This was at least my second, but most likely third, reread. The writing was as great and the plot as intriguing as I had remembered, but Saffron was a borderline Mary Sue. Her story was remarkably boring and irritating at times, my least favorite, and she sent poor Shevchenko to a brutal death with a crassly limited amount of thought or care. Danny was treated terribly and was apparently ultimately meaningless to Saffron and the author. The conflict would have been worth enough, but once it was discarded, I failed to see the point of it at all anymore. I would have liked for there to have been more about Konrad, or at least Gerhard. Overall, 4.5 stars, but still one of my favorites. Finished at around 12:20 midnight.

I'm not a big fan of war romances, but I ended up kind of liking this story. Set during World War II, it tells the separate tales of two lovers, a German and a British soldiers, and all the adventures they must face before the War ends in 1945. Reading historical fiction is kind of interesting because you kind of know some of the things that are going to happen (like how long the war is going to last, or some key events in history), but you still have the unpredictable fate of the fiction love story that is being told in the book. In a way, I was interested in reading about the atrocities of the war - even though what characters went through is mere fiction, the things that they went through were actually true things that indeed happened during the war, and that is what makes the story even more compelling.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
Thank You Simon and Schuster for sending me this ARC through LibraryThing. I enjoyed this historical fiction book. It a love story set during WWII. Gerhard von Meerbach and Saffron Courtney meet and fall in love in 1939. When the war starts, he becomes a pilot in the German Luftwaffe and she becomes a spy for the British SOE(Special Operations Executive). The story moved slowly in the first third of the book but became a page turner halfway through. It is part of a series, but worked fine for me as a stand alone.
Two quotes:
"The sun was low in the sky, shining between the islands of Rum and Sky, turning them into soft silhouettes of purple and gray."
"Maybe that's what a ghost is- a presence of the dead in the dreams of the living."
Update 12-21-18. My wife read and enjoyed this book enough that she plans to read more of this series.

I didn't realize this was a part of a series but I definitely think you can read this on its own! The Courtney family definitely has some history and some stories! All the way back to the 1600s!

This one takes place in the late 1930's and Saffron Courtney is in a Romeo and Juliet type situation with Gerhard von Meerbach. The side of the war they are on and the people that they works for is tearing them apart. It's a really awesome point of few from a female's perspective during the war and not just as a nurse or a wife - but as someone fully entrenched in the war. I really liked how engaging her story was and it kept me riveted from beginning to end - thanks goodness so, because this one is a commitment at 450 pages!

This was at least my second, but most likely third, reread. The writing was as great and the plot as intriguing as I had remembered, but Saffron was a borderline Mary Sue. Her story was remarkably boring and irritating at times, my least favorite, and she sent poor Shevchenko to a brutal death with a crassly limited amount of thought or care. Danny was treated terribly and was apparently ultimately meaningless to Saffron and the author. The conflict would have been worth enough, but once it was discarded, I failed to see the point of it at all anymore. I would have liked for there to have been more about Konrad, or at least Gerhard. Overall, 4.5 stars, but still one of my favorites. Finished at around 12:20 midnight.

I received a free copy from Readers First in exchange for an honest review.

This was a book in a series which i hadn't read any others of but don't feel like i was missing out as enough backstory was discussed to get you up to speed if you hadn't read any other. Also the fact that this takes place during such an infamous period of history means you are kind of up to speed already.

The pace is relentless, from the excerpt we got for this we were left on a cliffhanger thinking our heroine had been captured by the Germans, how cruel you were to do that to us, i was extremely relieved when i read what had actually happened once i got the full book (no spoilers as to the circumstances around it, but i thoroughly enjoyed being duped).

We switch between Saffron Courtney on her special training to be inserted behind enemy lines to aid in the resistance in Belgium, and the fighting of Gerhard von Meerbach who was unfortunate enough to have been posted into the hell of the siege on Stalingrad.

Once Saffron completes her training she is then sent to South Africa to inveigle her way into the enemies good graces to get them to transport her into Belgium, to discover the truth into why all of their previous spies were so easily captured. Once she makes it into Belgium and completes her mission there is a very tense escape attempt that had me gripped throughout.

Gerhard on the other hand goes from bad to worse, getting away from Stalingrad he finds himself jumping from base to base as the German's retreat further to their homeland until eventually his voicing of his displeasure at the Fuhrer finds him arrested and taken to one of the prisoner camps and eventually on to Dachau. The horrors of those have been well documented and Wilbur Smith holds no punches in his descriptions of what we find there and the treatments the prisoners suffered.

As much as this is a work of fiction, so much of it is based in historic fact that as harrowing a read as it is I couldn't stop and finished this book off a little over a day after starting it. It was extremely well written and kept me turning the page to find out how it would end.

This was my first foray into Wilbur Smith. I'm a long-time historical fiction fan, and I wanted to broaden my horizons into unfamiliar authors for my job (librarian). I was immediately captured by Smith's colorful and descriptive storytelling; he doesn't ramble on, and each descriptive paragraph allowed me to paint the scene in my mind before going into character dialogue. Smith definitely has a beautiful enjoyable way with words. This book was moving with definitively morally corrupt characters facing off against imperfect heroes, who wrestle with the weight of the complicated decisions they've been forced to make. Gerhard drew me in more as the book moved along, as did Saffron. Gerhard's will to survive and his experiences definitely pulled on my heart.

This book was paced well for the most part, and kept you guessing with just the right amount of romance thrown into the drama. As many have said, its easy to read as a stand-alone, but I will be picking up more books by Smith in the future.

A novel with something for both the romance and drama lover alike.

Saffron, a secret agent is separated from her lover by WWII. Their different nationalities mean that they find themselves on opposing sides. Wilbur Smith carefully crafts missions for them both and had clearly an excellent historical knowledge of the war. Some of the descriptions of prisoner of war camps are so grafically described in detail that they’re difficult to read, in other sections large amonts of time pass in a couple of pages. This inconsistency is occasionally frustrating, but overall the style does drive you on to keep turning the pages.

The ending was somewhat unrealistic all things considered and rather rushed in comparison to the rest of the novel. This is my first Wilbur Smith novel and I would like to read others to see if this is a style,l trait. Or perhaps there will be a follow up and this isn’t the last we will hear of Saffron and Gerhard

Non avevo mai letto niente di Wilbur Smith, e anche questa lettura è stata un'azzardo. Il romanzo mi è piaciuto, mi ha fatto conoscere un aspetto della storia - la Seconda Guerra Mondiale combattuta dalle donne - che non avevo mai avuto occasione di leggere prima. Eppure non mi ha particolarmente appassionato, non è riuscito a creare quel desiderio di leggere costantemente che avrei voluto provare. Ho apprezzato molto le capacità descrittive di Wilbur Smith: ho ancora vividi nella mente alcuni scenari, perfettamente disegnati dalla sua penna, e le condizioni drammatiche dei detenuti nei campi di prigionia. È stata una lettura nuova, che ha offerto uno scorcio a me inedito sulla guerra, ma che purtroppo non ha saputo coinvolgermi completamente.

I’m not a historical fiction girl, unless it’s done well. I could not get in to this one. With dual narrators that don’t seem to overlap a ton and what seems to be a story capitalizing on the never ending sub genre of WW2 historical fiction and this is not one of the best ones out there, by far. I understand this is one a series, and admittedly i didn’t read the others so I really couldn’t say if this is living up to the others. I’ll be honest, I read about 25% and skimmed the rest, hoping to be pulled back in to the story, but alas, no such luck. I do think that fans of this series will likely enjoy this one, I hope that is the case as they were likely the target audience anyways. I think I’ll stick to my rule of not jumping in to the middle of a series.