THE SILENCE BEFORE DAWN

MY THOUGHTS:

Nazi-occupied France, 1944:  Marianne’s works for a resistance network that operates out of a remote farmhouse in the south of France. She is the leader of the network and their mission is to bring down the Nazi regime.  Marianne soon discovers that there is a traitor among them and her position as a secret agent is compromised.  Her fiancé Jack, also a spy in the network, has fled during an unexpected attack.   But Marianne is the only one that believes Jack is innocent, he couldn’t possibly be the traitor or could he?  So Marianne sets out, alone to find Jack before he is killed for being loyal to the resistance network or is tortured until he reveals the names of all the undercover agents in France.  She is sure that Jack isn’t the traitor but she risks everything to clear his name for those that do.

I was completely captivated from the first page to the last.  This  rapidly moving story held my attention and I couldn’t put it down.  I found myself holding my breath as the story played out like a movie in my mind’s eye.  The description of war torn France made me tear up while the characters demonstrated such courage.   This was absolutely an amazing historical fiction that will stay with me for a very long while.   I love that the author made it so personal and portrayed the emotional love Marianne had of both her fiancé and her country.  With a strong lead character the reader feels emotionally invested in the outcome of the story.  I was so happy to know that this is the first installment of what I know is going to be a phenomenal series.  I am anxiously awaiting the next book in this series.   This is such a fabulous story and I highly recommend it.

Thank you Amanda Lees for such a wonderful beginning to what I’m sure will be a fantastic series.  I really enjoyed it and I absolutely recommend it.  

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

DESCRIPTION:

THE SILENCE BEFORE DAWN
Author:  Amanda Lees 
Publisher:  Bookouture 
Publication Date: September 13, 2022 
Pages: 361 
Buy on Amazon 

Nazi-occupied France, 1944: I tear open the envelope, extracting a sheet of folded paper. I read it, my heart cracking with every word. There is no mistaking the name of the man who betrayed us. Jack. My beloved fiancé – and now, a traitor.

For months, Marianne’s resistance network has carried out courageous missions from a remote farmhouse in southern Provence, aiding the Nazis’ downfall. But one fateful night, they are viciously ambushed as German soldiers storm in, scattering, capturing or killing every last person there.

Mourning the loss of her friends, Marianne will need every ounce of courage to survive. Not only has her life as a secret agent been critically compromised, but her heart has been shattered. Because Jack, her darling fiancé and fellow spy, fled in the chaos – and is accused of being the traitor who betrayed them.

Desperate to believe Jack’s innocence and that their love was true, to her horror Marianne discovers he has been seized by the Butcher of Lyon, a Nazi more brutal and ruthless than any other. Now it is more imperative than ever that Marianne finds Jack – before he reveals the names of every undercover agent in France, or before he is murdered for remaining loyal.

So Marianne sets out on the most dangerous mission of her life, and the most personal. With her tight-knit group of fellow women agents by her side, she risks everything to rescue Jack. Can she save her fiancé before it’s too late – and change the fate of the war in the process? Or is she blind to the heart-breaking truth, and simply sacrificing her own life?

ABOUT AMANDA LEES

She is the author of the bestselling satirical novels Selling Out and Secret Admirer (published by Pan) which have both received critical acclaim and have been translated into several languages. Her major YA thriller trilogy, Kumari, Goddess of Gotham, was written as a tribute to her mum, who died a couple of months before Amanda got the idea for a series which would reflect her own exotic childhood. Kumari was nominated for the Guardian Children’s Book Prize and the Doncaster Book Award. It featured as Redhouse Book Of The Month and Lovereading4kids Book Of The Month.

A broadcaster as well as an actress and novelist, Amanda appears regularly on BBC radio and LBC and was a contracted writer to the hit series Weekending on Radio 4. She researched and edited the leading directory for banks, The Banker’s Almanac, for Euromoney publications while also covering stories of shady dealings in the City for them. She has written for, or contributed to, The Evening Standard, The Times, New Woman, US Cosmopolitan, Bulgaria's Vagabond and Company Magazine as well as numerous online publications and has two non-fiction books published under a pen name. Amanda has conducted a love coaching phone-in from the sofa of Richard & Judy and wooed the viewers on Channel 5 Live. She won an award at the Hungarian Gyor Film Festival for a short film she produced, a psychological thriller called Pros and Cons. Her book, From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer: The Dictionary of Crime, was published by Robinson/Little Brown in July 2020 to excellent reviews. It was published in the US by Ulysses Press in May 2021. She has just completed the first in a romantic thriller series set at the end of WW2. 

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