Heartbreaking read. Felix endured so much in World War 2 and goes through life still thinking about Hannah. The details of the camps are heartbreaking to read. I was more interested in reading about the Nazis being brought to justice than I was in finding out what happened to Felix and Inge. The whole story is really well written and one I will remember.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

It is 1941, and Felix is struggling to find his place in a new Berlin in which he no longer feels safe since being labelled as a mischling: mixed blood. His Jewish father has not left the house since being forced to wear a yellow star, and his German mother is determined that Felix will keep himself safe by playing the perfect young Nazi - joining the hitler youth and training as an auxiliary member of the German airforce. Inge on the other hand doesn’t have to pretend - betrothed to a senior SS officer, her place in society has been assured. But her life is turned upside down when, anxious about her impending nuptials, she escapes to a local dance hall, and crosses paths with Felix. Fate tears them apart, but their lives will never be the same, and it will be their love for each other that guides them through the coming darkness...

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I am a huge fan of historical fiction, especially that which is set during WW2, so I fully expected to love this one. But unfortunately, it was a bit more of a mixed bag than I expected. I'll start with the positives - firstly, this book really stands out due to covering several elements which are often not mentioned in other literature based in this time period; for example, the plan to flood the British marketing with fake notes to cause a financial crash similar to what happened in the Weimar Republic following WW1, and the preferential treatment given to prisoners in the camps who worked on this project. I also really like the fact that the book didn't end when the war did - all too often, stories are wrapped up as soon as the allies arrive, and so it was really interesting to get an insight into what the lives of both Nazi's and prisoners would have been like after the camps were liberated.

Now, on to the not so good. And unfortunately, my main issue with the book is actually the romance at the heart of it. It is sadly a textbook example of instalove, and not even remotely believable instalove. Felix and Inge (or Hannah, as he thinks she is called) fall for each other within seconds, and even after just two very brief meetings, they spend the next 10 years obsessively thinking about each other and pining for each other. I get the whole 'gave them something to live for' angle, but for me, even when you acknowledge that things were different during war time, it all felt a bit too silly for me. All that needed to be done was flesh the romance out a bit more (even just one more meeting!) and it would've made all the difference, but as it stands, its just too unrealistic. This was redeemed slightly by how things are left at the end of the book, but for me it was too little too late in terms of realism.

So yeah, a bit of a mixed bag. It is definitely a very strong book, and the depictions of Felix's experience during the war are incredibly vivid and moving. I also loved that the author expanded the timeframe of the book beyond the end of the war, and offered a rarely explored insight into the life of a Nazi wife. As such, if you're a fan of historical fiction it is definitely worth a read. However, as a romance it is just not believable, so if that's what you're looking for you might be a tad disappointed.

Disclaimer - I was fortunate enough to be provided with an advance reading copy by NetGalley. This has not affected my review in any way, and all opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher & author for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. I really enjoyed this historical fiction about WWII - it was heartbreaking to see what lengths a Jewish boy had to go to to hide his identity, and also I really liked the love story piece of it. I definitely recommend this one!

Simply put this is a love story during the Holocaust. I wondered whether it is possible to have a love so deep that can transcend time or the writer is simply being too romantic to the extent that the love story becomes too unbelievable and unrealistic. But I believe it is possible during those times when things and people are more simple and less complicated. In this era, I don't think such love exists anymore.

This is my first foray into a world war 2 historical fiction. I did not read the Tattooist of Auschwitz to compare it with this one. Both books are love stories set during world war 2.

The writer did a good job describing the Holocaust and what went on in the concentration camps where Jews were deported there for manual work, what life was like and what went on in the camps: the random killings, the food ration, the duties assigned to the prisoners, the games they played to humiliate the Jews. These are described broadly rather than deeply but that is good enough to have a glimpse of what went on during the war. You can tell that the writer, Catherine did a fair amount of research into this book.

The first few chapters were a bit dull but if you push through, you will realize that this is a good story.

The writing is simple but not so straightforward. I have to ponder a bit here and there as to connect the dots as to what the writer is trying to put across and described for the first half of the book. It is the way the sentences are constructed and the choice of words. I also find the chapters a bit too long. With all that said, the writing was good especially in the second half of the book which was easier to understand. The writing became simpler and smoother and the choice of words was excellent even though the first half of the book wasn't.

This story is told from two perspectives: Felix and Inge. I didn't like Inge in the story as I find her very naive and silly and always being outsmarted. I don't find her likable but I like Felix. His perspective is more touching, more painful and thought-provoking for the reader.

The ending was expected but satisfying but also a bit of a let down because not much was mentioned about how the villain, Max was hunted and apprehended though in the end, he was.

It is a good book and I would give it a 3.8 star out of 5 as overall I like the story which provided me a deeper insight into World War 2. This book deserves to be a New York Times bestseller.

This was not your typical WWII historical romance. While it had some of the same elements as other books of the same genre, what stood out for me was the two main characters were not type-cast. Meaning in traditional WWII dramas, the female is usually in the camps for whatever reason - Resistance member, Jewish ancestry. But in this book, it is the male who is the prisoner and the female is German. I won't go into too many details as to not spoil the story, but this made a nice change from the usual books I see on Netgalley. A negative for me, however is once again the whole 'love at first sight' thing rears it's head, which for me is eye-roll inducing. That being my own personal opinion and should not detract you from giving this story a try.

Beginning in 1941 in occupied Berlin, this is a wartime story based around the people living under the Nazi regime. We are so used to having wartime sagas told from the English perspective, but more books are now being written from the Germans. Felix, a printer’s apprentice falls in love with a wealthy young woman called Inge, who is about to be married. Told from several different aspects and timeframes, the story of Felix’s love for Inge is emotional and heart-breaking.

Inge’s character was probably the most interesting for me. Being due to be married to a much older man, a Doctor, Inge obviously has no idea who this man really is. It was shocking for her to discover what his role within the concentration camp really was, and just as horrific to read about. Felix’s character was also mesmerising, a non-practising Jew was treated the same as a practising Jew in Nazi Germany. It was so heart-breaking to follow his story in pursuit of the woman he loved.

When reading books like this I always find it difficult to remember it is just a story, as obviously things like this, and worse, did happen during the war. The author has created a story straight from a page in history, detailing what it must have been like in Germany and especially for all those poor people living in the concentration camps. This is definitely a story I would recommend, especially for those who enjoy wartime or historical romantic fiction. Full of not just the horrors of war and the aftermath of how a war leaves your country, but also of love, romance and more importantly, hope. Highly recommended!

Felix is Jewish, but not practicing, but that does not save him from Hilter. He is still doing okay, his life is about to change even more than it has already. One night he meets Hannah/Inge and his life is changed, the fall in love, quickly, but then he is taken away.

And then they do see each other again. Only Inge is married to a monster and Felix thinks she too is being held in the camp. But kept apart from the women, he can only hope that she can survive all this. But Inge is married to the Needle, the monster of the camp who runs crazy experiments on the prisoners. She is ignorant of what he does, but at home, his abuse to her speaks volumes. But this was a forced marriage, and she sees no way out. But she hopes that she can fight to save Felix.

Felix continued to hold out hope for such a long time, that he and Hannah/Inge would be together again someday. I loved that Felix was able to survive, that he made a good life for himself, and that he fought to right the wrongs of the past. Inge finally found her courage to escape from her marriage but her reunion and ending with Felix wasn't as I imagined. But I think it went the best for this duo after all they had been through.
Overall, this is a good read, but I felt that I was left wanting a bit more.

NOT YOUR AVERAGE WWII FICTION

Usually WWII fiction follows a very typical form - we either follow soldiers are prisoners in KZ camps. Sure, this book did have a prisoner in a KZ camp (Sachsenhausen) but that was far from the focal point of the story. Because this book goes beyond the war and that was refreshing and new.

👍 WHAT I LIKED 👍

Beyond WWII: Usually, in WWII fiction, the ending (whether happy or not) arrives with the end of the war. This book, however, went beyond the war and examined the fates of the people who suffered through it in the years afterwards. Because no, the problems didn't end with the war. People were still suffering and fighting to get back to normal. So in a way, this book was more realistic.

Ending: I will not be spoiling the ending, only say that it did not end the way I thought it would. It both made me mad - because I wanted my ending - but it also made me happy because I liked that it didn't end in a predictable way.

The female, German POV: Again, WWII fiction tends to take a certain road - in many cases it is male and/or Jewish. And yes, that view was represented here with Felix. However, we also got the female, German point of view with Inge and that was refreshing. Very few authors have examined the trials of being German during the war. Inge's story shows that being a German woman married to a Nazi fanatic was no walk in the park either.

👎 WHAT I DISLIKED 👎

Insta-love: Inge and Felix fall in love after only meeting twice. That has never been to my liking. However, I do see that there is a reason for their love to evolve in the way it did (yes, I am being purposely vague here), but I still don't like insta-love...

After reading The Fortunate Ones, by Catherine Hokin, I am rating it 4 stars. I did enjoy most of the book, some parts seemed a bit repetitive especially when it came to Max and Inge’s power struggle. I really wanted her to have the upper hand more than she did, and her redemption at the end of the book was short-lived because the author chose to end the book without going into future plot details.

I did enjoy the enduring love story tying Felix with Inge/Hannah and thought that was beautifully written.

Overall 4 stars, thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing book. From the first to the very last page this story was a sheer joy to read. One of hope, despair, love and loss and history combined this book has it all. Thoroughly recommended.

This book was extremely difficult to get through. As with any enthusiast for psychological dramas, there is always a benchmark for reasonable standards as to how much creative license an author can take when writing a story. The biggest offenders tend to be outrageous and implausible plot devices.

What makes this book so incredibly difficult to work through is that the atrocities committed against other human beings that were cited in this story were not figments of a fictional writer's imagination. In this reading, there was always a level of detachment that was necessary, otherwise, it was nearly impossible to reconcile the fact that the barbarity of actual crimes committed against mankind during WWII rivaled anything conjured up in a fictitious horror novel. Although, limited in my knowledge of historical dramas, this was the first novel that I have come across that addressed the medical experimentation that had been conducted by the Third Reich.

Contained within a richly-detailed narrative was a story that spoke of prevalence of the human spirit, both resilient and beatific, bowed but never broken by the unfathomable horrors of war. Captivating. Sobering. Unflinching. Wishing for a conclusion to Felix and Inge's story. 5+ stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Catherine Hokin for an ARC of 'The Fortunate Ones' in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

Hannah and Felix ... a beautiful love story. A magical tale of how a person’s hope and dreams can get them through anything. I love how this story gave insight to different views of WWII. I hope this is a series. There is so much more I want to know. Please don’t let it end.

Felix is an aspiring architect in Hitlers Berlin.Since he is half Jewish his dreams will never be fulfilled.He works as an apprentice to a printer.He meets Inge at a dance and they fall in love.Later on he is transported to a camp where he counterfeits money and happens to see Inge.He does not realize she is married to a doctor at the camp. Her husband is very abusive to her..
This story takes us through their lives.Felixs story is one of courage and grit through the very worst trials.
Thankyou Netgalley for this ARC.

This story begins in Berlin in 1941 where Felix, a mischling and a printer's apprentice lives with his parents. Inge is wealthy and is about to enter into an arranged marriage to a wealthy, older physician. Shortly before the wedding, Inge's best friend, Liesl talks her into going to a dance for one last chance to have some fun. At the dance, Felix and Inge meet, dance and share a few kisses and they both fall madly in love with each other. They meet one more time before she marries and Felix and his father are deported to a work camp. The book toggles between Felix's struggles in the prison camp and his life after the liberation and Inge's life as a Nazi physician's wife. The story spans from 1941 to 1956 in Berlin. This was a very emotional and heartbreaking read at times and it was hard to put down. Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of this fantastic book in exchange for an honest review. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves WWII Historical Fiction books.

In 1941, Hitler was cracking down and while Felix is still doing okay, his life is about to change even more than it has already had. One night he meets Inge and his life is changed, only, she tells him her name is Hannah and as things start to spiral out of control for both of them, he never gives up hope that he will find her one day.

And then they do see each other. Only Inge is married to a monster and Felix thinks she too is being held in the camp. But kept apart from the women, he can only hope that she can survive all this. But Inge is married to the Needle, the monster of the camp who runs crazy experiments on the prisoners. She is ignorant of what he does, but at home, his abuse to her speaks volumes. But this was a forced marriage, and she sees no way out.

So I loved that Felix held out hope for such a long time. I loved that he survived, that he made so much of himself, and that he fought to right the wrongs of the past. I was glad when Inge finally found her courage because as an abused woman, it was hard for her to find a way out. When she tried to demand answers, it never went well for her. The ending didn't go the way I thought it would, but I think it went the best way for this duo. I did find Inge's portion of the story a bit tedious and repetitive at times, with detail that felt like filler that slowed down the reading, and that's the only reason I'm giving this 4-stars instead of 5. I didn't notice the title tagline you see on Amazon til after I requested this, and honestly, whenever I've ended up with review books with a tagline, they've ended up a bit disappointing in one area or another. But overall, this is a good read.

World War Two stories seem to be very popular at the moment following on from books such as The Tattooist Of Auschwitz. The Fortunate Ones is in this vein although it is told from a slightly different angle.
Felix Thalberg has Jewish origins although he is not practising and knows little about the religion. However in Hitler’s Germany, 19 year old Felix is classified as a “Mischling” and his options in life narrow accordingly. He can no longer become an architect and he worries constantly about his father who is forced to wear the yellow star and loses his lecturing job as he is classified as fully Jewish. Felix’s mother is not Jewish but she is also shunned in this world gone mad.
One day Felix meets Hannah at a dance and they fall in love after only two dates! Then circumstances conspire to separate them. Felix is arrested and Hannah has her own problems.
However all is not as it seems- Hannah is really Inge who has been married off to SS Doctor Max.
Inge comes from a loveless family, her mother Grete, cares little for her and her father is busy with his factory which he runs with slave labour.
At first new husband, Max, seems ok but gradually Inge begins to realise what a monster he is. When she sees Felix at Sachsenhausen concentration camp, on a visit with her husband, she acts to save him.
Inge’s marriage is not good as Max is controlling and evil but Inge lacks the funds or indeed the maturity to escape although she instinctively knows something is not right.
Felix meanwhile works as a counterfeiter in the Camp and dreams of finding his”Hannah” again, fearing she is also a prisoner.
I enjoyed reading about the characters in this book and watching as Inge’s naivety morphs into horror as she realises what her husband truly is.
As well as being about War, this book is also about an abusive marriage based on fear and control.
My only complaint would be that the ending was somewhat unsatisfactory and left me wanting more. Is there going to be a sequel to this book or is it up to the reader to decide what happens next?
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

What an extraordinary, engaging story. The lurid description of the camp made my toes curl - the darkest side of humanity. An intriguing story about WW2 but with a different perspective from previous books I've read. It moved me to undiscovered heights of understanding and compassion. A novel that will stay in my mind forever. Very interested in the sequence about the Nuremberg trials. I learnt a lot which built up my knowledge base in those years. It was enhanced by a delightful love story. There were some commendable metaphors and vivid imagery. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture

At a dance hall at the outbreak of WWII in Berlin, Jewish Felix Thalberg falls for a beautiful blonde who says her name is Hannah. What Felix doesn’t know is that Hannah is really Inga Ackermann, and Inga is engaged to a very prominent Nazi doctor.

Very rarely do I award a book 5 stars. I stayed up all hours to finish this book. Having read a great deal of WWII books and been a student of the Holocaust my whole life, I felt the author nailed it right on the head. The atmosphere, the attitudes the German people and National Socialists had about the atrocities being committed, the delusional thought process, and especially the incredible fear that prevailed in the camps, all were so well done. There were moments I could barely breathe.

A fantastic and compelling read if you like suspense, WWII, and stories that aren’t always tied neatly with a bow.

I received this an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to the author and publisher for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for the copy for review.
I wish I had liked this one more. It was well written, quite detailed and very well researched. It just wasn't anything new. As historical fiction it read as a reflection of countless other tales of the sort, and it honestly had me rather bored. The characters did nothing to inspire emotion in the reader. They were bland, scripted, and while you feel bad for them that's about it.

Wow! This book was thrilling and sad at the same time. It was extremely difficult to put down, I enjoyed it that much!

Felix is a mischling or back the the days of WWII, a person that is half Jewish. His Aryan mother does everything possible to keep her son from danger, even if it meant attend Hitler youth activities and wear a Reich pin on his lapel. For a while, it work but eventually his luck would run out.

Inge is a young woman thrown into an arranged marriage with a wealthy doctor who ranks high in the Nazi regime. She is expected to be a “perfect” Nazi wife, pretty much an ornament. She’s never to ask questions, simply fall in line with everything that her husband does...except...she can’t. She knows something isn’t right and that her husband is up to something.

A chance meeting shortly before her wedding, Inge and Felix steal a few kisses and he falls head over heels. Knowing what’s in store for her future, Inge lies and tells him her name is Hannah. It would be the first of many lies for several years to come.

Once he is deported to a camp, Felix is assigned to an officer where his job his to make counterfeit money. What he doesn’t know is that Inge was there the day he arrived and helped save his life. Felix uses Hannah as his source of hope and strength as he does everything he can to survive just one more day.

Inge’s marriage is an abusive one. It was all arranged and it turns violent when she asks questions she shouldn’t or when she speaks out of turn. She has no idea if Felix is alive or not. When she begins to realize that her husband is a monster, she secretly begins to collect evidence, hoping to one day make him pay for his evil.

Bouncing back and forth between the characters is awesome. Things get intense and just when you think you need to take a break...it switches gears and you want to keep going. Your heartstrings pull for each of these characters and all that they’ve lost and soldier through.

Highly recommend!!!