A heartfelt story of two artists who were lovers and separated by Nazi hatred. The book covers Max and Bettina during World War II, and Bettina's daughter in modern times who is trying to piece together her family history.

I was given this book by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The story of a daughter searching for her history leads her to 1929 Germany and a sculptor. As she learns of her past, her mothers secrets are exposed.

Throughly enjoyed this one!

This historical fiction took place in Germany and the United States in alternating time periods from 1925 to 1993.
Bettina, a German artist, and Max, a Jewish architect first met in the summer of 1925. They fell in love and ultimately lived together. They enjoyed their young carefree life with their friends. However, with the rise of Nazism they feared for their future, their lives, and their love.

In 1993, Bettina’s daughter tried to find out the truth about her father and why her mother kept his identity a secret from her. Her mother even took this secret to her grave. So Clare set out to learn the truth, but in order to do that she had to revisit one of the worst periods in history.

This was a story about an innocent and forbidden love. It was about the good and evil of humanity. It was about protecting those you love and ultimately making sacrifices in the name of love.

This was the author’s debut novel and it was riveting from start to finish.

The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy is a novel about porcelain pieces that she was searching for. The porcelain maker of Dachau made all of Bettina's porcelain pieces. Some of the pieces were a tiny rabbit with fur for a cape, greyhound dogs, song thrushes, milkmaids, athletes, and a male with tousled locks and a naked torso with a sword at his feet.

Bettina is a German woman who is an abstract artist, and Max is an Austrian Jew who is an architect. They are living together unlawfully. Then, they go on the run. Max takes on a new identity to deceive authorities. They are doing well until Max is arrested coming home from work. Max was sent to the concentration camp at Dachau. He works in the porcelain factory where they manufacture figurines and dinnerware. Soon, they discover his talent as a sculptor and move him to the basement to create mass-produced figurines.

Soon, Bettina finds Max's location. Bettina and Max had begun work on their secret menagerie in earnest. They had an assembly of subversive animals that became a second collection to the original collection. For example, a simple porcelain mouse caught in a real trap, its neck snapped, a smear of blood staining its whiskers and teeth. Next, a rabbit lay on a marble slab with a slit from throat to crotch, stained red. Max gets his revenge.

I recommend this novel for those who like historical fiction.

This was a fine novel based on history. I'm not sure how much is true but I know it has the true history of the terrible time of Dachau. I didn't know about the porcelain part or I've forgotten it. So this story was woven around some of the facts of the day. It shouldn't have mattered that two people fell in love and then were torn apart because one was Jewish. I felt bad that Bettina was so close to having everything and had it taken away. She couldn't tell her daughter what had transpired and when her daughter had a child, they both worked to find her history. It was a wonderful, heartbreaking story.

I got this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

A good debut featuring two artists in love in a prewar Berlin and a daughter searching for the truth.

Bettina is an abstract artist much to the dismay of her family. Max is an architect from Vienna. The two meet in the progressive city of Berlin in 1929 when there is no issue with a German woman dating a Jewish man. As the Nazis rise to power, Bettina and Max flee their artist community so that Max can live under a new identity in hopes of deceiving the authorities.

Even under Max’s assumed identity, the couple knows they need to leave the country in order for Max to survive. Everything is going to plan until one night coming home from work Max is arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Dachau. It is here that Max works in a porcelain factory where they manufacture figurines and dinnerware touting German pride. After months of back breaking labor they discover Max’s abilities as a sculptor and he is moved to the basement to create the figurines that will be mass produced. His artistic abilities and a secret friendship with the director of the porcelain production are what keep Max alive until Bettina unexpectedly walks back into his life.

Bettina discovers her beloved is working in the porcelain factory in Dachau. She uses her influence in a world she has immersed herself in after his arrest to try to get to Max. Together they embark on an artistic journey to create and flout the officials showing the world what is really happening under Nazi rule.

Years later Bettina’s daughter Clara is trying to piece together her mother’s history after her death and to figure out her own paternity. As she and her own daughter slowly find snippets of information about Bettina they finally understand who she was and their own history.

The Porcelain Maker is another great story in the World War II historical fiction genre. Told from inside and out of a concentration camp, Max and Bettina’s story is heartbreaking. Their tale of love, courage, and sacrifice will bring tears to your eyes.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and of course the author Sarah Freethy for the advanced copy of the book. The Porcelain Maker comes out on November 7th. All opinions are my own.

This is a book that really spoke to my heart and soul. Mostly because there were several things that I could relate to, such as having attended an Art college whose foundation program was based on the teachings of the Bauhaus. Because of that, I learned a lot about WWII and it's ramifications on the Art world. For some reason, this resonated with me in way that has stuck with me my entire life. Reading this book took me back.
Like most other books about the WWII experience in Nazi Germany, you'll read about the devastation of families, communities and all that it impacts. Nothing new here. In this case, it centers around two lovers who found their way into each other's lives through the Art world. Having their roots in the Modern world of the Bauhaus, they were regarded by the Nazis as decadents to be banished. Max was also Jewish, a double whammy, so to speak. Bettina was able to save herself by letting go of her Modern Expressionistic stylings and instead focus on more traditional methods that spoke to the zeitgeist of the Nazi movement. She becomes an accomplished artist and is revered by the inner circle of the Nazi party. Max meanwhile, has also become an accomplished ceramicist, though he's been imprisoned in Dachau where he slaves away at his craft of what he's told to create.
Not to give any more away, the two artists do find their way back to each other, but with a twist in how all this happens. There are other characters involved who provide their own conflicts and aid. Some of this is intriguing while other parts are predictable.
All in all, I personally enjoyed reading this book. The writing is competent, but not what one would consider a masterpiece. The book flowed well and kept my interest throughout the entire read. It contained some rather interesting twists and turns to make this story a little bit different than your average WWII Historical Fiction novel.

This book! It certainly could have been true knowing what I know of the Holocaust! Heartbreaking and emotionally descriptive, this story hit me in the throat! The love between Max and Bettina was so strong, but the hate they lived in during Germany at that time...there are no words. Thank you to Sarah Freethy for the incredible story which was so eloquently written. I'll carry this with me for a very long time!

The Porcelain Maker is a complex study of humanity and the absence of humanity. As a debut novel it is a surprisingly well-written novel that grabs readers and holds our attention. Sarah Freethy has written a novel that will stick with readers long after they have finished reading. Using the backdrop of Nazi Germany before and during the war, readers are shown the lives that artists, Jews, and resisters were forced to live and the danger that they all faced living in a closely regulated world where any deviation from accepted behavior put their lives at risk.

Freethy's characters come to life for readers, especially the three protagoinists, Bettina, Max, and Richard. The Porcelain Maker is a dual timeline novel. Dates and locations are included at the beginning of every chapter and so there is no confusion about which timeline readers will be examining. There are so many impressive themes, including the nazi descriptions of degenerative art and how efforts were made to use art, both paintings and porcelain, as well as Nazi uniforms as ways to intimidate and control ordinary Germans. The end of the novel does not address elements of fiction or nonfiction or what research the author has done, and I do think that this information should be included before this novel is published.

Thank you to the author and to St. Martin's Press for providing this ARC for me to read and review. I cannot even come close to noting how effective that novel is at capturing the time and location. I do recommend it for readers, especially those interesting art during the Nazi years in Germany. Thank you also to NetGalley for suggesting this novel.

Clara's search for her father's identity leads her to dig into her mother's past. It takes her back to Nazi Germany, her mother's history and the porcelain maker of Dachau. As she discovers what her mother had to do to preserve both of their lives, she finds her way to the truth of her identity, and that of her father. If you're a fan of historical fiction, and specifically WWII fiction, you'll enjoy this one for sure.
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an advanced copy!

This is a beautiful love story of two artistically gifted people who fought against cruelty and lost, but left a rich legacy for their daughter to finally discover. It is a very good historical work of fiction with many accurate references to places and people of the WWII years, as well as post war years, as the daughter searches for her father’s works of art.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for my honest voluntary review. As an avid reader of WWII related books, I enjoyed “The Porcelain Maker” and found a good balance between the romance, the evil of those war years and the ultimate search for lives gone missing.

I wanted to like this one, but something about the writing style just didn’t work for me. The descriptions were just too much I think.

❤️Book Review ❤️

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free digital copy of The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy in exchange for an honest review. The Porcelain Maker is Freethy's debut novel. I really enjoyed this story! The characters are wonderful. The storyline is emotional, powerful, creative, and historically accurate.

If you love stories about World War Two and enjoy a star-crossed romance, then you'll want to pick up a copy of this book!

Publication date: November 7, 2023.

What an incredible debut historical fiction novel. I really loved this book that takes place in both the now, or 1993, and the then, from 1929-1942. It’s about a daughter Clara investigating who her real father is, whose mother Bettina suffered from depression and never spoke of him. We see the events unfold both when they happened and as Clara discovers them 50 years later.

Bettina is a famous abstract expressionist artist who meets Max, an architect, while studying at the Bauhaus school in1929. Max is Jewish and they are forbidden to get married as the National Socialist Party rises to power. Their creative passions and true love keeps them together until one day Max is arrested and taken to Dachau. Max uses his talents to become a sculpture of Allach porcelain figurines that the SS were obsessed with as a symbol of purity. This was a real pet project of Himmler and he had moved the factory to the Dachau camps to use the workers. At the same time Bettina is forced to marry while embracing Romantic Realism, the only approved style of art, and becomes a successful painter. I loved reading their story as told through art as a means of survival, it was so unique and really spoke to me.

I love historical fiction and have read a lot about the holocaust and Freethy does a remarkable job with this story based on the real Porcelain Factory of Dachau. My grandfather was a prisoner there during WWII and I’m always interested in learning more about it, despite the horrors and inhumanity. This is a fascinating and riveting story of love, art, creative soulmates, friendship and self-discovery.

I would recommend this book to anyone who liked The Tattooist of Auschwitz or We Were the Lucky Ones.

**Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC**

Another beautifully written WW2 drama. Bettina is sparkly, talented and determined and Max is strong, creative and thoughtful. Together they endure the increasing hardships of Germany in the late 1930s. They are forbidden to marry because Matt is Jewish and when the worst happens Bettina will do anything to protect her unborn child and her love.
This field is very saturated with novels but this revolved around art and I learnt about the porcelain factories and their connection to the concentration camps which was a new angle. The writing had good pacing, dialogue was sharp and engaging and nothing dragged. The author didn’t fall into ‘provide a lot of background information to educate’. The information was pertinent to the storyline.
If you love historical fiction, you will enjoy reading this.
Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

I really enjoyed reading The Porcelain Maker! Family secrets waiting to be uncovered after so many years, figuring out exactly who you are and where you came from. Well done!

I loved this book and was really pleasantly surprised, thank you so much net galley for allowing me a copy of this to read!

An extraordinary tale of two women-mother and daughter-in two time periods. Cara is seeking the truth of who her father was, a detail never related to her by her mother, Bettina. Through bits and pieces of information, Cara determinedly searches for answers. Bettina’s story is of a deep and abiding love of a Jewish man in Nazi Germany. Their love is shattered by the horrible circumstances of Nazi Germany.
A truly emotional novel on all levels.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed reading The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy. I highly recommend it for readers who love to read historical fiction. Five stars.