Review: "The German Woman" by Paul Griner

From Goodreads:  This riveting war story introduces us to beautiful Kate Zweig, the English widow of a German surgeon, and Claus Murphy, an exiled American with German roots—two lovers with complicated loyalties.

In 1918, Kate and her husband,Horst, are taken for spies by Russian soldiers and forced to flee their field hospital on the eastern front, barely escaping with their lives. Years later, in London during the Nazis’ V-1 reign of terror, Claus spends his days making propaganda films and his nights as a British spy, worn down by the war and his own many secrets. When Claus meets the intriguing Kate Zweig, he finds himself powerfully drawn to her—even after evidence surfaces that she might not be exactly who she seems. As the war hurtles to a violent end, Claus must define where his own loyalties lie, whether he can make a difference in the war—and what might be gained by taking a leap of faith with Kate.

My Thoughts:  I think I bought this book at a library book sale a couple years ago and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since.  I finally decided to read it and I kind of wish I hadn't.  I really wanted to like this book unfortunately, it wasn't as good as I expected it to be.

Both Kate and Claus were very interesting characters but they were also very confusing.  In the beginning very little is known about them but more information was revealed throughout the story.  However, it seemed like no matter how much was revealed, the author was still keeping secrets from the reader.  I felt like I couldn't figure them out nor could I figure out the story.  There seemed to be all kinds of things happening just below the surface and I just don't feel like I understood all the suggestions to what was going on.  Every time I thought I was getting it, something would happen and I started to change my mind.

My other issue was that the story was very slow moving.  The book is only about 300 pages but it felt like it took me forever to read it because it moved very slow.  It felt like there was a lot of extra information thrown into the story that didn't seem super relevant.  I had a really hard time keeping track of all the details and I finally stopped trying because I realized it wasn't important.

I feel bad for writing a negative review about this book because, like I said, I really wanted to like this book.  I just couldn't get into it and honestly, I just didn't get it.  2 stars.