Book: The Kaiser’s Last Kiss
Release date: January 3, 2017
Pages: 240
Publisher: Touchstone Publishing
Source: Review Copy
Summary: It is 1940 and the exiled monarch Kaiser Wilhelm is living in his Dutch chateau, Huis Doorn. The old German king spends his days chopping logs and musing on what might have been.
When the Nazis invade Holland, the Kaiser’s staff is replaced by SS guards, led by young and recently commissioned SS officer Martin Krebbs, and an unlikely relationship develops between the king and his keeper. While they agree on the rightfulness of German expansion and on holding the nation’s Jewish population accountable for all ills, they disagree on the solutions.
But when Krebbs becomes attracted to Akki, a Jewish maid in the house, he begins to question his belief in Nazism. As the threads of history conspire with the recklessness of the heart, The Kaiser, Untersturmfuhrer Krebbs, and the mysterious Akki find themselves increasingly conflicted and gravely at risk…
*****
My Thoughts: I was excited to request this book because I thought it would be awesome to a start a new year with a historical fiction book surrounding the world of the Nazis. However, for me, this book fell a little flat. I thought it would be a quick read because it was so short, but I had a lot of confusion on the way towards completion. I think the language itself wasn’t particularly hard, but there were a lot of names I couldn’t pronounce, or times in the plot that I just didn’t understand what was going on. I could sympathize the main character in his thoughts of the actual war going on, because he was put into such a cutthroat situation that he wasn’t sure what was right or wrong. However, his relationship with one of the maids was something I didn’t really understand. It just wasn’t played out well I think because every time they talked or met up, I just didn’t see that proper connection. Overall, I was a little disappointed in this book, but I’m still glad I got the chance to read it.
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy!
Writing: 6/10
Characters: 5/10
Plot: 6/10
Ending: 5/10
Originality: 6/10
Overall: 28/50
Lost in a Bookstore 