Melanie Dobson
Book Summary: A courageous young noblewoman risks her life to hide French resistance fighters; seventy years later, her granddaughter visits the family’s abandoned chateau and uncovers shocking secrets from the past. Gisèle Duchant guards a secret that could cost her life. Tunnels snake through the hill under her family’s medieval chateau in Normandy. Now, with Hitler’s army bearing down, her brother and several friends are hiding in the tunnels, resisting the German occupation of France. But when German soldiers take over the family’s château, Gisèle is forced to host them as well—while harboring the resistance fighters right below their feet. Taking in a Jewish friend’s baby, she convinces the Nazis that it is her child, ultimately risking everything for the future of the child. When the German officers begin to suspect her deception, an unlikely hero rescues both her and the child. A present day story weaves through the past one as Chloe Sauver, Gisèle’s granddaughter, arrives in Normandy. After calling off her engagement with a political candidate, Chloe pays a visit to the chateau to escape publicity and work with a documentary filmmaker, Riley, who has uncovered a fascinating story about Jews serving in Hitler’s army. Riley wants to research Chloe’s family history and the lives that were saved in the tunnels under their house in Normandy. Chloe is floored—her family isn’t Jewish, for one thing, and she doesn’t know anything about tunnels or the history of the house. But as she begins to explore the dark and winding passageways beneath the chateau, nothing can prepare her for the shock of what she and Riley discover… With emotion and intrigue, Melanie Dobson brings World War II France to life in this beautiful novel about war, family, sacrifice, and the secrets of the past.
Book Review: This is a book that sticks you! I spend days after finishing this book wishing there was more to read of it. I loved the moving back and forth between World War II and present day. I loved both the stories. I never wanted either to end. It was a spectacularly written, very believable and such a tender story of redemption. I once read a book similar in nature but this story fulfilled everything that other story could not. It was a private wish of mine to read a story developed as Melanie Dobson did. I laughed, I cried and I lived every moment of the story. I can not thank the author enough for writing this moving piece of fiction that was thread around the true events of World War II and the beauty of God within those horrific events. Gisele’s story was wrapped in the gospel of Christ who is greater than any tragedy man can think up. I love secret tunnels and rooms. A mystery of how things really were versus what people tell. These are the things that make a good mystery.
I would like to thank Net Galley and Howard Books for allowing me to read and review this book in return for a free copy and I was never asked to write a favorable review by anyone.
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