I received a sample for this review/feature. Opinions expressed are my own.
I just finished the perfect “summer read.” One of those books that are great by the pool, beach or while just laying around in your backyard. The perfect book to slowly enjoy and devour while relaxing. Madeleine’s War is an historical fiction novel from Historian Peter Watson and is a blend of romance and drama based on actual events in Britain and France leading up to D-Day in 1944.
Matthew Hammond is a British military officer posted to the European theater during World War II. He sustained a serious injury on the front lines, so bad, in fact, that it cost him a lung. Now he is back in England, unable to fight, but he continues to serve his country by training new resistance fighters.
One of the recruits under his tutelage is Madeleine, a spellbinding, impassioned French-Canadian with eyes of “burnished whiskey.” Despite protocols discouraging romance, they are deeply in love, and Matthew is torn about putting Madeleine’s life in danger. He already has one tragic affair with a Resistance fighter under his belt?his former lover, Celestine, was killed because her assassination of a German doctor went awry.
But the Allies are mustering all their resources for crucial beach landings in Normandy, and Matthew knows his unit will need to play a role. It will be a very dangerous mission: parachuting in behind the Nazi line. As Madeleine progresses through the training with her fellow recruits, Matthew can only hope that luck will guide her through when the drop finally arrives.
This amazing tale is a mix of historical facts and events mixed in with a fictional love story. Matthew lost a lung in the war but now he trains spies that will go in behind enemy lines.?The test to get picked for this ultra-elite team is hard core and you don’t even know you are being tested! The training once in is no picnic either and they must all learn important skills to sabotage and survive. He soon falls in love with Madeleine, a spunky French-Canadian, who is training under him to be one of the resistance fighters. The day finally comes where she is dropped behind the Nazi lines in France and Matthew is reluctant. Soon after the invasion begins and communication is lost. Matthew must find the lost spies and he does everything he can to find Madeleine but then he starts having doubts and thinks perhaps she is not who he thinks she is.
About Peter Watson:Peter Watson writes a weekly column for the Observer and also contributes to The New York Times. He is the author of four novels and five books of non-fiction, most recently Nureyev, a biography of the Russian ballet dancer. Both Crusade and Landscape of Lies appeared on the Sunday Times Fiction Bestseller List. Mr. Watson lives in London.
The book has a really slow start but it eventually picks up and is not stop after that. It is exciting to read about women in such important roles during the war and in this book you follow Matthew and see it all through his eyes. I am not normally a reader of romance books but this one was so well done that I just had to find out what happens to them. This intriguing historical romance is a great summer read!
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