The Berlin Girl by Mandy Robotham

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 to 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… (publisher)

Georgie is a young journalist who is sent to Berlin just before the start of the war with another British journalist Max. The last time she was in Berlin was during the Olympics and the city has changed since then and so has the atmosphere there. You can feel that the war is coming.

A large part of the book was about the foreign press and the relationship they had with each other. And it was a nice touch because it’s not a world I’ve read before. Some of the more detective-style/spy stuff felt little far fetched.

Georgie meets a young junior Nazi officer who doesn’t seem to fit the typical image of a Nazi. In hindsight, it’s easy to say but I kinda wanted to yell at her to “run for your life” when she kept seeing him for information. It was also frustrating because Georgie has been complaining about how other countries don’t see through Nazi propaganda and lies. And then she tries to justify to herself going to a date with one and then trying to separate the man from the uniform. Like what are you doing?! But I would have liked to see more about how this charming young man turned into an ardent Nazi follower who fanatically believed the ideology.

In the end, the book was just ok. Not bad but not great either.

3/5

Published: Avon Books (October 29, 2020)
Format: ebook
Source: Netgalley