High as the Heavens by Kate Breslin -- My Review

Do you enjoy historical fiction?  Are you looking for something to read?  :)  It sometimes seems like historical fiction is all set in the old west, a spinster schoolteacher or a widow looking for a husband...and it turns into just a plain old romance.  Well, that is not the case for this book!

High as the Heavens by Kate Breslin is a book set in World War 2, in Belgium!  It is about a British nurse, Eve,  with Belgian family ties who loses her husband to war, moves with her mother to be with family in Belgium, loses her siblings and uncle to the war, and serves as a nurse while trying to survive the German oppression/slaughter.  She not only serves as a nurse, she is also a part of an espionage ring.

Eve is hurrying to a rendezvous with a British plane when she happens on a plane crash...the very plane she was supposed to meet.  She finds the pilot dead and the passenger severely wounded--and the passenger's face sends her into amazed shock because it is...(ummm, did you think I was going to tell you?????  You'll have to read it yourself!)

Eve's mission becomes more complicated as she tries to save the life of this person as well as two other people who she has learned are alive in France.  She continues her work with the wounded, gathering information and sending it to the Allied forces, while working to save this other soldier and retrieve and ensure the safety of the other 2 she is searching for.

This story is very complex, you have to think while you're reading it :) I wouldn't call it a light fluffy read at all.  It is hard.  It is war.  It doesn't overly-romanticize war.  Eve has her own ghosts to reconcile (a lot of them, actually) and peace to search for.  She has lost hope in one sense, while she works guided by hope in a different sense.

I know my review is a bit enigmatic, but so many of the key points are things you should discover for yourself.

I like this book, I would recommend it.  It is not my favorite, but it is a good book and does show a different side of the war -- and it's World War I, which I rarely find fictional books set in.  Give it a try!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”