EMBERS IN THE LONDON SKY by Sarah Sundin ~ compelling, powerful, riveting. 5 stars!

Posted on May 22, 2024 by marykaymoody

EMBERS IN THE LONDON SKY is a superb story from an author who delights us with every book.

As the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940, Aleida van der Zee Martens escapes to London to wait out the Occupation. Separated from her three-year-old son, Theo, in the process, the young widow desperately searches for her little boy even as she works for an agency responsible for evacuating children to the countryside.

When German bombs set London ablaze, BBC radio correspondent Hugh Collingwood reports on the Blitz, eager to boost morale while walking the fine line between truth and censorship. But the Germans are not the only ones Londoners have to fear as a series of murders flame up amid the ashes.

The deaths hit close to home for Hugh, and Aleida needs his help to locate her missing son. As they work together, they grow closer and closer, both to each other and the answers they seek. But time is running short—and the worst is yet to come. [back cover copy]

EMBERS IN THE LONDON SKY is jammed with drama and hard choices—even before factoring in the war!

Sundin is a marvelous storyteller, skilled at creating a sense of place. We feel as if we’re there, whether on a road through the low countries teeming with frightened people fleeing before the German invasion, walking in London over wet cobblestones below a fleet of barrage balloons or heels sinking in muddy parkland, or through smoke-filled streets amid noise of planes, bombs, sirens, cries. And the roar of a fire.

Sundin’s characters, achingly real, appealed to me immediately. Aleida, despite losing her son and arriving in England with very little, has gumption, grit, and hope. And Hugh, despite his upper-class status is working for the BBC, broadcasting from Dunkirk and among the ravaged buildings and populace of London, has warmth, equanimity … and a secret. A cast of vibrant and interesting secondary characters are also very involved.

Weaving these vivid locations and vibrant characters into the inherent drama of war — bombings, people living on top of one another, families separated, danger, illness, politics, espionage—would be a good story. But Sundin, with great skill, goes well beyond, creating a plot that twists and turns like a living thing, giving readers a satisfying story on every level.

But pointing to the various elements Sundin provides to give us a great story falls short of revealing how good this powerful story of love, courage, and sacrifice is. I think one aspect I love about Sundin’s writing is her ability to reveal something about a character in a tiny detail. A small action. A concise bit of prose.

On page 91, for example: Hugh and Aleida have become acquainted and Hugh goes to her apartment unexpectedly to give her a list, promised her by Hugh’s uncle, of homes and institutions to check in her search for Theo. Aleida isn’t home so he waits for her on the street and takes glee in surprising her when she returns. They go inside.

“Hugh paused inside the door, and his smile collapsed. On the coatrack hung Theo’s little gray cap and blue coat.

‘When I find him,’ she said, ‘I’ll be ready.’”

We learn so much about Hugh’s sensitivity and Aleida’s love, hope, and determination despite already searching 6 months for Theo. If Sundin can pack that into just 29 words, imagine the story packed into 369 pages!

Photo credit: Barrage balloons, London damaged bldg- Wikipedia, London Blitz; plane-wallup.net; Building with flowers: Ray Bullen; Elephant-World Wildlife Fund

THE SOUND OF LIGHT by Sarah Sundin~ a great story! 5 star review

Posted on April 19, 2023 by marykaymoody

When the Germans march into Denmark, Baron Henrik Ahlefeldt exchanges his nobility for anonymity, assuming a new identity so he can secretly row messages for the Danish Resistance across the waters to Sweden. American physicist Dr. Else Jensen refuses to leave Copenhagen and abandon her research—her life’s dream—and makes the dangerous decision to print resistance newspapers.

As Else hears rumors of the movement’s legendary Havmand—the merman—she also becomes intrigued by the mysterious and silent shipyard worker living in the same boardinghouse. Henrik makes every effort to conceal his noble upbringing, but he is torn between the façade he must maintain and the woman he is beginning to fall in love with.

When the Occupation cracks down on the Danes, these two passionate people will discover if there is more power in speech . . . or in silence. [back cover copy]

In April 1940, everyone in Denmark had a decision to make. Within 2 hours of the Germans marching in, they defeated Denmark. Under surrender terms, they allowed Parliament and King Christian to remain in place and the Danish government “asked the people to behave, obey the law, and treat the Germans correctly.”

The 2 main characters, Baron Henrik Ahlefeldt and Dr. Else Jensen, look closely at what is important to each of them and choose opposite paths: Henrik must disappear from Denmark, and Else stays to continue her research. Yet each faces challenges that spring ceaselessly from their work. As time passes, pressure increases and their undercover activities become more difficult to keep secret. As a romance blossoms, the consequences of each decision multiplies.

Sundin peppers the story with fascinating historical details as she weaves an ever-tightening net of intrigue. A net both Henrik and Else could have avoided if they’d left Denmark before the German occupation. Indeed, both still could leave.

Their choices to remain and work in Occupied Denmark are clear and understandable. But the costs of the increasing sacrifices they’re called on to make become much higher, become more agonizing—and more risky. The cast of secondary characters is rich and well-drawn.

I enjoy learning new things from a good story, and this one abounds in interesting new information about Denmark and The Danish Resistance. And I love being immersed in a good story. THE SOUND OF LIGHT drew me in immediately and kept me turning pages. The main characters evoked caring.

As the German net tightens, the readers will be surprised at Sundin’s completely believable plot twists. Even the title holds intrigue. I thought perhaps it referred to some fact from a physicist’s work about light also carrying sound. But another surprise awaited me as to what The Sound of Light referenced. I highly recommend this book to readers who like inspirational historical fiction.

YESTERDAY’S TIDES by Roseanna White ~ Fascinating! 5 star review

Posted on February 21, 2023 by marykaymoody

In two world ward, intelligence and counterintelligence, prejudice, and self-sacrifice collide across two generations.

In 1942, Evie Farrow is used to life on Ocracoke Island, where every day is the same–until the German U-boats haunting their waters begin to wreak havoc. And when special agent Sterling Bertrand is washed ashore at Evie’s inn, her life is turned upside down. While Sterling’s injuries keep him inn-bound for weeks, making him even more anxious about the SS officer he’s tracking, he becomes increasingly intrigued by Evie, who seems to be hiding secrets of her own.

Decades earlier, in 1914, Englishman Remington Culbreth arrives at the Ocracoke Inn for the summer, never expecting to fall in love with Louisa Adair, the innkeeper’s daughter. But when was breaks out in Europe, their relationship is put in jeopardy and may not survive what lies ahead for them.

As the ripples from the Great War rock Evie and Sterling’s lives in World War II, it seems yesterday’s tides may sweep them all into danger again today. [back cover copy]

YESTERDAY’S TIDES by Roseanna White is a gripping tale of fierce love, loyalty, and sacrifice that spans two world wars and half the globe.

Set largely on Ocracoke Island of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, it reveals some fascinating and new (new to me—but perhaps not to North Carolinians) historical episodes. And while the history is intriguing, the story and characters Roseanna weaves are even more so.

YESTERDAY’S TIDES is a dual-time novel and one of the best technically that I’ve read. The story is chock full of interconnections, immersing the reader in both stories such that each new detail reverberates in both eras.

One tip I’ll give readers: tolerate the ambiguity. Even embrace it. Any “holes” you notice aren’t holes but really partial revelations with more to come. Similar to meeting new neighbors, you don’t learn everything about them immediately. They’re revealed slowly, in layers, over time. That is also true for the characters, complex and believable, that we meet in YESTERDAY’S TIDES.

White shares with readers the characters, settings, and drama of the war and families and sacrifice with a deft hand and a breezy style as fresh as the seashore. A couple of quotes will show you:

“She turned his hand so his palm was up and dropped in a handful of screws. ‘There. I knew you’d prove useful.’

‘Oh, yes. Four years at Cambridge prepared me excellently for being a bowl.’” [p53]

“Habit. That’s what it was. What kept her here. Habit, trussed up with names like ‘duty’ and ‘responsibility.’” [p 285]

I highly recommend YESTERDAY’S TIDES. But be warned ~ I suspect you’ll enjoy meeting this Ocracoke family and be drawn into the story so thoroughly that you’ll postpone bedtime night after night.

Roseanna White is a Christy Award winning author who’s written “a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books.” Find out more or connect with her at http://www.roseannamwhite,com.

WHEN TWILIGHT BREAKS by Sarah Sundin ~ 5-Star Review to 10-Star!

Posted on March 16, 2021 by marykaymoody

WHEN TWILIGHT BREAKS, Sarah Sundin’s latest, is a tour de force.

Munich, 1938

Evelyn Brand is an American foreign correspondent determined to prove her worth in a male-dominated profession and to expose the growing tyrrany in Nazi Germany. To do so, she must walk a thin line. If she offends the government, she could be expelled from the country–or worse. If she does not report truthfully, she’ll betray the oppressed and fail to wake up the folks back home.

Peter Lang is an Americvan graduate student working on his PhD in German. Disillusioned wit the chaos in the world due to to the Great Depression, he is impressed with the prosperity and order of German society. But when the brutality of the regime hits close, he discovers a far better way to use his contacts within the Nazi party–to feed information to the shrewd reporter he can’t get off his mind.

As the world marches relentlessly toward war, Evelyn and Peter are on a collision course with destiny. [from back cover]

Evelyn and Peter grapple with truth versus propaganda in the increasingly divided, tense country. And if they are to help each other survive the treacherous terrain of Nazi Germany, they will have to reconcile their conflicting perspectives

All the characters in this story are completely real and compelling. The choices they face are heart-breaking. Their spiritual struggles authentically arise from their experience. And the forces that impact them lead to gripping, high stakes journeys where threats, like a tornado, intensify and accelerate.

Sundin draws her characters and settings clearly and thoroughly which helps keep the action brisk. Without intending to, I stayed up hours past normal, walking with Evelyn and Peter, trying to determine who was trustworthy and who was not. The supervisor, neighbor, professor, landlord, restaurateur? The new friends? Maybe the old friends? God?

Much like how our 21^st century world had to learn how to handle a novel virus, this cast of characters has to learn about the novel threat of Nazi Germany. Their journey to do that is compelling and kept me engaged even after shutting the book. I highly recommend it.

(I can give you a man’s point of view soon as my husband is reading the story now.)

UPDATE ~ Hubby also gives it 5 stars! The story drew him in and kept him engaged with taut writing. A tale filled with drama, intrigue, internal and external struggles, and a tender romance that does not overpower the rest of the action. He liked how the author sprinkled in bits of spiritual questions or needs that Peter and Evelyn had. No complaints and just one unanswered question. 🙂

CHATEAU OF SECRETS by Melanie Dobson – Book Review

Posted on September 20, 2018 by marykaymoody

Imagine a beautiful June in 1940 and you’re living in a chateau in Normandy, France with your nobleman father. You awake one morning to learn you are ruled by Hitler and at the mercy of Nazi soldiers because some government officials in Paris decided to surrender. In World War II, life was upended like that. And life-altering, split-second decisions had to be made.

Chateau of Secrets by Melanie Dobson is a rich, intriguing book that draws the reader into this astonishing place, exploring a labyrinth of emotions. Dobson weaves present and WWII stories into an intricate, well-balanced tapestry. Gisèle Duchant navigates those precarious WWII days fraught with danger, betrayal, and the ironies of courage, secrets, and choices made for survival. The depth of the struggle is exemplified as young Gisèle ponders how to continue:

German soldiers, Paris, June 14, 1940

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
The Germans had killed … and now they were destroying her country. How was she supposed to care for the men who had killed him? And even more, how was she supposed to love them—love evil? She despised everything they were doing.” [p 191]

Years later her granddaughter Chloe Sauver tries to unravel the stories into truth and piece together facts, hidden for decades, as she assists a documentary filmmaker.

I often find split-time novels slightly disappointing when the story or people of one era are not as interesting as the other, or following storylines is confusing. Chateau never falls into those but is always clear, crisp, and compelling.

I’m drawn to stories set during the 1940’s, have read many, and seen movies of even more. Yet Chateau introduced me to startling and new things I’d never learned about WWII. In telling this story, the “Sophie’s Choice” type decisions people faced are so real, I ached for them.

* photo credit: Bundesarchiv, on Wikipedia

Book Review – THE SEA BEFORE US by Sarah Sundin

Posted on June 27, 2018 by marykaymoody

A 5-star read, I loved The Sea Before Us and read many passages to my husband, an avid reader of World War II history. The story opens with a bang (one of the best I’ve read!) and captivated me with appealing characters, a compelling plot, and settings that shimmered with life in my living room. Here are just some of the things I liked about it.

In The Sea Before Us, Sarah Sundin has crafted a rich, gripping tale of love, loyalty, and duty thriving despite opposition. U.S. Naval officer Wyatt Paxton and British Wren Dorothy Fairfax are thrown together while working on the Allies’ preparation for D-Day. Complications and confusion come at them from every side—family, friends, culture, the military, romance, duty, personal and professional values. As the world hurtles toward the critical turning point of D-Day, Wyatt and Dorothy hurtle to their own turning point and must learn to trust each other if success is to be won.

BIG BEN by Laura Climent

Each character faces intense personal challenges. As their lives intersect, the challenges are magnified. Skills, perceptions, priorities, and alliances shift. Yet Sundin always keeps us near the beating heart of the story ~ as when Wyatt and Dorothy look at her paintings, she says, “I liked watercolors then, so sheer and ephemeral. But they’re naïve…. Oils, the density … show the world the way it is.” We feel with aching clarity that the world has cracked open and memory will be forever split into BW, before the war, and AW. Sundin weaves this absorbing tale so well that all surprises flow reasonably from the story line and characters. No groaner-coincidences here. But plenty of tension and jaw-dropping moments.

I love World Ward II stories, and The Sea Before Us carried me away to dark, uncertain days in England. Sundin braids new, riveting history into the characters’ journeys. And her research is so thorough that she was able to surprise my husband (that WW II buff). No easy task. The D-Day preparations are fascinating to read; the training and battle scenes come to life. Sundin skillfully displays various skirmishes in detail sufficient to make you chilly as survivors are pulled from the cold Channel waters, but with a restraint that protects readers from gruesome detail such as in the opening scenes of “Saving Private Ryan.”

Under Sundin’s pen, fact and fiction meld seamlessly. As I noted in my April 2018 review of Kate Breslin’s For Such a Time, I’m grateful when authors inform readers exactly where that dividing line falls. This is my first Sarah Sundin novel, though she’s been on my authors-to-read list for a long while. I won’t make the mistake of putting many books ahead of hers in the future! And because this is book 1 in her Sunrise at Normandy series, I won’t have to wait too long.

Book Review – FOR SUCH A TIME by Kate Breslin

Posted on April 18, 2018 by marykaymoody

In 1944, Jewess Hadassah Benjamin feels abandoned by God when she is saved from a firing squad only to be handed over to a new enemy. Pressed into service by the SS, she is able to hide behind the false identity of Stella Muller. However, in order to survive and maintain her cover, she is forced to stand by as her own people are sent to Auschwitz.

Suspecting her employer is a man of hidden depths and sympathies, Stella cautiously appeals to him on behalf of those in the camp. His compassion gives her hope, and she finds herself battling a growing attraction for this man she knows she should despise as an enemy.

Stella pours herself into her efforts to keep even some of the camp’s prisoners safe, but she risks the revelation of her true identity with every attempt. When her bravery brings her to the point of the ultimate sacrifice, she has only her faith to lean upon. Perhaps God has placed her there for such a time as this, but how can she save her people when she is unable to save herself? [from back cover]

Kate Breslin’s debut novel For Such a Time is a compelling and beautiful story of a Jewish woman whose blonde hair and blue eyes not only allow her to pass for Aryan, but convince many Germans that she is Aryan despite the stamp on her papers that says she’s a Jew.

Breslin drops the reader into WW II at Thereseinstadt, the Nazi transit camp in Czechoslovakia, where the cold, starvation, brutality, and hopelessness are portrayed in piercing clarity. (The gift of telling a story that pops off the page and into your living room sometimes doesn’t feel like a gift when what appears is a world such as Thereseinstadt.)

Also dropped into this place is the young woman Hadassah Benjamin whose papers say she is Stella Muller. She’s forced to serve as secretary to the SS commander, resulting in her having heart-breaking knowledge and being in jeopardy of discovery if even a slight ill-timed frown is ever seen. Excruciating decisions must be made, and innocents from infant to elderly are in jeopardy.

This tale is one of surviving harsh circumstances through the power of love, will, faith, and community. Also clearly on display despite the setting are flashes of kindness, tenderness, courage, sacrifice, and of love emerging and tentatively trusting, then provoking more courage and kindness.

A satisfying ending awaits those who read Breslin’s powerfully-told story. She seamlessly weaves fact and fiction and I was grateful that she included in the author’s note which parts of the story were true and which were fiction.

Mary Kay Moody

Writing at the Intersection of Our Plans and God's Purpose

Tag Archives: World War II