I stepped out of the comfort zone on this new book that I had a chance to review. I’m not usually one to read about war, however the premise sounded really good – a conflict of love and duty. I can see where that can be an issue and it definitely was. Check out this first effort by a new author in this British spy novel.
Beloved Enemy by Sheila Munds-Belbin
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK (May 8, 2013)
ISBN-13: 978-1481783514
Set in the 1940s and spanning across a 20-year period, “Beloved Enemy” by Sheila Munds-Belbin follows a young English spy in the British Women’s Army who falls in love with the target enemy, a German colonel.
This World War II historical fiction novel explores the conflicts of war, duty and forbidden love.
The novel covers a twenty-year period beginning in 1942. Allison, a young woman in the British Women’s Army whose mother was German, agrees to become a spy. She is parachuted into enemy-occupied France and helped by the French Resistance to reach the German border, where she is met by members of the little-known German Resistance. Her job is to seduce a colonel who works in intelligence and who is involved in troop movements. The novel explores the effect of war on the lives of people while keeping its central focus on a determined, sensitive, maturing woman.
My Thoughts
I was interested in the subject matter of this book especially when it comes to female spies and the work they did behind the scenes during World War II. This book examines the love conflict and duty of one woman as she struggles to do her job and yet has fallen for the enemy.
The book was interesting and very entertaining. I enjoyed the structure of the book and how the stories were told. The character development was good and the author offered many interesting personalities throughout. I liked how she addressed the lasting effects of the war through the characters. That made for an interesting portion of the story.
However, I had some difficulty with stilted conversations that didn’t flow smoothly and the ending was quite rushed. In some areas of the book you would jump two & three months or even years just between paragraphs. More detail and rich conversations would have help flush out this story so much more. I wanted more out of the ending. It really jumped too fast and a whole lot of assumptions were made. I feel there was so much more to the story that could have been developed to make this book a fully developed historical fiction and romance novel.
Overall, the book was very entertaining. I love the premise and I think it has a lot of promise with a good editor’s help. I felt this book was missing something more in depth, more captivating for the reader to grab on to. A good first effort by this new author.
Hi! I’m Chris! Just a Midlife Wife sharing about life’s journey; screaming and kicking through it while supposedly aging gracefully…
Focusing on healthy living, low carb & keto, things I am loving right now, and life in general.