This is a very moving and heartbreaking story set in WWII. It shows how remarkably cruel people can be but at the same time there are others who do their best to help people. Tragedy and hope will have you turning the pages. Bring the tissues, this is a heartbreaker. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

What a truly remarkable and amazing ending to this saga! It had me on the edge of my seat wondering how it would all end up. Anything written by this author is worthy to read.

Wow! This is definitely a book written with feeling.
I was on the edge of my seat most of the time, calling out “oh no”
Greta Lang has been living dangerously, hiding Jews in her basement, until her husband who is in the SS returns unexpectedly and hears a noise! What action will he take?
Their son Ziggy is a reluctant SS member which is only made worse when his father insists that he go to Auschwitz for an interview in order that he advances in the Nazi party, is Ziggy cut out for such a gruesome position?
This is only made worse by the fact that he had to leave his beloved son Auggie behind, now he just longs to get back to him.
There is much to keep you glued to the pages.

I loved it, some real wicked characters.
My favourite character was Greta for her endurance & kindness. Least favourite, again, Ludwig, my loathing of him only intensified as this series has gone on.
Will be sure to watch for more by this author.

This is the third book in the "Duty and Betrayal " series, if you haven't read the previous two books I would truly recommend reading them.

In the prologue Rebecca is feeling terrified about what she is about to do, and that she will be responsible for the death of the people on the train. As she hides in the trees she is absolutely scared about what is about to happen. But all of a sudden there are two Nazi soldiers holding them at gunpoint, telling them to remove the bomb, but before they could do anything the train was speeding towards both them and the bomb!

Chapter one starts in October 1940 and Greta is pleeding with her husband not to go down to the cellar of their house. She knows there are jews hiding down there as she put them there, she has to stop her husband entering the cellar. But as he enters the cellar he slips and knocks himself unconscious and in revenge one of the Jews slashes his face with a knife. Now Greta is in a real problem. As time goes on the problem gets worse and Greta is in a real dilemma.
Greta and her friend Ruth are two of the main characters in this book, whose lives are entwined till the end of the book.

The story follows the lives of many people who care deeply for each other and their only hope is to be able to survive.

A book full of action that certainly keeps your attention right from the very beginning. Some parts are really difficult to read about because they cover the atrocities that happened to the Jews but it really makes you realise what happened to so many. There are many moments in the book when it becomes heartbreaking to read and you can't help but be moved by all their stories. You will definitely need a tissue at the ready. Definitely a worthy five-star read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Book Whisperer.
I received an advance review copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review.

#Netgalley
#AfterTheBetrayal
#BookWhisperer
#RobertaKagan

This was a very powerful emotional book to read the third in a series describing Germany during the war how a family was torn apart the man of the family being a committed Nazi the wife and son working against him in secret. Because of what the book covers it was a painful book to read and very emotional.
Thanks to Netgalley and The Book Whisperer publishing for my arc copy

Book 3 in the series and the author doesn't disappointment. The pages are filled with hardship, tragedy, loss and and so much more. A heart-felt read with a worthy ending and highly recomended. I received an ARC from Book Whisperer/Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I think I have read just about every book by this author adn I never tire of her stories. Set in Berlin in 1941. the poser of the Nazi's tightens its grip across Europe. But there are those who will do all they can to help others and these acts of resistance are dangerous and courageous. This is a story that brings that to the fore and will have you turning the pages of this book and devouring each and every one.

I love the characters, they come to life on the page and you can feel the tension, the hopelessness and the hope that they will all get through this dreadful time. Another great book by Roberta Kagan. Keep them coming!

Thank you NetGalley and Book Whisperer for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Roberta Kagan is a MASTER of WWII fiction.
This is the last in the Duty and Betrayal series. You can read it as a standalone, but then you will miss out on this riveting series.
Greta is back and she is hiding Jews. Ludwig send Valeria and Ziggy to Poland and baby August is not developing as he should.
Nothing is what it seems and danger lurks around every corner. This book is deep is it will stay with you. It shows you the most horrible of human behavior but that there is also hope. Many thanks to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
#AfterTheBetrayal #RobertaKagan #NetGalley #BookWhisperer #NewBook #BooksSetDuringWWII

I feel guilty in loving a war story. There is a such mix of hatred and love. There are emotional struggles, friendship and pulling together. Roberta Kagan is one of my favorite WWII authors. This is a great story! Highly recommend!

What an incredible journey this trilogy has been.

From the moment I picked up the first book, I was completely captivated. The second pulled me even deeper into the story, and this final instalment was everything I could have hoped for and more. Saying goodbye to these characters was genuinely difficult.

The characters are written with such warmth and depth that they feel incredibly real. I laughed with them, worried for them, celebrated their triumphs, and felt every heartbreak along the way. I thought I knew how the story would end, but Roberta surprised me, and the direction she chose made the conclusion all the more powerful and satisfying.

By the final pages, I was completely emotional. It was one of those endings that reminds you why you love reading in the first place, leaving you with a full heart and a story that lingers long after you've turned the last page.

Thank you, Roberta, for sharing this wonderful series. It has been a privilege to spend time with these characters and their story. I can't wait to see what you write next, but for now, I'll be holding this trilogy close and savouring every memory of it. Thank you to the publisher and to netgalley for the advance copy to read and give this review. All the opinions are my own given freely.

Manifold are the stories that have been untold, but do unfold in historical works of fiction such as Roberta Kagan can create. This After the Betrayal is a prime example. It is timeset in Hitler's Germany during WWII. Atrocities and cruelty abound even among members of an SS Officer's family against whom the 'weaker' members suffer. Despite that, we are told of kind and caring Germans who stuck their necks out to hide, protect and care for Jewish people. Both ends of this spectrum are seen in this book.

Although this book can be a stand alone, it would be helpful to read Books 1 and 2 in this Duty and Betrayal Series to draw and weave the ends together in greater pleasure and enjoyment. Either way, we meet good folks like Greta, Ziggy, Hermann, Lily, Ruth, Rebecca and others; and the not so good, like Ludwig and Alex. Each expose their true characters.

We learn of the dangers of those who hid folks in their homes, of the Partisans and other groups of resistance people. with their varying successes and devastating consequences. We learn of Hitler's sadistic project against those with disabilites: anything NOT Aryan and 'whole'.

As Kagan masterfully weaves her story, I often felt maximun emotional impact. I believe potential readers would come to 'feel' some of what those characters portraying the strife of those days revealed, even down into their souls. The author keeps the kettle boiling with the pathos the whole way through, adding a well executed ending.

5-Star rating, from me.

~ Eunice C. Reviewer/Blogger ~

September 2026

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the complimentary review copy sent to me by NetGalley and the publisher.

After the Betrayal by Roberta Kagan
Another excellent book by Roberta Kagan! I loved this emotional and gripping story. The characters are beautifully written, and the story kept me turning the pages, wanting to know what would happen next. Kagan has a wonderful way of bringing history and her characters to life. I absolutely love this author and highly recommend this book and her other works. Thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers of this book for giving me a free advance copy of the book to preview and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

After the Betrayal by Roberta Kagan

This is the final book in Roberta Kagan’s latest serious Duty and Betrayal.

I could not wait to read “After the Betrayal” since book 2, “My Son’s Dury”, ended on such a cliff hanger But I was not disappointed.

I don’t want to give too much away but in book three we dwell more in to the lives of Greta, Ziggy, Ludwig, Ruth, Leib, Rebecca and Hermann and what they had to do to survive the war.

Another wonderful book by Roberta Kagan.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Book Whisperer for a copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review.

I love historical fiction books so much and this was no exception. It was an amazing book that I will think about for days even though I finished it. The writing style of Roberta Kagan is fantastic and has you just devouring page after page as quick as you can to see what happens next.... I can't wait to read even more..

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I honestly can’t get enough of this authors writing. Rather than focusing on the horrors of the Holocaust this centres on love, devotion, and loyalty. It’s awe inspiring to read of how even in the most dire of circumstances, humanity shines through.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for a review.

Wow this story blew me away, I couldn’t put it down. It was a brilliant ending to the trilogy. It was a powerful, gut wrenching, rollercoaster of emotions. Easily one of my favourite books so far this year. The family members of the Nazis were not immune to their evil ways. The story of Ziggy and Augie was horrendous especially the T-4 programme. With the bad there is also good, Greta and Herman did so much to help the Jewish and RomanI people and it was heartwarming to see the friendship between Greta and Ruth. Highly recommend, I loved it!

Roberta Kagan has done an excellent job with this series, it totally deserves five stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. Publication date 16 September 2026.

This 3 rd book in this series was as good as the previous novels by Roberta Kagan.
Rather than focusing on the horrors of the war , the main traits are all about love, loyalty, loss and heartbreak but above all hope and. Resilience

Great wrap up to the series. I love how characters from earlier books always pop back up. And it’s always unexpected what’s going to happen…no character is safe! Thanks for the early read NetGalley and to the author.

A sorrowful ending to yet another heartrending and unput-downable Roberta Kagan trilogy. I wish things had ended happier for Ziggy, who of all the characters, deserved a long happy life in a world that appreciated his goodness with his son. And I wish I could have seen Valeria’s end. I hope she found some peace and learned to appreciate what she lost in Ziggy.

A powerful, beautifully written and deeply affecting conclusion to what has been an exceptional trilogy. Roberta Kagan has an extraordinary ability to take an enormous, devastating period of history and make it feel intensely personal, placing the reader inside the lives of ordinary people forced to make impossible choices in extraordinary circumstances.

This final instalment had me completely absorbed. There is an almost constant sense of danger running beneath the story, particularly as Greta’s resistance becomes increasingly perilous and Ludwig’s devotion to the Nazi Party threatens everyone around him. I found myself reading with that awful sense of dread where you desperately want to intervene, knowing that one discovery, one wrong word or one cruel decision could change everything.

What Kagan does particularly well is create characters who feel genuinely human rather than simply using them as vehicles through which to tell history. Greta’s courage, compassion and endurance are beautifully portrayed, while Ziggy’s story was particularly heartbreaking. His conflict between the world he has been drawn into and the person he truly is gives the novel enormous emotional weight. I desperately wanted a kinder ending for him. Ludwig, meanwhile, remains a character capable of provoking an almost visceral reaction, which says a great deal about the strength of Kagan’s characterisation.

The sections surrounding Auschwitz are incredibly difficult to read, but they never feel included purely for shock. The depth of historical research behind the novel is evident throughout. Kagan manages to weave that research into the story without making the reader feel as though they are being given a history lesson. Instead, the details create a frighteningly believable world and remind us how persecution was enabled not only by enormous political events, but through families, workplaces, institutions and the seemingly everyday decisions of individuals.

There is also so much emotional depth here. Alongside the horror are love, loyalty, sacrifice, resistance and moments of extraordinary kindness. That contrast makes the cruelty even more devastating, but it also prevents the story from becoming without hope. These characters stayed with me long after I finished reading, and I found myself thinking particularly about Ziggy, Greta and Valeria and wishing that history, and life, could have been kinder to them.

Roberta Kagan writes historical fiction with both heart and intelligence. Her storytelling is wonderfully immersive, her research meticulous and her understanding of human emotion gives the novel a depth that goes far beyond its historical setting. Heartbreaking, tense and incredibly moving, this was a fitting conclusion to the trilogy and a book I found very difficult to put down.

An easy five stars, and I will absolutely be looking for whatever Roberta Kagan writes next.

I just can't get enough of this author's books. When it comes to WWII historical fiction stories no one does it better. Wonderful characters that you will find yourself deeply invested in - along with a riveting storyline. This is the final book in a 3 part series and it was a satisfying conclusion. Never stop writing Roberta Kagan! Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.