When Twilight Breaks

It was not obvious from the cover or synopsis that this was a Christian historical fiction. I don't have any issue with that genre but I did not like that the two main characters escape the Nazis because of Jesus's love and their Christian faith. I also found it disturbing that the reason they were being hunted was because the main character, a reporter, received a letter from her mother informing her that three sets of her grandparents were Jews who had converted to Christianity. Of course, her letter was read by the Nazis who then then considered her to be Jewish. They stole her passport and replaced it with German passport marking her as a Jew so she couldn't escape. In light of the real atrocities of the Holocaust, I just found the entire premise disgusting. Millions of people were tortured and killed during the Holocaust and these two managed to escape that fate because of their Christian faith.

I absolutely loved this book. It took me too many days to get through it as it was a very deep and sad book, plus I kept seeing parallels between the early years of the Nazis and the current day's Marxist thugs. At least back in Evelyn and Peter's time, there was still a Western Hemisphere to run to. It was heartbreaking to see the early days of Jewish persecution and realize how few of these people would ultimately make it through the war years.

This was a slow-burn romance focused mostly on the danger Evelyn, as a journalist reporting on Nazi actions, and Peter, as a linguistic professor, faced as Americans in Germany in the late 1930s. This is compounded when Evelyn discovers she is mostly Jewish and becomes a sudden target by Nazi sympathizers in her own circle! Things go from bad to worse in a matter of weeks until she is on the run for her life.

The plot is well-balanced and the characters run away with your sympathies easily. Highly recommended to all readers.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.