The Traitor is a compelling weave of fiction and imaginatively structured fact. A story that relives the harrowing days in Germany under Nazi rule, where young men and women espouse bravery, loyalty and fortitude in their opposition to the Nazi ideology. In 1942 several students at the University of Munich, led by brother and sister, Hans and Sophie Scholl, founded a non-violent, intellectual resistance group to the Nazi regime, called The White Rose (die Weiße Rose). The group conducted a leaflet and graffiti campaign to illustrate how Nazi power was destroying freedom and social values, killing millions of innocent people, and conducting an unjust war at the behest of a megalomaniac and his party.

The White Rose Group risked their lives to challenge Hitler’s regime and the leaders were finally caught after a caretaker at the University of Munich reported them to the Gestapo. Siblings Sophie and Hans, along with their friend Christoph Probst, were executed by guillotine on 22 February 1943. Not only were the three friends inspirational and brave conducting their opposition campaign but as they each went to their deaths, they remained committed to their cause, loyal to their colleagues, and resolute to the end. Hans Scholl’s last words were “Let Freedom Live”, and Sophie stood upright and determined at her trial constantly challenging the partisan judge. They were tried and executed the same day.

The true story resonated deeply with me, how young men and women can assume the selfless dedication and bravery at a time in history where cruel lurking horror was commonplace. This story is truly inspirational.

“When you see the world in all its enchanting beauty, you’re sometimes reluctant to concede that the other side of the coin exists. The antithesis exists here, as it does everywhere, if only you open your eyes to it. But here the antithesis is accentuated by war to such an extent that a weak person sometimes can’t endure it.”

The fictional aspects of the story place a young Russian-German woman Natalya Irenaovich Petrovich as a member of the White Rose Group. Natalya and her friend Lisa Kolbe undertake various ventures throughout the story as they stray dangerously close to the authorities and discovery. V.S. Alexander writes a fictional novel through the eyes of Natalya and creates a wonderfully absorbing story with an authentic concern for the real activities of the White Rose Group. The characters illustrate the pervasive fear existing in German society at the time and how they struggled to maintain secrecy and caution, with everyone that they encountered. The atmosphere of suspicion and the anxiety of what has become normal life is extremely well depicted.

What V.S. Alexander has achieved is the blending of actual inspirational moments in history with such a compelling fictional narrative that creates an outstanding novel. It is fitting that this book is released in February. I would highly recommend this book and I’d like to thank Harper Collins, One More Chapter and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC copy of the book in return for an honest review.

The Traitor by V. S. Alexander is a lovely well-written novel about real resisters and a group called White Rose. They operated under great risk, to bring truth to the German citizens. A story of brave men and women risking their lives to fight the enemy, facing hunger,loss, despair and the danger they faced. The author really has put in the research and it shows in the writing with intriguing characters and a captivating story. A fascinating read that will make you stop and think.

Resist the only way we can

The Traitor is a fiction novel based on the true story of "The White Rose" a resistance group formed by College Students Hans and Sophia Scholl and their college friends. The main character is a friend and a member of the group Natalya, her friend Lisa and the villain is a boy named Garrick who pretends to like Natalya in order to infiltrate the group. He is really a Gestapo agent.

The White Rose group really existed and Hans and Sophia Scholl were the leaders. There were many members of this group. The group made flyers against Hitler and distributed them throughout Germany telling the people of the horrible things Hitler was doing. They also wrote messages in paint like Down with Hitler and Hitler is a murderer, drew swastikas' on buildings and put a red X through them. Many of the members were caught and murdered with the guillotine by the Nazi's.

In the story Natalya's life was spared and she was sent to prison on the word by Garrick that she would spy for them in prison and help them catch other resistance members. She never did.

This is the story of Natalya through her association with the White Rose, imprisonment, time in the asylum where Garrick had her sent trying to catch other resistance members to the escape from the asylum and a safe house to her meeting with her future husband Manfred and work at a POW camp. It is the story of how she survived, her family, her cat named Katz and that of her friends.

The book is a story of Patriotism, Resistance in the face of death, love of family, a lot of courage and a great ending. The book kept me reading until wee hours in the morning. I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks to V.S. Alexander, Harper Collins UK One More Chapter, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of the book for an honest review.

I was a bit disappointed in this book. The first half of the book dragged on and I honestly pushed myself to continue reading it. I stopped for a while then picked it up again. I still had to force myself to continue reading. I do not like to give up on a book and not finish it. I always have the hope that the story will improve and I will find that I liked it in the end.

I was at 51% read on my Kindle when the story finally took a turn and started becoming interesting to me. The second half of the book almost seemed like it was written by a different author. The excitement of the plot was definitely amped up.

While I understand and appreciate background to a story before the actual story can unfold, using half the book to lay the groundwork is too much in my opinion. I am glad that I finished the book and read this historical fiction of the people in The White Rose, a non-violent resistance group. I was not very involved in the characters themselves, but I was interested to see where the story would end up. The students in The White Rose were so brave and I am glad that their memory lives on.

Overall the author's style is just not for me. I would rate the first half of the book 2 stars and the second half 4 stars, so I will blend them to an overall 3 stars for this book.

I was given the ARC for this book through the publisher, HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter. I want to thank them and NetGalley for allowing me to read the advanced reader copy. My review is my own opinion, not influenced by receiving the ARC.

Readers wanting to read stories based on the White Rose resistance group will enjoy this book. Based on true events this story follows Natalya as she strives to resist Hitler and the Nazis during WWII. The story is very realistic as Natalya is arrested, and put in prison for her ties to the White Rose.
This is a well researched book. While the first part of the book dragged a little; the second half was fast paced. Recommended!

For a WWII historical fiction book, this book was not my favorite but I loved the story of how Natalya, German resident, survives during the war.

She is a traitor to Hitler regime. She survives trial, prison, asylum, and fugitive life. She has lost friends but gained love and hope.

Even though this was not my favorite book, I still recommend this book to my friends for different reasons:

1. The shift of perspective: story is written from a german resident who joins the resistance

2. There is hint of romance that spices up the story

Historical fiction is not my usual reading genre, but the description of this book caught my attention. “The Traitor” by V.S. Alexander was a look into the life people faced during the Hitler regime. It started a little slow, but it was definitely worth sticking with. Filled with historical facts, it gave me a different perspective of the horrors of that time.

I love WWII-era books, so I was excited to have the chance to read this one. I've never read anything by Alexander, but I look forward to reading future books. This book is fiction, but it's based on fact. I only knew a little bit about the White Rose before this book, so I enjoyed learning more about that, as well. I found the author's note at the end very informative, and I suggest reading it.

I liked how the book was told solely from Natalya's POV, as many books of this genre use multiple POVs. It allows the reader to really connect with her and see the world and all the horrors through her eyes.

I had a hard time putting this one down, as I was quite curious to learn more and see how everything played out. A key theme is resilience, particularly in the face of evil.

This is a beautiful, well researched novel by #V. S. Alexander, about an area of resistance that I never was aware of. Based on real resisters and a group called White Rose, that operated under great risk, to bring truth to the German citizens.
Natalya is a Russian born German citizen, living in Munich during WWII with her parents. As they struggle to survive and stay under the Nazi’s radar, Natalya is pursued by a handsome German that is attractive, but she is leery of his motives, but is conflicted by her attraction to him. She joins up with White Rose to spread propaganda and brings danger into all of their lives.
This the story of the brave men and women, risking their lives to fight the enemy. It shares their stories if hunger, loss, despair and the danger they faced, as everyone is under suspicion and danger. It’s a testimony to those that fought, struggled and died, to save their country.
My thanks to #NetGalley #KensingtonPublishing for my ARC. All comments are my own, and it’s definitely a five star effort.

A great period drama that I very much enjoyed. Strong.characters and a fascinating storyline make for an exciting read. Highly recommended.

The Traitor by V.S. Alexander is based on a true story regarding the White rose resistance movement. A group of students that attended the University of Munich resisted against the Nazi Regime. Most of the group where executed including Hans and Sophie Scholl, who are real, but the main character is fictional
Natalya Petrovich was born in Russia but came to Germany with her parents to get a better life and away from the Stalin regime. She attends the University of Munich. She also volunteers as a nurse at the front and sees the horrors that take place there. She gets involved with the White Rose movements distributing leaflets. Risking her life going to different towns to spread the word. She also meets Garrick who tries to befriend her and wants to find out more about the movement, but can he be trusted?
I have read several books of this period but, I wasn’t aware of White Rose movement until I read this book. This book is not a book to shock you as White rose was a peaceful movement, but it tells you that not all Germans in that time where bad. They were also victims of the war and the part they played to try and stop it. A well written, fictional account of what happened and if you like me like these types of books I highly recommend.

This book is told through the viewpoint of a university student in Germany during WWII who is involved with the White Rose Resistance group. While Germany is remembered as "the bad guys" from WWII, there were lots of people in Germany who disagreed with Hitler and his views. This book tells of efforts to undermine Hitler and the danger they were in by doing so. It was a little slow in the beginning, but then warmed up. The main character, Natalya, was quite likable.

Natalya Petrovich is a student and a member of white rose the secret resistance group as a member she puts herself at risk of being caught and handed over to the gestapo to face torture and death.Natalya does not trust anyone as you don't really who to trust.I enjoyed this book and can recommend it.5*

Poignant Read,

The Traitor focuses mainly on Natalya Petrovich and her life during the 1940's. Natalya and family moved from Russia to Munich, hoping Germany would be a better life. How Natalya became involved in the White Rose resistance movement, and the devastating events that follow. They show great courage in what would've been a terrifying time, not knowing who you could genuinely trust.

Whilst this is a book of fiction, it is inspired by a true story, and blended together. To be honest, I'd not really heard a great deal about the White Rose movement previously, which makes it all the more tragic, the author notes that some characters from this resistance, included, he kept them as close to their true selves as he could; notes at the back of the book gives more details on his research before writing it.

I've given this book 4⭐️'s , not because it's not good but because for me personally, it took a while to get into it, I'd more likely have put 4.5/5. This isn't my first choice of genre, and because of this I'm much more picky. Having said that I'm glad I had the offer to read it, thank you.

(***Please note that this review may contain spoilers***)

Before I jump into my thoughts about The Traitor, I wanted to start with a quote from the author's notes. "I can safely say that fewer Europeans outside of Germany, and most Americans, particularly young people, know little of the resistance movements like the White Rose and the Red Orchestra. Their only exposure may be a mention in passing during a history class on World War II. This is another reason I wanted to write The Traitor. We should never forget". (The Traitor, V.S. Alexander)

For almost a year, I've been reading various historical fiction books surrounding WWII because I wanted to continue learning about this time in history. Like the author said, "we should never forget" and books like The Traitor and all the others I've read are making sure we know about the people that resisted Hitler's evil and the horrors of that terrible time in history. We should never forget so that we never see this again in our future.

The Traitor is based on a real group called the White Rose who "composed four leaflets, which exposed and denounced Nazi and SS atrocities, including the extermination of Jews and Polish nobility, and called for resistance to the regime" (History).

Rather than focus on the real life founders and participants of this group, V.S. Alexander created fictional characters that could have been really part of the group. I thought this was a great path for the author to go because there's more that he could do with the characters and there's less pressure to be historically accurate with real individuals. However, he still included the founders, Hans and Sophie Scholl as well as other prominent members of the group, but made sure to be true to who they were.

This book was different from the books I've read recently, as it focused solely on the perspective of one person, Natalya Petrovich. Other books usually include perspectives from several different people. I liked that I was able to follow just one person's thoughts and experiences throughout the entire war. We follow Natalya through seeing her town (Munich) destroy jewish establishments all the way to the American liberation of the POW prison she was working at.

V.S. Alexander really captured the horrific circumstances, torture, manipulation, blackmail, and deceitfulness that Natalya faced after she was arrested for being a member of the White Rose. She was consider a traitor to the Reich and every day could have been her last. She spent years in prison, was sent to an asylum, and escaped with the help of others who resisted Hitler's rule. There was a lot of death along the way and Natalya lost a lot of people, but she didn't lose hope and kept on going despite everything she'd been through. She was a very brave woman and I suspect there were many women like her that actually existed during WWII.

Overall, this book was amazing. I couldn't put it down and would highly recommend reading it regardless of the genres you do or don't read. It's a great story about resilience in the face of death and uncertainty. It's a look into another piece of history that you may not know enough about. Most importantly, it highlights the evil that plagued its time and how people overcame it and fought against it. I look forward to reading more from this author and happy I discovered him on NetGalley.

“Not all Germans were Nazis” is the subtitle of The Traitor. What impact and power! But most Germans were subjugated by the Nazis and most Germans suffered. This book tells the story of Natalya, as she participates with the White Rose resistance group during World War II in Munich.

The real students behind the White Rose movement appear this book. Natalya is fictionalized. The White Rose, the meaning of the name is not known, was a peaceful movement by a small group of university students in 1942 who secretly produced and disseminated anti-Nazi and Reich leaflets. “We are your conscience.” They also painted resistance messages on buildings at night. “Freedom!” “Down with Hitler” The leaders of the group were guillotined by the Nazis in 1943. They died bravely, without denouncing fellow members. The author tells us in the book notes that copies of the White Rose leaflets were smuggled to the Allies, who copied and dropped them by the millions over Germany.

The book follows the life of Natalya, whose family emigrated to Munich, Germany from Russia to escape Stalin. At the Munich university, she meets members of the White Rose resistance. She also is pursued by a man who intrigues her- but can he be trusted? What about her landlady? And her own parents? As the war goes on, her suffering intensifies, but her spirit keeps her going.

The topic of this Historical Fiction is gripping and inspiring, but the way it is presented is flat and distant, even though it is told in the first person by Natalya. The second half of the book is exciting, but we never get to really know Natalya or the other White Rose members. We are told about the horrors of living in Munich during World War II.

Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollinsUK, and One More Chapter for an advance review copy. This is my honest review.