Coffee and a Review with Hearts in Barbed Wire by Linda Andrews

Sorry that today’s post is a day late.  Yesterday was my birthday and I didn’t have a chance to post with all the celebrating.  Never fear I have an awesome historical romance for you today.  Hearts in Barbed Wire by Linda Andrews is a love story set in the middle of World War I.  This is totally and completely unique to me.  I have read others that have been during WWII and more recently the Revolutionary War but this is definitely unique and shows a side of war-torn Europe during a time that America wasn’t as involved in the war as we will be during WWII.  For my full review keep reading after the book blurb.  Oh and if you’re wondering what a girl like me would want for a belated birthday gift…well that would be your vote for the June blogger of the month.  https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/104371-blogger-of-the-month-of-june

Book Blurb:

Lieutenant Lucien Duplan is wounded and trapped behind German lines. To reach the Dutch border and freedom, he needs Madeline Thevenet—a woman who eases his pain but is destined to become a nun.
Aiding the man responsible for her parents’ death is the last thing Madeline wants to do. But to get her young brother safely to Holland, she will do anything to avoid being caught by the Germans and tried for treason, including putting her heart on the line.
Madeline and Luc must stay one step ahead of the enemy. But the war around them is nothing compared with the battle raging inside. For honor and duty demand one action; and love requires another.
Love’s Great War: Belgium, 1914

Review:

Madeline has returned home after being dismissed by the Germans from her nursing job.  She is unsure what she will find or if she will find anything at all.  What she finds is her family helping wounded soldiers.  This is being done with some great peril.  So, when Madeline comes home and is forced by her father to both promise to go into the convent and to help the soldiers she has no other choice.  When she leaves to retrieve another wounded soldier with the very handsome Luc.  As she returns with the soldier she finds her parents dead and her brother in a catatonic state.  Knowing the peril they are in Luc, Madeline and the others begin to try to make their way to Holland.  It is on this journey that both Madeline and Luc find more than war, loss and fear with each other.  But, can love withstand a war that is tearing their country apart or will they go their separate ways as they have intended to do so all along?
I really enjoyed this book.  It was definitely a unique setting with a wonderful love story.  It was completely believable and full of horrible truths that happened during this war.  Madeline is a wonderful character and definitely one you could see walking off the page and right into history texts.  Luc and his fellow soldiers are no slouches though.  They are captured very well with Linda Andrews’ story telling skills.  Overall, this is a shorter story but very fulfilling.  I enjoyed this immensely and would recommend it to anyone looking for a romance in a different setting.  Looking forward to reading more by Linda Andrews.