambition to be a dancer. She had worked so diligently that it must have been heartbreaking to feel too Ill to function, let alone dance. All the time aware of the short span of a dancer's life meaning there would be no opportunity to regain lost ground
She must also have known that her refugee work for children would reopen never healed mental wounds which would be unbearable, and inevitably contributed to her death.
Judging by the constant references to the war being part of any celebrity interview, it shows the past never retreated to the past jn her case.

It is quite a special person who can endure so much but be consistently caring and humble given the opportunity to be feted as an icon.
I remember reading that her UNICEF trips involved doing her own hair, ironing her own clothes and getting very little rest Inbetween dangerous legs of her journey. Whilst cancer may have caused her death, her sense of duty to help children who still suffered as she had 50 years before must have contributed to it
One can only marvel at the whole person. Not just a beautiful, funny actress but a real human person who felt a duty to help others far stronger than to enrich her career.
This book really does her justice and will be an eye-opener for those who are only Holly Golightly fans.

A well written, detailed, and informative book about who Audrey Hepburn was before and beyond the camera. Appealing for fans and those who simply enjoy good mid-20th-century biography.

A fascinating biography of the early life and tough times of Audrey Hepburn. Absorbing and informative.

As the subtitle of this book suggests this book is both about Audrey Hepburn and world war 2.
So while there is certainly a view into hepburns life outside/before her well known acting career, this book is heavily focused in the actual world war aspects and the horrors and fears it brings and leaves behind in the survivors.
It's not an easy read since the author doesn't try to sugar coat the war, which I did appreciate but I also think that in many ways this book isn't really marketed right since yes it does have Hepburn in it, but it's more heavily focused on the war itself and in my option uses Hepburn more as a case study showing how war leaves traces on a person long after it's over.

Still a good book and definitely worth a read!

Very informative I never knew all this about Audrey. However at time it could feel a bit dry, which for me isn't uncommon for nonfiction. But if you are an Audrey fan or you're interested in WWII you should definitely pick this one up,

RATING: 3 STARS
2019; GoodKnight Books

I have been watching classic movies since my late teens and have fallen in love with the Golden Era and it's stars. And when I mean classics, I enjoy 1930s to 1940s, when talking movies were still pretty new. But I love the 50 and 60s as well. When it comes to collecting things I am more of a Marilyn Monroe fan, as I just relate more to her as the person she was. Yet, Audrey Hepburn has also intrigued me. I first saw her just as a pretty girl, until I started reading more about her early life. As a history buff, this book was a perfect blending of biography and history. While I enjoyed the book overall, I did find it dry at some points, and also felt like I did not get a real sense of Audrey before she became an actress. I am not sure if that is because there is so little, and this is more fact based than storytelling. If you interested to see how Audrey lived as a child I would recommend giving this one a try!

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

I absolutely loved learning about the early life of one of my favorite actresses. This was a well-researched and fascinating story.

I was provided an e-arc from netgalley to read and review

I unfortunately missed the opportunity to read

It was really interesting, although I think the title is a misnomer. It was more of a biography by proxy. The author gave an account of WWII in Arnhem and Velp (towns where Audrey lived) with special emphasis on Audrey and her extended family. While I came away knowing much more about the Dutch experience, I can't say that I learned much about Audrey as a person.