The Wife Who Risked Everything – ARC Book Review

Berlin, 1943: “Where’s your husband?” the SS man demanded.
“There’s no one home,” Margot said before they started tearing the place apart. “I’m alone here.” In his eyes was nothing but ice and death, and it occurred to Margot that only she stood between her husband and the soldier’s machine gun.

In Nazi Germany, Margot refuses to buckle under the weight of Hitler’s tyranny.

When she is fired from her job as a seamstress for being married to her Jewish husband, Jochen, she remains by his side. When her friends cross the street to avoid her, and her own mother rejects her, she stays loyal.

When the Gestapo break into their home and steal their belongings, she remains steadfast. When they are cast into the street, homeless, she doesn’t waver.

When warplanes descend, the air raid siren blaring, and Jews are not allowed in bomb shelters, she refuses to abandon him.

When there are whispers of innocent people being deported to camps, including Germans married to Jews, she still won’t give in.

And when the Nazis arrest Jochen, imprisoning him with countless others, Margot decides to go down fighting.

Armed solely with love, Margot risks her life to protest outside the Gestapo headquarters. Inspired by her courage, soon there are hundreds gathered, shouting, “Release our men! Release our men!”

Can Margot achieve the impossible and save her beloved husband? Or when she comes face to face with the deadly SS guards, will she simply sacrifice herself?

Based on a true story, this incredible page-turner shows that, in the face of evil, love is power, courage is infectious—and the voices of many will not be silenced. Fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz,The Alice Network and The Lilac Girls will be utterly gripped by this heartbreaking and inspirational tale.

Ellie Midwood has become one of my favorite historical fiction writers as her books are all based on during Nazi Germany, Holocaust and WWII based on true stories. The Wife Who Risked Everything is one such book based on a true story.

Margot Rosenberg and Hans Joachim are very much in love and they ended up getting married. But it’s 1933 and the year when Hitler and Nazis came to power. And her husband is Jewish. Then comes the heartbreaking story of a woman’s courage and love for her husband, how she would risk everything in her life, including her job as a seamstress to save the man she loves from the Nazis.

Ellie’s books are always well researched and her books always takes us to the period before everything went chaos–that is before the start of WWII. Her story soon develops into a plot where gradually the lives of the people including Jewish people changes slowly when living under the Nazi rule in Germany. She did a good job of turning the true story into something beautiful that will captivate the readers and make the readers feel like they are part of the story. Reading this story also tells us how women back in that day were determined and brave and courageous enough to save their loved ones from being taken away by the Nazis and Margot was one such courageous and brave woman that women can look up to. The Gestapo invasion of houses, the brutal treatment of Jews were all too realistic and too heartbreaking to read. Also I like reading about how Margot and her husband sneaked into the Olympics posing as Aryan couple!

Overall, if you like a heartbreaking and emotional historical fiction novel with a happy ending then this book is one for you and if you like reading about courageous and brave women like Margot like the likes of The Lilac Girls, then this book is one for you–worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.