REVIEW: Roads of Resistance (Falcon Point Historical, #2) by A. L. Sowards
1940
After her father is murdered, fifteen-year-old Ingrid Lang flees her home in Austria only to become separated from her siblings and stranded in the Dutch city of Arnhem with a pair of broken legs. Her future would be bleak if not for the kindness of a local doctor and his daughter Anita van der Veen. But before Ingrid can finish her healing and continue her journey to find her brother and sister, the forces of Nazi Germany overrun the Netherlands, leaving her trapped in an enemy occupation.
Four years later, Gerrit Hendriks, wanted by the Gestapo for his work with the underground, flees to his grandfather’s home in Arnhem, where he finds Ingrid and the van der Veens deeply ensconced in the local resistance. But suspicion, prejudice, and conflicting beliefs soon leave Ingrid and Gerrit at odds with each other.
As Ingrid and Gerrit gather intelligence for the Allies, smuggle airmen and other refugees to safety, and plan acts of defiance against the Nazis, irritations soften and teamwork blossoms. They soon realize that if they want to have any hope of outsmarting a German intelligence officer with a tie to Ingrid’s past, they’ll have to work together. As the two begin to recognize just how much they mean to each other, they find themselves in the middle of an enormous airborne operation, and the battles that follow will change everything—for Ingrid, for Gerrit, and for the Netherlands.
CW/TW – Death of a child, death of siblings, parents, death of lots of people, description of the Dutch “Hunger Winter” and extreme famine.
Dear Ms. Sowards,
Yeah so this was a tough read but then since you wrote it, you’ll know that. I’ve grown accustomed to the fact that you don’t stint on putting your characters in danger and at times people don’t survive to the end of the book. There are lots of books set during WWII that have descriptions such as “utterly heartbreaking,” “completely heartbreaking,” or to hit the point home harder, “utterly and completely heartbreaking.” I feel any of these could be used in marketing for this book.
Though this is part of the Falcon Point series, I don’t think reading the first book, “Codes of Courage,” is necessary before starting this one though it will give spoilers for some major things in that book. The Lang siblings have been separated at the beginning of 1940 and from then on, Ingrid, Karl and their younger sister Anna are apart. Book one tells us about Karl and Anna while this one focuses on Ingrid who flees her home in Austria and briefly stops in Berlin before taking a train to the Netherlands with the intention of reaching London. Things don’t work out as she planned and the blurb does a great job of laying out the rest of the action.
As I said, this is a tough book to read. Most of the time is spent during the last year of the war. After four years of Nazi occupation, things are not good in Holland. Dutch collaborators and Nazis make life hell for the rest of the Dutch and many people are willing to work for the resistance or at least turn a blind eye. But danger is always lurking waiting for a slip-up and anxiety is constant. Then in late 1944, Operation Market-Garden gives some of Holland a brief taste of liberation before the intricate plan falls apart, the Nazis regroup, and those in Arnhem find themselves in even worse shape. The winter that follows is deliberately cruel as the Nazis’ actions lead to widespread hunger and starvation. The ‘heartbreaking’ is not over yet and I’ll be honest and admit that in the final 100+ pages of the book, I wondered how many more times my heart would be drop-kicked. Tough, this book is tough.
But the book is also one of deep commitment, staunch determination and courage. As Ingrid, Gerrit, and his family work to further the cause of Dutch liberation, they do so fully aware of the dangers and risks. These are things they’re willing to face in order to regain their country and their freedom as well as bring justice to those who have caused such grief and harm. They are also awed by the foreign Allied soldiers who parachute into Holland and fight desperately to hold the bridges needed for the invasion to succeed which alas did turn out to be a “bridge too far.”
I’ll also be honest and say that at first Ingrid and Gerrit make me think of high schoolers in a snit with each other. Though they both have good reasons to initially distrust each other, at times I, like Gerrit’s aunt Anita, got frustrated with them. There’s a war on, you two, so straighten up. The gradual shift to trust, liking, and then something deeper gives time for their feelings to change and makes their actions to save each other more meaningful and believable.
The old saying “there are no atheists in a foxhole” gives not-so-religious Gerrit the needed push to rediscover his religion and pledge his faith to God. He has good reason to need something deeper to pin his spiritual faith on and by the time the war is over, he has committed himself but all along he has fought to avoid doing things that would stain his soul.
Given how much they’ve lost, the post war section is, I think, a good addition to show both Gerrit and Ingrid as well as all of Holland, putting themselves back together. Ingrid’s action to end two things threatening their futures is bold but in keeping with her already displayed courage. I’m a bit pissed at the way Anita’s Keeshond disappears in the book but maybe his scenes got cut for space. My heart hurts for Henry Bridger and I hope that he will get some happiness in the next book which I’m looking forward to. B
~Jayne
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