That Summer in Berlin: A Must-Read

If you’re looking into opening someone’s mind to the horrors of propaganda use and brainwashing of the minds of the youth (via the Hitler Youth movement), put this book into their hands.

“He should be in uniform, like his brothers.”
“We’ve given two sons to the cause. I believe that we’ve done our duty. There must be a few free thinkers left,” the count said.

– “That Summer in Berlin” by Lecia Cornwall

I rarely (almost never!) use the word “unputdownable” to describe a book (and hardly ever with recent releases), but this is one of those rare ones that fall into this category. I loved the setting, the historical period it was set in, and I love the characters that make this book such a winner! You get danger, espionage, and romance.

One of the things I actually liked about this book is that it was set just before “all hell broke loose” [1930s Europe]. There aren’t a lot of historical fiction that talks about this time and certainly not from the German side of things. Here, Lecia Cornwall presents not just those who are opposed to the rise of the Fuhrer, but also those who seemed sympathetic to Nazism. It was all about misguided patriotism and adoration for a very charismatic man. As a history buff, it was nice to see another WWII story from another angle.

The characters were also well thought out. Viviane came from a small group of British high society who thought that appeasement could be made by forging relationships between elite families in Germany and Britain–much like when royal family members married their offspring off to other royal houses. Though Viviane herself did not subscribe to such practices, it became her gateway into Germany by serving as chaperone to her younger stepsister while using her trusty Leica to capture past the flowers and mountains that dot the German landscape.

Tom represented the journalists who had to appease the Nazis in a different way by writing sympathetic and glowing reviews of Hitler’s Germany in order to wend his way into social and political circles otherwise off-limits to reporters like himself. There, he tried to get the inside scoop of what’s really going on behind the pomp and circumstance surrounding the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

“All the pageantry is meant to confuse the common man, to dazzle him until he does not know what is real or true anymore.”

At the end, it is a triumphant retelling of what it must have been like in those pre-WWII years and how two very different individuals find their way into each other’s hearts despite the horrors of the mission they had set out for themselves.

Thanks to Berkley for my ARC. This IS my honest review.

The book will be available for purchase starting October 11, 2022.