Great wartime novel, ruined by poor proofreading     

My rating:  5 out of 5 when grammar/language sorted!  2 out of 5 until then     

This is a strong and involving book about being a German living in Berlin at the time of Hitler’s rise to power and during his atrocities.  Well written and a great storyline, completely ruined by the lack of decent proofreading.

Annalise is a young girl growing up in Berlin.  Since very young she has been hiding the fact that she is Jewish, something her family went to great trouble to get the correct paperwork etc. for.  She achieves her dream of becoming a ballerina, and loves the beauty of that world, but falls in love with and marries an SS officer and gradually becomes aware of the horrors and atrocities that are taking place around her.

There is plenty of suspense and also unexpected twists together with some thought provoking material about being around people who you understand are performing atrocities when they are not partying.

The prologue had me guessing as to who one of the characters was; this was unfortunately not resolved by the end of the book – I guess one must read the whole trilogy to find out.

Some of the atrocities of the Nazi era are covered well, showing enough horror without resorting to graphic detail.  Very well done.

If I see that the books in this series have been professionally proofread I will definitely read the other 2 books, until then I shall leave books by this author well alone (what a pity, as she has also written other series that look of great interest !)