Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Lana's War, by Anita Abriel {ends 1/21}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

Lana sat across from Captain Von Harmon at the Hôtel Excelsior’s restaurant and listened to him describe his family’s apartment in Berlin. From the outside she was the picture of grace and calm: she had spent an hour in her dressing room fixing her hair and adjusting the neckline of her dress to show just a hint of cleavage. But ever since Guy had dropped her off near the hotel, she had been so nervous she could barely breathe.

“Joseph Goebbels invited my family to stay at his villa on the lake next summer,” Von Harmon was saying. “It’s only twenty-five kilometers from Berlin, but it’s like another world. There’s a private cinema and a park.”

“I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time,” Lana said, admiring the photo of a pretty blond woman and two small children he had handed to her. “Your wife is lovely, and such handsome children, you must be so proud.”

Life on the French Riviera sounds beautiful, but Lana is there living in constant risk as a member of the resistance.

Official synopsis:

Paris 1943: Lana Antanova is on her way to see her husband with the thrilling news that she is pregnant. But when she arrives at the convent where he teaches music, she’s horrified to see Gestapo officers execute him for hiding a Jewish girl in the piano.

A few months later, grieving both her husband and her lost pregnancy, Lana is shocked when she’s approached to join the resistance on the French Riviera. As the daughter of a Russian countess, Lana has the perfect background to infiltrate the émigré community of Russian aristocrats who socialize with German officers, including the man who killed her husband.

Lana’s cover story makes her the mistress of Guy Pascal, a wealthy Swiss industrialist and fellow resistance member, in whose villa in Cap Ferrat she lives. Together, they gather information on upcoming raids and help members of the Jewish community escape. Consumed by her work, she doesn’t expect to become attached to a young Jewish girl or wonder about the secrets held by the man whose house she shares. And as the Nazis’ deadly efforts intensify, her intention to protect those around her may put them all at risk instead.

Lana leaves Paris after the death of her husband and the miscarriage of her baby. She was recruited for the resistance to move to the French Riviera and join the party circuit to get secrets from the German officers and Gestap, and try to help the Jewish residents escape the area instead of being sent to the camps and put to death.

The newly relocated Countess Lana Antanova plays her part perfectly. She may be doing it just a bit too well, with little regard for her safety and that of her co-workers in the resistance. While there are certainly a lot of WWII books and stories of the resistance, this one did have a unique ending.

Overall, I’d give this interesting story 3 out of 5 stars. The characters were a little flat. While we were given their back stories and reasons for joining the resistance, they lacked an emotional depth. Luckily the development of the end of the story compensated for some of that. I’d recommend this book to those who enjoy WWII stories, and be able to say it doesn’t read as sad or tragic as a lot of stories about that period.

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Becki Bayley is a wife, mom and homemaker. Someone once said that adulthood means always cleaning your kitchen. They’re not wrong. See some of her activities besides cleaning the kitchen on Instagram where she posts as PoshBecki.

GIVEAWAY:

Two of my lucky readers will win a copy of Lana's War!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Thursday, January 21st, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner(s) will be contacted.

Open to both U.S. *and* Canadian residents!

Good luck!

Lana's War, by Anita Abriel