Wednesday, December 9, 2020

"Lana's War", by Anita Abriel




I am a huge fan of historical fiction especially when the story is set during WW11 and involves the French Resistance. This light, fast-paced and engaging story opens in Paris 1943 then moves to the French Riviera.
After Lana’s husband was executed by the Gestapo she joined the Resistance, her cover story makes her the mistress of a wealthy industrialist on Cap Ferrat. Her mission as a spy was to infiltrate the aristocrat community who socialize with the German officers and gather information on upcoming raid on the Jewish community in order to help them escape.

Escape to freedom to the French Riviera with all its beauty a place in which the rich appeared to be little impacted by the war. They were attending parties, galas, dinners, visiting casinos and brushing shoulders with high level Nazis. Lana was amongst them. “Lana’s War” follows her odyssey and along with her we experience a full range of emotions.

The story is quite smooth with a bit of suspense and intrigue but what excel is the description of the beautiful landscape and how vibrant the characters played out their part in the drama. Although the main focus was on Lana we see what the resistance had to do at the risk of their lives in order to save as many people as they could. Yes, the story leads to some teasing and a tad of romance between Lana and Guy and of course I wished it would have gone further but it was not meant to be....

The story is nicely done and leaves us in awe in the last chapters. I was surprised and definitely never expected the dramatic turn of events the story left us with, what an about turn. Could the author be plotting something? Who knows, maybe a sequel?...

I received a copy of this book from Atria Books via Netgalley for an unbiased review.

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