Evelyn Marche, British nurse in WW1 Brussels, had taken over Edith Clavell’s hospital, even winning an Iron Cross for saving the life of a German major. Now she directed the hospital during the day while in the evenings, she helped her aunt and uncle run a café frequented by the Germans. In her few remaining hours she used what she learned in the hospital and the café to support the Belgian resistance.
While on the way to a resistance assignment, Eve arrived first at a plane crash and was stunned to recognize the injured British airman as Captain Simon Forrester. How much circumstances had changed since she last saw him, and how much she had changed! Even so, she was determined to save his life, no matter what the cost, but she also had to rescue her long-lost brother and sister, protect her mother, carry out injured Simon’s dangerous assignment, and live with the demons of her past.
Kate Breslin’s novel is difficult to put down. She has woven a net of espionage that is peopled with vulnerable and believable characters. There is drama, courage, deception, and even romance. Central to the book is Kate’s struggle with her past. Can God really forgive what she did in a moment of terror? Can her husband forgive her? Is there mercy even for her?
Miss 14 warned me that this novel would be too stressful for me. It certainly had many intense moments and continues to have an impact, but it has not left me sleepless at night. The comforting message echoed in the title of the book, that God’s love is as ‘high as the heavens’ made all the difference.
If you have some free time available for a gripping war story, I recommend High as the Heavens.
This summer I am reading a lot of Miss 14’s style of books, hoping to be able to enjoy and discuss them together. Perhaps this will even be an opportunity to compare styles of writing and discuss both literary and biblical standards of excellence.
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This is yet another book in the in the 2017 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge and is also linked to Saturday Reviews, Booknificent Thursdays, Literacy Musings Monday, and The Book Nook.
Disclosure: This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. and is available at your favorite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.