When Twilight Breaks - Sarah Sundin

In Munich in 1938 Evelyn Brand is working as an American foreign correspondent.  She is careful to report in a balanced way, wanting to tell the truth of the bad and worrying things she is seeing in Nazi Germany as well as the good, but her boss George Norwood dislikes her and edits her pieces in a way which makes her seem supportive of the very things she loathes.  Meanwhile Peter Lang, also American, is working on his PhD and teaching in another part of the city.  He is impressed by the structure, order and prosperity of the Germany he sees – until everything he thought he knew is overturned.  When he meets Evelyn, sparks fly of more than one kind, not least because of his love of order and her passionate desire for freedom above all else.  Peter begins to feed her information she can use in her reporting, but life is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous for them both: and soon they must join forces to escape.

I’ve been a big fan of Sarah Sundin’s wartime stories for a long time now but this book is by far the most heart-pounding of her stories.  The tension rises and rises as the story progresses and there’s a real sense of dread at several points.  Because the reader knows what happened to Jews in Nazi Germany, the worry about the Jewish characters in the book increases, and even when you think you’ve reached a point where you can pause for breath – you can’t!  

Sarah doesn’t write ‘perfect characters’ and this makes her books more real and edgy.  Peter has a past which has coloured – quite understandably – his view of his present.  Evelyn has to fight her way through the man’s world she works in – and at times she’s a bit annoying as she displays her frustration about this although I liked her determination.  I also felt she was far too casual about her conversations about being Jewish, despite the fact she would certainly have known this was not something to talk openly about.  However, it is a major factor in the plot…

When Twilight Breaks shows how good people can become subsumed by evil things, and how that can destroy both friendships and lives.  It also shows how reporting influences people’s views at personal and much wider levels.  On this front it raises many questions, even in terms of modern-day social media, where at present I have taken a serious reduction in my exposure due to the enormous amount of negative input to the situation which the global community faces as I write (in January 2021) with the Coronavirus pandemic.

There are one or two spots where I thought ‘?’ but this is Sarah’s best book yet in terms of the storytelling.  Powerful, involved,  and compelling, with wonderful characterisation across the board and a fabulous – and tragic – sense of place, particularly of Munich in 1938.

An out an out 5* read.  

9780800736361, Revell

For transparency, I was sent an advance copy of this book, but I was not required to write any specific or favourable review. All views herein are my own.

A Dance in Donegal - Jennifer Deibel

Grieving the recent loss of her mother, Irish-American Moira Doherty leaves Boston to take up the post of teacher in the small Irish village of Ballymann in Donegal, a place her mother had often spoken of with deep affection.  But the welcome extended to Moira is far from friendly and it seems a secret related to her mother’s past is going to impact Moira’s present with increasingly devastating results.  Yet among the suspicious locals are people who become Moira’s close friends – and a green-eyed thatcher who she may just come to love.

Jennifer Deibel writes an engaging story with a real sense of place and some beautifully developed characters.  It’s a bit of a shame that the school and most of the children feature very little, but the community itself is well described, and it’s not surprising to learn that it’s based on the Irish village where the author lived for two years.  I could ‘see’ the village and nearby countryside in my mind’s eye as I read, and I loved the characters of Brid, Peg and Colm especially.  

This is a book which is very strongly ‘Christian fiction’.  In fact, it’s much more direct with the faith elements than many inspirational novels of the last several years.  I liked the way Moira heard God’s voice/His prompting, and although I personally found some of the other elements a little more heavy going at times I can see this being appealing to many Christian readers.  

There’s much here of how actions have consequences which can be much bigger than expected, and there are also strong themes of forgiveness.  Almost the entire story shows the dangers of making assumptions about other people, for good or ill.

There are a few oddities – duvets are mentioned frequently, but were not used at all widely until the 1950’s, we don’t call carts, traps, carriages, gigs or wagons ‘rigs’ on this side of the Atlantic, and the final scene while lovely seems at odds with much of the rest of the story where what would be considered ‘proper’ in the 1920s is often mentioned.  

I’d give this 4 stars.  It’s a comfortable read to while away a winter evening and I look forward to the author’s next novel set in Ireland.

Note: for transparency, I was sent an advance copy of this book, but I was not required to write any specific or favourable review. All views herein are my own.