A Time for Defiance by James D. Shipman, eBook, 365 pages
Synopsis from GoodReads: May 1940: In the months since the war in Europe began, nineteen-year-old Aafke Cruyssen and her family have tried to carry on as normal—running their modest grocery store in Eindhoven, hoping that Germany will leave Holland alone as it did during the Great War. But this time, Holland will not be spared. The invasion comes, swift and merciless, and Dutch forces are easily overpowered. In Eindhoven, a valuable transport and trade hub, Nazi soldiers swagger through the streets. Aafke’s one glimpse of humanity comes from a young German corporal who intervenes when a gang of looters tries to rob her family’s shop. Aafke joins the Dutch resistance and is drawn into a relationship with its charismatic leader. Wanting more than the menial missions assigned to women, she and her friends create a taskforce of their own—a “dating club” where women target Nazis, luring them to their arrest or death. Discovery by the Gestapo will mean torture and execution. Just as dangerous is the reappearance of the soldier who once helped her family. Otto Berg is now an influential Nazi commando, intrigued by Aafke’s fragile courage. As the conflict deepens, so does Aafke’s quandary. The tides of war continue to bring her and Otto into each other’s circles. And beyond the battles that make history are countless sacrifices and unthinkable choices she must make for the sake of the resistance, and to save her own life and those she loves.
BOOK REVIEW: I want to start off there is a little something in the synopsis that is a little misleading in my opinion. I won't say what because I don't do spoilers but it doesn't take away from this beautifully written historical fiction. I swear that this is the first book that I've told someone about that I actually referred to it by the genre. I don't normally do that but for some reason it felt necessary. Reading this book touches my family a little. Only because my grandmother was a child during WWII in Germany so when I read stuff like this book, I can't even imagine what it was like for the children.
The author includes at the end of the story what was taken from real life and what was fabricated for the story. Aafke, for example is a fictional character but based on a real woman who created something like a "dating club". I feel like those little tidbits were great to learn about and make the fictional story more real. Does that make any sense?
Overall this get's a 4.5 for me. I had to do some Googling on name pronunciations (totally a me thing) and I also wish that the chapter titles had an English translation. I read this on my Kindle and some of the titles translated from German, Danish, or Dutch but then some wouldn't translate at all so it would have been nice to have that translation somewhere. The characters were very well done. I had a lot of notes made of things like, "Oh eff that guy!" or "He sucks so hard." or "She can jump off a cliff!" (except more colorful language). The timeline threw me off sometimes because I would get so use to it going back and forth that I did miss a time jump ahead but again...totally on me. It's also a dual POV which I was okay with because it went back and forth between Aafke and Otto except I think there were two Otto chapters back to back one time but it was necessary. I'm definitely going to keep this author in mind in the future and will definitely recommend this book for anyone looking to read historical fiction!
4.5/5 Stars
2024 Reading Challenge: 50/50 complete
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