Rating: 4 stars

Family secrets come to light as a young woman fights to save herself, and others, in a Nazi-run baby factory—a real-life Handmaid’s Tale—during World War II.

In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. 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 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, but when she discovers the neglect occurring within the home, she’s determined not only to save herself, but also the children in her care.

A tale of one woman’s determination to resist and survive, The Sunflower House is also a love story. 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. The threads of this poignant and heartrending novel weave a tale of loss and love, friendship and betrayal, and the secrets we bury in order to save ourselves.

I received a digital copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.

The Sunflower House is a historical fiction novel that takes a look into the real horrors of Germany during World War II. This book tells the story of a young Allina and the horrors she experienced when being forced to be a nurse at one of Germany’s baby factories. I feel like this book did a wonderful job at portraying what Hochland Home was like from the perspective of a young woman looking to save the children she had in her care.

What I enjoyed with reading this book was that I felt like I learned a lot about what Germany was like during that time. As someone who typically doesn’t read historical fiction, I feel this book did a good job at pulling me in and wanting to hear Allina and Karl’s stories and hearing about what happened. I found myself feeling extremely empathetic, especially to Allina as she went through so much at that time in her life in order to get out of Germany.

I feel like the author of this book did a wonderful job at portraying what Hochland Home was like for someone who had never heard of these baby factories before. I feel like a lot of research and care was put into writing The Sunflower House and even though that made it a difficult read, I was interested to see what would happen with these characters in their efforts to save these children and thwart Hitler.

While the romance between Allina and Karl isn’t the overall main plot of the story, I enjoyed getting to see their relationship develop. The way their relationship comes together wasn’t what I originally expected here, but I enjoyed it, nonetheless. It was wonderful to see that they both had someone who they could trust during this dark time in their lives, and I enjoyed seeing them work together when it came to the children in Hochland Home and doing whatever they could to help them.

If I had to choose anything with The Sunflower House to criticize it would be that I felt like certain details were left out that to me would’ve been nice to have. For example, I feel like the choice Allina’s fiancé at the beginning of the book makes is never fully explained and I feel like it never revealed how Karl’s plot to assassinate Hitler was discovered. Both of these are things I wanted more details on that were never addressed that to me I wish had been. I also wanted to know what had happened to Allina’s friends from the beginning of the book as it was never revealed if they were actually alive or not. Not having the answers to all of these things in the book bothered me. While I understand to a certain extent why they weren’t addressed, I feel like they should’ve been.

As a whole, The Sunflower House was a good historical fiction read that took a look at one of the many horrors that had occurred in Germany during World War II. I feel like this book is a good read for anyone who enjoys historical fiction, especially historical fiction that takes place during World War II. And I highly recommend it as I feel like you’ll learn something from reading this book just like I did. The Sunflower House is set to release on November 12, 2024 for those interested in reading this book.

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my review of The Sunflower House! If you enjoyed my review of this book, don’t hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments below or check out another one of my blog posts.