Book: Black Roses by Jane Thynne

One woman is torn between love, loyalty and duty….I see this riveting book quite differently from the tagline..Based in 1933, after Hitler comes to power and Clara Vine, born into British aristocracy goes to Berlin to become an actress. Here the film industry is booming, with the German dictator being a big fan and all that.I found the book harrowing in parts but there is just a hint of evil before it goes back to Clara’s glitzy film world moving as she is in the inner circles with Hitler’s senior officers. Then we learn how the fledgling young actress becomes a spy and falls for a British agent.Almost more disturbing than the violence is learning about the pockets of British support of Hitler, including Clara’s father, who are all clueless as to what’s really going on under the regime.Clara does get picked by a senior officer to be his girlfriend. She is half German, and being fluent in the language too, passes for the purity that the Nazis insisted on.I met the author at a ‘Dangerous Women’ themed book event. Her curiosity is around the Nazi women behind the powerful men. This is something I never thought I’d want to read about, as much as I have fallen in love with historic novels in recent years (I paid no attention at school). I now find myself watching documentaries and reading news stories about the women mentioned in the book.Indeed just this week I felt the urge to message the author to say ‘look what you’ve made me do’ when she herself popped up as one of the experts on the documentary about the love story of Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler.Although the fourth Vine book is out, I was intrigued enough to go to the start of the story and this looks like the first book series I am actually going to get into as I can’t wait for the next instalment. Happily the next three books are there waiting for me!8/10Let's chat! @RickieWrites