From back cover:
When the German march into Denmark, Baron Henrik Ahlefeldt exchanges his nobility for anonymity, assuming a new identity so he can secretly row messages for the Danish Resistance across the waters to Sweden. American physicist Dr. Else Jensen refuses to leave Copenhagen and abandon her research - her life's dream - and makes the dangerous decision to print resistance newspapers.
As Else hears rumors of the movement's legendary Havmand - the merman - she also becomes intrigued by the mysterious and silent shipyard worker living in the same boardinghouse. Henrik makes every effort to conceal his noble upbringing, but he is torn between the facade he must maintain and the woman he is beginning to fall in love with.
When the occupation cracks down on the Danes, these two passionate people will discover if there is more power in speech...or in silence.
I was honestly a little disappointed with this book. I was really looking forward to this story because I really enjoyed the previous two books (When Twilight Breaks and Until Leaves Fall In Paris. Just a note, these books can all be read as stand-alone.) and I had never read a WWII book set in Denmark. I think my biggest issue was I just couldn't connect with the characters.
Else was just so nice and came across as too perfect. Her biggest "flaw" in the story was the fact that she didn't know how to stand up for herself. And that was only because she was being treated unfairly by one person. Else's job as a physicist was hard to relate to. I mean, I liked and appreciated that she was such an intelligent physicist and I would have liked to learn more about her job and what she was doing, but it was all very vague and hard to understand.
And then with Henrik (who goes by multiple names throughout the book which can be a tad confusing) who is described as being a playboy before the war and then makes a dramatic transformation with very little explanation. I really could have done with a some more backstory or something. We see him struggling with different concepts and he's had some things happen in his past that are said to have changed him but we don't get to see any of that growth. It was like "this happened, then this happened." and that was it.
Mostly I found the character development to be lacking, the romance was just way too easy without any tension or anything. I wasn't rooting for them or wondering if they were going to end up together. It was basically just a matter of that they they like each other and that's it.
Another issue I had was how hard the Danish language was to understand. There was a pronunciation guide at the back of the book but it really just frustrated me more than helped. I would have been fine with it had it just been locations, but it went beyond that and really hindered the progress of story for me.
I did like that the story was set in Denmark as I was very interested in reading about what went on there during the war. While I have never been to Denmark it was described well enough where you could easily imagine the setting.
Unfortunately this could have been a great story but it just felt like it was missing something. While I was invested in the book and wanted to know what was going to happen, it just didn't have that don't-want-to-put-it-down quality that some of Sarah Sundin's other books have for me.
I received a complementary copy of this book from Revell. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
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