Nicely Written Novel Regarding the French Resistance of WWII

 Nicely written novel regarding the French Resistance of WWII, August 6, 2012

This sweeping novel does a great job of giving you a glimpse into the lives of two sets of sisters and their work with the French Resistance during WWII. Each set of sisters is split into two jobs. One sister will be working as an escort for German officer’s at the local dance club (and much more than escort). The other sister will be the one that is a warrior who goes out with the guys and is doing their best to kill as many German’s as possible and hamper their work.

The main set of sisters, the McCleash sister’s, are from an Irish family who was living and working in France at the time of the occupation by the Germans. Monique and Claire. Monique is tasked with escorting German officers and getting information from them that the Resistance can use to destroy the Germans. She is good at her job. She gathers information that is highly useful. But her sister is the warrior who is good at her job and fights as hard as any man. Their father thinks that Claire the warrior is the better daughter, he is ashamed of what Monique does to get her information. Even though it is Moniques information that gives Claire and the others their chance to shine and do damage.

One problem, Monique actually starts to fall in love with the German Major, Major Von Strausser, that she is seeing. Now she is torn between loving him and wanting to marry and have a family or using him to get the information to help the Resistance. To further complicate things, Von Strausser is starting to suspect that Monique is part of the Resistance and wonders what to do about it, you see, he is falling in love with her.

For her part Claire is happy to just be fighting the enemy, killing as many German’s as possible. She hates her sister and what she does and refuses to spend any more time with her. So, which sister will you the reader start to side with? The whore or the warrior?

How do you feel about Monique starting to fall in love? How will Monique and Von Strausser handle the situation? How will Von Strausser respond when the Gestapo starts following him around because they believe he has been compromised? How Will Von Strausser respond when he realizes that the Gestapo have found Monique’s name and phone number and are setting her up so they can capture and interrogate her and destroy the Resistance movement?

The book is well written. It has many sub plots, many short stories within the bigger story and they all weave together to bring you the human drama of what the French Resistance faced as they did their best to drive the German occupying forces out of their country.

I found the book intriguing, well written, the characters well developed and I wanted to know how it was going to end. My only negative, I didn’t read the book sooner. I had so many books on my read pile that this one got lost in the mix. I’m so glad it finally came to the surface.

If you like war novels you will enjoy this one completely.

Enjoy!