⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️From Publisher St. Martin's Press: In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic. But it's 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret—her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling.

One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program.

The Sunflower House is a meticulously-researched debut historical novel from Adriana Allegri that uncovers the notorious Lebensborn Program of Nazi Germany. Women of “pure” blood stayed in Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population, giving birth to thousands of babies who were adopted out to “good” Nazi families. Allina must keep her Jewish identity a secret in order to survive.

When Allina meets Karl, a high-ranking SS officer with secrets of his own, the two must decide how much they are willing to share with each other—and how much they can stand to risk as they join forces to save as many children as they can.
****************
My review: I spent the entire book being nervous, worried, scared, and uncomfortable. But I guess Nazis can do that to a person.
Allina and Karl are brilliant and brave. The book goes between two timelines as we learn about Allina's life in Europe as the world gears up for war. Secrets that families keep for safety come into play in both timelines.

I was not very knowledgeable about the "orphan" homes in Germany and the novel led me to some research. The mark of a good historical fiction book for me is how much research I end up having to do. This one hit the mark.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance digital copy in exchange for my review.

I appreciate NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of Adriana Allegri's The Sunflower House. I'd heard of the Lebensborn Programs in Nazi Germany before but didn't know much about them. Alina ends up living in one after a terrible experience. In the span of a few days, she finds out her late mother, who died when she was very young, was Jewish - not a good thing to be in Germany. Her small village is attacked by Nazi soldiers and she narrowly escapes death when she is "saved" by a German officer and taken to a Lebensborn home. While there she realizes that things at the home are not as they seem. Below the beautiful art and furnishings on the surface, terrible things are happening to the children. She meets Karl, a high-ranking SS Officer, who also is hiding a secret. Together they try to make things better for the children and fall in love. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next - would they save the children and themselves? I found myself rooting for the pair throughout the book.

The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri

Have you ever heard of the Lebensborn Program? Part of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program consisted of housing and providing for pregnant “Aryan” women with financial assistance, a series of private maternity homes where they could live and give birth, and adoption services. But the program was so much more (or less, depending on how you look at it). Young women taken into the program were encouraged to "mingle" with the SS soldiers who visited the homes for a variety of "social" activities. The homes were baby factories of only the purist of Aryan children. The program was expanded eventually to include the kidnapping of “biologically valuable" children to be adopted by German couples deemed to be excellent party members. Any children that did not meet the standards of perfection were eliminated in one way or another.

In 1939, sixteen year old Allina Strauss lives in a small village with her aunt and uncle. When Allina's family and most of her village is wiped out by German soldiers looking for traitors to the party, Allina is severely beaten and more and then is made to work as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. Among the many horrors that Allina witnesses is the fact that the babies are not to be touched any more than absolutely necessary to clean them, change diapers, and feed them. Those are the lucky babies, the babies deemed suitable to carry on the Aryan race. There are worse horrors at this house and Allina will do whatever she can to help the children.

Allina is under the protection of the brute who brought her to the house and later to a Karl, a high-ranking SS officer who isn't like the other officers. This is such a difficult story, seeing all the devastation of lives, the use of humans that are disposed of once they are no longer useful. Plus, learning the background of Karl and the guilt that eats at him even while he is trying to help what children he can help. Karl's story is heartbreaking in its own way and I was torn in so many directions by the choices he made in the past, by all his choices.

I'm ready to read whatever Adriana Allegri writes next. I could not put this story down despite knowing my heart would be broken. I applaud the way she handled the two timelines set so far apart in time. We see only what we need to see in the present day and instead get to be with Allina in her younger days, as she lives events that will be a part of her for the rest of her life, even if she keeps them locked up in her heart.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, SMP Influencers program, and NetGalley for this ARC.

While this fine historical novel about the Lebensborn houses that were run as part of the Nazi’s eugenics program started out in a formulaic way - contemporary woman discovers the story of her past, dissolve to the past, end with contemporary woman’s reconciliation with her past - it far outstrips the more usual novel of its genre, primarily due to author Adriana Allegri’s strong writing. With the exception of the chapter about Karl’s experience after death, The Sunflower House is a believable novel with strong characters, a plot that draws the reader in and keeps her there, and vivid scenes. The story moves at a face pace. Readers of historical fiction will be pleased to find this book. Recommended.

"Every life matters."

“The madness cannot end while he lives.”

When Allina’s grown daughter discovers a wooden box decorated with a swastika hidden under floorboards in her mother’s closet, curiosity, questions arise.
A heartbreaking story is told.
This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.
I was pulled in from the start and found myself crying many times throughout the book. Once again I learned something new about the Nazi Party.
As Allina starts to tell her story of losing her entire family. How she ends up in a Lebesborn home, one of the Reich’s secrets. A horrifying secret, a baby factory where young women lived and gave birth to babies adopted to populate racial ideas of the Nazi Party.
Family secrets are revealed as Allina fights to save herself and as many others as possible.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this poignant and well written book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book "The Sunflower House" and all opinions expressed are my own. I thought that this book was really good. I liked learning about this aspect of history that I haven't read about before. I was really interested as I was reading the story. Definitely heartbreaking story but there was also love and secrets. Overall I loved this book.

We meet Allina in present day and at 86 years old when her daughter brings her home from the hospital.

While her mother was resting, Katrine went upstairs to clean up what her mother had fallen on and came across a box with papers inside and with a swastika on top. Was my mother a Nazi?

When she looks up, her mother is in the doorway

Her mother decides that she needs to tell her daughter how they got to America and what she dealt with while she was in Germany.

We are taken back to 1938 when Allina‘s village is raided and all the residents were slaughtered.

A German officer saved Allina from it all, but she said she would rather have perished with everyone else than to go through what she had to go through.

The officer took her to "Hochland Home" which was the first

Lebensborn facility where German women were required to have babies to German officers to make sure the "perfect" race was not wiped out.

The rules and guidelines enforced by Heinrich Himmler for the women and especially the babies and children made Allina sick. They were so strict and uncaring.

SUNFLOWER HOUSE is a heartbreaking but enlightening read where secrets were kept for years and where the reader can’t believe it happened.

A marvelous debut - wonderful research, wonderful, pull-you-in writing, and some tender moments despite what was going on.

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

I’ve read a lot of historical fiction and nonfiction about World War II and this book definitely sits in the recommended category. The book is about Allina Strauss - the main character, who is living a carefree life in a German village. On the cusp of adulthood, life is good and she has much to look forward to. But all is not what it seems. She discovers that her birth mother is Jewish, and in 1939 Germany, that is frighteningly devastating as Hitler and his comrades, especially Heinrich Himmler, are on a mission to implement their eugenics program. As her village is targeted (not revealing why) and destroyed, Allina is forced to work in Hochland Home where the objective is to ensure that pure-bred children are born and placed in Nazi families. To survive, Allina has to conform. But on learning of the secret floor of neglected children, she daringly risks all together with Karl, a high-ranking SS officer who has secrets and demons of his own, to save the children. This book drew me in immediately. It was fast paced and kept me turning the pages. I enjoyed how the author structured the storyline - a short glimpse into the present, and then taking us back to the past. The characters leaped across the pages and felt real with their array of emotions as they grappled with the enormity of their situations and utter disregard for humans by Nazi Germany. History and the world in general tend to paint things in stark terms - one side was good, the other bad. But there were many people, as this book illustrates, who supposedly fell in line and conformed, but who clandestinely worked tirelessly to save countless lives at their own peril. This book kept me engaged and interested and I did not want to put it down - the hallmark of a successful novel. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Such a stunning, sad, touching, and beautiful story. This book follows a narrative tale taking place within the Lebensborn program, where women were housed in particular "homes" and carried "Aryan" children for the Nazi officers. It was extremely well-researched and the characters were so wonderfully complex. I would definitely point out there is a sexual assault trigger in here. I greatly enjoyed learning about something that I did not have much of a knowledge of prior, and knowing there was a great deal of research done for this really showed. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fantastic, authentic, historical fiction novel.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Historical fiction piece, WWII era, Germany.
Alina is a young woman who has just lost all of her family. She is forced to work as a nurse to German mothers and their babies, fathered by Nazi soldiers. Allina finds that this perfect Aryan race isn’t so perfect. Most babies are adopted out to Nazi families but the slow non-conforming babies are eventually put to death.
Allina forms an alliance with a commanding Nazi officer, Karl. They are both committed to trying to save the children of Germany, the not so perfect and the ones of the “wrong” heritage (a heritage that both of them secretly share).
Although I loved the concept for this book, I think it could have been even further developed. We find little out about HOW Karl gets children out of Germany. Great story though and pretty heartbreaking.

It’s interesting when you think you know your parents well but you actually don’t until you hit upon their secrets, right? Well this is what happened in this novel and I love this type of setting. A daughter stumbled upon a secret which her mother kept for many, many years. The mother was forced to tell because she has no choice.
She starts her version of how she was involved in war when she was a teen. Her little town was taken over by the Germans. Her family was killed in this process and she was brutally taken away from her hometown only to be assaulted. Her betrothed was in another city doing underground work saving Jews. The high ranking German officer decided that the main POV should work at the place where they breed the young women for pure blooded Aryan babies thinking he had impregnated her. She has kept her identity as being a Jew thanks to her her uncle and her betrothed.
From there it describes the conditions of the place of women, nurses, German soldiers, and babies. She also falls in love with a German officer who’s also in love with her. She struggles to have the toddlers well taken care with other nurses after finding them abandoned/not well taken care off upstairs. It was quite a journey for both them.
It was an enjoyable read. It’s not a fast paced reading. This is a novel based on WWll that I haven’t even thought about but would be interested doing a research on it.
I’d give a high four stars.
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this eARC. As usual, all of my reviews are purely my own opinions without any influence from any publisher.

A heartbreaking story of one woman's journey to survive.

As a daughter comes back to help her mother, she stumbles on a large wooden box with a swastika on the cover. Her mom is quick to assure her - it's not what you think. From there is her mother's story. It's so hard to read, and yet, full of hope and perseverance. It's the love of family, the will to survive and the mission to save kids, even if it costs you everything. This was a moving story. I appreciated the author's note at the end, relaying the source material and the facts as they are known.


A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Beautifully written, this book profiles both profound love and the dark side of humanity before and during WWII.

Katrine was cleaning her 86-year-old mother’s mess in the closet after picking her up from the ER in Ramsey, New Jersey. Allina had fallen from a stool and now she was resting. Katrine decided to straighten it up only to discover an oak box with a swastika. Of course, she was curious and then shocked to find news articles and a photo of her mother as a nurse in 1940. Her mother asked what she was doing. That’s where the story starts.

It goes back to 1938 in the farming town of Germany where 17-year-old Allina lived with her aunt and uncle. Her parents were killed in an omnibus accident when she was a baby. She found out just before her uncle died from cancer that she was half Jewish. The next morning, the town was destroyed by the Nazis and her aunt was killed. Allina was severely beaten and taken away to work at a Nazi baby breeding factory. She had to keep her secrets close to her heart – so close that her adult daughter had no idea.

This is a well-written and researched emotional story – one that stays with you thinking of the effects of the propaganda on young children. It’s not easy reading books that are filled with heart-wrenching images. And yet, it includes a powerful love story that makes you want to believe that there is a sense of true goodness in the world. Truth matters. That’s why I want to understand the past and hope it never returns with a dictator who kills without shame.

My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book with an unexpected release date of November 12, 2024.

This is a beautifully written story of more of the horrors that occured in Germany during WWII. I had not heard of the baby factories that Germany had to continue and produce the Aryan race.

Allina and Karl's story is one of love and tragedy. My hearts aches for what they endured and is healed by how they helped those that they could. I know this is story for fiction but if always makes me feel good to know even when evil is prevailing, they are good people fighting against it. The bravery of so many men and women during WWII always give me a small bit of hope that the world is more good than evil.

Allina is a strong woman. She lost everything and endured and fought back. Then she found love and happiness to lose it once again. However she had a small piece of her love to help her carry on. I can't do this story justice in my review. It made me sleep so much. I highly recommend this book

Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's Pres for the ARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own

Thank you to NetGallery for the advance reader copy of this book!

The Sunflower House is a historical novel set in Nazi Germany that follows Allina Strauss, a young woman who is forced to work in a state-run baby factory. The novel explores the horrific Lebensborn Program, where women of "pure" blood were forced to give birth to Aryan children. Allina, whose mother was Jewish, must keep her identity a secret to survive. As she witnesses the neglect and abuse within the factory, she becomes determined to save herself and the children in her care. The novel is a tale of love, loss, friendship, and the lengths people will go to for survival.

This book would be enjoyed by fans of Marie Benedict and Kate Quinn.

Personally, this book fell a bit short of the mark for me. First, learning about the Lebensborn was interesting and a take on a WW2 historical fiction that I hadn’t seen before. This book is described as meticulously researched, but I don’t think that it really translated well into the story. The story just scratched the surface of the actuality of the Lebensborn project.

Second, I felt that the writing was a bit juvenile, especially in the beginning chapters. Some elements of the story were very under baked, such as Allina’s backstory and her relationship with her first love, Albert. The time jumps and pacing felt awkward at times.

Finally, I just did not really vibe with Allina’s character and I found her to be wimpy. I’m so tired of reading historical fictions where the woman always need a man 😒 I also find the love story aspect in these types of books as a bit jarring and bizarre. Really? We’re going to have swooning, semi-erotic moments in a story about nazi Germany…? It just doesn’t do it for me.

Overall, I struggled to get through this book but thought the premise of the story was interesting. 3/5

I received an ARC of this book from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. I wish I could give it 10 stars!

I don't read much historical fiction, but nearly all that I do read is regarding WWII. However, I was unfamiliar with the Lebensborn program until this book. How utterly heartbreaking! The author clearly did a lot of in-depth research to write this book, which always impresses me. I loved how the characters were multi-dimensional and not necessarily what they seemed at first. The descriptions of life in the children's home as well as some of the tragic events were graphic and well-written. The reader can definitely get a sense of just what these characters were experiencing. The book left me wanting to learn more about the Lebensborn program and the resistance movement against it.

My only negative would be that I wish we had learned more about some characters and time frames. For instance, Katrine's current life. What were the ins and outs of her relationship with her mother? Additionally, Karl before he met Allina and also during the times they were not in the same city. Allina's life with her aunt & uncle before tragedy struck. And finally, what happened to Karin, Rilla, others?

Ms. Allegri - please write a prequel & a sequel!

The Sunflower House highlights one of the Nazis' more notorious programs - the Lebensborn program. In an effort to speed start the perpetuation of the Aryan Race, girls of “good breeding” or “pure blood” were basically used as broodmares. But the program went beyond just procreation. There was a whole train of thought about how to raise dutiful children. And if anything, this part of the program was even uglier.
Allina Strauss is witness to a massacre in the small farming village where she lives. She is whisked away by the Gruppensfuehrer in charge of the atrocity and placed in the Hochland Home. What he doesn’t realize is that she is a Mischling, or partially Jewish.
Allina was a fully developed character, as were all of the main characters. Allegro does a great job of expressing the need to stay stoic even when facing impossibly stressful circumstances.
I was immediately drawn into this story. It met all my requirements for a well done historical fiction. The book is well researched and manages to insert lots of information about the program without slowing down the story. The romantic aspects of the book were well done and felt real. It also turns into quite the thriller. My heart rate rose as the tension mounted.
While utilizing the dreaded two timeline plot structure, it wisely only used the present day infrequently so I wasn’t constantly drawn out of the historic story.
My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own. A special thank you to Sara Eslami for an invite to download this title

As our story begins, a woman uncovers a box containing long-held secrets that reveal her true identity. We are then transported to a German village in the 1930s where our main protagonist, Allina Strauss's story begins. It is a story that tells of a woman who must hide her Jewish ancestry and become a witness to Heinrich Himmler's eugenics program. It is a tale of hardship, determination, and, above all else, a mother's love (arguably the greatest love story in the book).

A perfect historical fiction for fans of Alyson Richman and Pam Jenoff.




Expected Publication Date 12/11/24
Goodreads Review Published 15/09/24

This book is going to stay with me for years to come. I’m not normally a fan of romantic historical fiction stories, but I’m so glad I had the chance to read this one. Being German growing up with a grandmother who served in WW2, I always wished I would have asked her more about her time in Germany when I was younger. But unfortunately when you’re young you are too wrapped up in yourself to think ahead.
This book made me wanna scream and cry at points. A fictional story with some non fictional points mixed in.
A story of a girl whose world gets turned upside down in a moment. A family secret that could end her life if it anyone were to find out. Locked away with a secret and no one to trust she falls for an officer who not only has a similar secret but one who is trying to save Jewish children and families and bring down Hitler.
If you enjoy a historical romance books I will suggest giving this one a try.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy

Unforgettably heartbreaking, this book kept me wanting more with each line. Strength and resilience are themes that I tend to be drawn to in books, and those themes are ever present here.
Allegri paints a beautiful and devastating picture of the time and the events throughout the story. I didn’t want to out it down.