What a interesting insight to post WW2 in Germany and how investigators were hunting war criminals.

Most historical fiction I have read is before and during the WW2, it was very interesting to read about what happened after and how people were living after the war. 

Thank you William Marrow and Netgalley for an advanced copy for my sassy thoughts.

In The German Heiress, we follow Clara Falkenberg, who ran her family's ironworks empire during WWII. The majority of the book takes place in 1946, when Clara is being hunted by a British officer determined to see her pay for her war crimes. But was Clara really as sympathetic to the Nazi party as she appeared to be?

Throughout much of the book, we see the German character grappling with their conscience because of the choices that they made during the war, and the consequences of those choices. I enjoyed seeing a new perspective, and Scott's characters forced me to think about what I would have done, had I been in their places. 

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for this ARC.

This was a different WWII perspective as it is almost two years after the end of WWII and shows how bad it is for Germany's citizens who are struggling to try and stay alive with nothing much to help. Clara is struggling with her part in the war. I enjoyed all the different characters portrayed and how humanity was shown in them all.  There was alot in this book to think about. With Clara we’re never really sure whether she’s a hero or a villain. We're not given a lot of specifics as to what she did during the war.  I really enjoyed the different WWII perspective.

I found this novel enjoyable as I love learning and reading about the history of the holocaust. This one was different than most as it was set from the other side. Someone who was on the "bad" side but recognized it was wrong. It was refreshing to read from this perspective.

The German Heiress by Anika Scott is a WWII book set in Germany 1946 telling the story of a defeated Germany thru the eyes of Clara Falkenburg,whose nickname was "The Iron Fraulein". Her father is in prison awaiting trial for war crimes.

This book makes you debate how much a person and its actions during a War are at fault. Was Clara advancing the Nazis actions or was she secretly sabotaging them?

The characters on the book were very well developed and the author research was extensive in order to write this book.

I received this book in exchange of an honest review.

I wanted to read The German Heiress because I am a huge fan of WWII fiction.  I thought it would be interesting to read from a German’s perspective.  Based on the reviews, I am in the minority as I didn’t care for this book.  It was so slow moving.  It took nearly two weeks for me to get to 51% and then I just gave up.  I didn’t particularly care for any of the characters.  Clara and her family were Nazi sympathizers.  She acted like she had done all she could by feeding the workers a little extra even though her family profited by their iron factory being a labor camp.  It’s not like she helped any of these people escape.  If she did do so then I missed it in the first 1/2 of the book.  My heart will always be with those in the Resistance and the Jewish people.  Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the copy.  All opinions expressed are my own.

I thought the premise was interesting in terms of thinking about the realities faced by many German business owners during the Nazi regime who were not devout party members: do you acquiesce despite not agreeing with their policies or decline to participate and risk your own imprisonment or death?
My issues were with the execution. I felt like the book didn't generate enough character development for Clara to fully explain her decision to acquiesce while simultaneously trying to better the workers brought to her factory as forced labor. Certainly providing this moral ambiguity presents Clara as less of a depraved person, but she lacked a lot of substance. The reader just gets a few references to her ambivalence towards fascism.

Very good book, good twists and turns of post World War II life. Highly recommended. Thanks for the review copy.

This is a very interesting novel.  The story takes place just after the end of World War II and the round up of war criminals.  This novel looks at a family that was involved in the mass machine of the Nazi regime and how the different family members truly felt about the regime.  It is intertwined with the all to often family secrets that always come out.  The characters in this book are well rounded and very believable as is the story the author created, you can almost believe it was true.  As with everything good people do bad things because they think they are helping. This is a very engaging read and fast paced.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Have you ever done something you regret? What if what you did affected thousands of people? This war time story follows a war criminal in the after math of the war and gives is insight as to how people continued to suffer after the war ended.

This book tackles what happens to those who bent to the Nazis.  Post WW II 1946, Clara Falkenberg, once an heiress to the Falkenberg Iron Work is now on the run trying to hide from those who think she helped the Germans too much.  Her nickname  “the Iron Fraulein” follows her.  She cannot find her best friend and her best friend's son though and is desperate for news.  In her hunt, she finds answers she cannot handle.  She also finds hope and a chance for redemption if she can not mess it up.  
It is interesting to read about a post WW II where the character is meant to be hated based on what could have been done...and realizing some people had little to no chance to break free because if they did, they too would be killed.  Clara must struggle with what she did and did not do during the war.  Insight as the book progresses shows her struggles and what she was able to do.  
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

A book that drew me historical fiction taking place in post ww2 Germany.The suffer to of the war on the children the peopke.Wel drawn characters very involving  for fans of historical fiction grab this book.#netgalley#harpercollins.

I was approved for this novel on Edelweiss back in the winter and I am circling back to share my review here, too. Not sure whether I was approved on this platform or not. Very much enjoyed the novel.


Set largely against the backdrop of Stunde Null Germany in the British-occupied city of Essen, The German Heiress follows the efforts of Clara Falkenberg, a former heiress to the Falkenberg mines and ironworks, to find out what happened to her dearest friend. At the close of WWII, Clara, knowing that her family's apparent complicity with the Nazi regime would spell disaster, fled Essen under an assumed name and has spent almost two years in Hamlin where, as the book opens, she finds the man with whom she's been involved, is a doctor who sterilized children in the camps at Ravensbruck. Appalled, Clara tries to return to Essen to find out why her friend Elisa has not replied to her letters. She finds a British intelligence officer, Captain Fenshaw, is hot on her trail, seeking to charge her with war crimes, just as her father is charged and awaiting trial in Nuremberg. But Clara is more worried about the fact that her beloved Elisa is missing. Her house has been destroyed, another family is living in its cellar, and her son is also missing. Dealing with her own haunted memories of all that she and Elisa tried to do to shelter the factory's forced laborers, part of Clara almost feels as if she thinks she should be caught if only she knows her friend is safe. She looks back at her parents' choices - her British-born mother was a greater supporter of Hitler than was her German father- and questions why they didn't leave Germany when they saw the rising Third Reich, the pogroms, the influx of forced laborers - and questions everything the Falkenbergs did over the past decade. Her beautiful town of Essen, heavily bombed at the end of the war, is in a chaotic state. For the survivors, there are hard questions about what they did to survive the war and what they will do to survive in its aftermath.

While trying to evade Fenshaw, she meets Jakob, a discharged German soldier who lost his leg in the campaign on the Eastern Front. Following the death of his parents, he is struggling to provide for his younger sisters, including one who is pregnant by a British soldier who left her in the lurch. Jakob makes his living, like so many, on the black market. He, too, is looking for Elisa. Together they try to unravel the truth of what happened to her in March of 1945, and the truth about her teenage son Willy.

This is a tightly written novel of historical fiction that encourages the reader to contemplate the spectrum of resistance in WWII. It also captures the terrible outcome of a regime that encouraged children to report on their own parents.

The audiobook is beautifully narrated by Lisa Flanagan, who captures some of the accents handsomely.

I received a Digital Review Copy and a paper review copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this glimpse into post WW2 Germany and exploration of guilt by Germans who may not have agreed with the Nazi logic but were swept up with the tide. A truly unique story about industrial Germany that I had never learned about before. History is truly written by the winners and as such, this is a story that hasn’t fully been told before and I appreciate the author’s ingenuity in bringing us a new (forgotten) piece of history.

I enjoyed this book. I like how it took place after WWII had just ended, so it wasn't your typical WWII book. It also was told from the perspective of different people in Germany, so that was very interesting. I would recommend this book for anyone who likes historical fiction. I received a copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Anika Scott for my copy of The German Heiress for an honest review. This post WWII novel, follows Clara Falkenberg, and her time after the war. She is hiding out from the British, who are occupying Germany and looking for war criminals , after the war. Clara’s family owned the Falkenberg Iron Works and Clara ran the business when her father went to Berlin, for the remainder of the war. This is a fast paced novel and has many interesting characters. Clara, while hiding for Thomas  Renshaw, a British Commander rounding up war criminals. While traveling to Ennis to find her best friend and her sun, Clara meets Jacob Relling, who helps her along the way. Clara and Jakob become a team and secrets are discovered and lies are exposed. I couldn’t wait to see how this novel ended and it was well with the wait. The story progressed so well and I was very happy with how it ended. For those who like WWII novels, this book will be great for them. I have recommended it to my friends and rated 4 stars on Goodreads and Barnes and Nobel and Amazon.

If you loved reading The Alice Network  & The Lost Girls of Paris, you are going to love this book!!! Another book I could not put down!!!

I read a lot of novels about WWII and always find it very interesting to find one from the German perspective.
The war has been over for two years and the allied forces are busy trying to find war criminals to prosecute. Germany is still in disarray with people struggling to find food and shelter so it's fairly easy to hide from the authorities with a fake identification card. Margarete Muller is the fake name that Clara Falkenberg is using to try to return home. During the war, she ran her family ironworks company and used forced labor and inhumane practices to make cars and planes. As she returns home to find her best friend, she is also realizing how many people she hurt during the war and beginning to question her actions She always felt that she had done her best to protect her workers but the world saw her differently. Was she a cruel inhumane person, only concerned with increasing her family's wealth or was she compassionate and caring and just caught up in family's legacy? This is an excellent novel about someone making a personal journey and trying to make sense of their past while they strive for a better life in the future. It's an extremely well researched novel about love and family, acceptance and betrayal and forgiveness and redemption.

I really enjoyed this one! Set in post WWII Germany it tells the story of Clara who was called the Iron Fräulein during the war and used as a poster child for the Nazi Party. Now 2 years after the war had ended she is hiding from the Americans and looking for her lost friend. I loved that this story was set in Germany after the war and dealt with the issues that so many Germans dealt with. It is easy to just lump all of them into the Nazi Party but in reality that was not the case. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves a good WWII novel!

Thank you Netgalley and William Morrow publishing for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.