Author: Mandy Robotham
Publisher: Harper Collins Australia
Year of release: 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction, War, Adventure, Modern Fiction,
Year of release: 2nd December 2020
Rating 
Synopsis
Berlin, 1938: It’s the height of summer, and Germany is on the brink of war. When fledgling reporter Georgie Young is posted to Berlin, alongside fellow Londoner Max Spender, she knows they are entering the eye of the storm. Arriving in a city swathed in red flags and crawling with Nazis, Georgie feels helpless, witnessing innocent people being torn from their homes. As tensions rise, she realises she and Max have to act – even if it means putting their lives on the line. But when she digs deeper, Georgie begins to uncover the unspeakable truth about Hitler’s Germany – and the pair are pulled into a world darker than she could ever have imagined…
Review
Summer 1938: Berlin, Adolf Hitler is tightening his grip on Germany and surrounding Europe, with each passing hour. The only solution the country must prepare for is War. Georgie Young is new to the world of journalism the inexperienced reporter from London heads to Berlin as a Foreign Correspondent for The Chronicle Newspaper accompanied by a seasoned reporter for The Times Newspaper and fellow Londoner Max Spender. Georgie knows tensions on this side of the Atlantic are growing but it’s not until she arrives, she realises she has entered the eye of the storm, possibly placing herself in grave danger.
Red flags and Nazi’s as far as the eye can see, Georgie soon begins to feel powerless in Hitler’s machine that grows ever powerful. Seeing nothing but sorrow and destruction of innocence Georgie and Max set about exposing the awful truths of Hitler’s Germany, making things right even if it means putting their own lives on the line; their search for the truth takes them to darker places then anyone thought possible.
Author Mandy Robotham returns with her 3rd novel and if you like me loved “The German Midwife” no doubt you’ll love The Berlin Girl.
Robotham paints a descriptive Berlin with just enough information to satisfy a reader’s curiosity and imagination without losing the audience’s attention. This read did start off a little slower than this reader would’ve liked, but now having read right till the very end I can appreciate the slow burn approach taken in the beginning chapters, I believed this really built up the suspense towards the conflict and resolution portions of this fast-paced novel.
Knowing that The Berlin Girl was set just before World War Two was announced was somewhat of a fascination and saddening experience for me, I can’t even imagine waiting for something as awful as wartime to commence not knowing if but when? To think the Nazi’s were able to inflict such pain and hardship towards another human just for being of a different race, even before things took a downward spiral towards the Wartime period is well beyond this reviewer’s comfort zone.
At different times throughout this read my heart was pounding waiting for an Army tanker to drive the streets of Berlin or worse for the bombs to start falling from the sky. I just didn’t know which way to run and hide. Not once was an element of the story exposed to soon leaving this reader happy to read on.
The author like so many before has painted a bright and vibrant portrait of a Berlin, except Robotham has managed to detail a Berlin about to have its beautiful colours stripped back taking everyone and anything in its path, leaving nothing behind but longing, more questions than answers and a lifetime of unimaginable sorrow.
It’s so easy to get lost in the world of concentration camps in this genre and whilst we must never forget those atrocities existed, I believe having Georgie and Max the journalists reminded me so much might have been going on outside the camps to expose those truths? Or at least we can hope so, at least for a short time thanks to The Berlin Girl.
Georgie and Max make for a great dynamic duo especially when it comes to the believability of this story, and the need to get it moving where necessary. Thanks to Mandy’s skilled writing it felt like the plotline and characters were well-thought-out, making it easy to see this book has had plenty of research before heading to print. Even the minor characters were put to great use in this story, I applaud Mandy Robotham for this as so many don’t use their minor characters enough; sometimes leaving gaps in an otherwise good story in this reviewer’s opinion.
I highly recommend this book to mature readers who enjoy wartime based Historical Fiction. I must say I personally believe the Berlin Girl has a standout ending in this genre, it was so nice as a reader to really feel that once the main story ended all the loose ends were tidied up in a detailed epilogue to leaving this reader feeling content enough to walk away having answers to questions if only History could tidy up loose ends too for those families left in the never-ending darkness too.
My continued thanks to Harper Collins Australia for sending this copy to review in exchange for an honest opinion.