Safe Haven

Anna Schmidt has hit a grand slam home run with her newest novel, Safe Haven. It continues the story begun with All God's Children and continued in Simple Faith. While this book could stand alone, it fares so much better as part of the series.

In All God's Children, Beth and Josef's history is begun, with participation in the resistance movement and then needing to escape Germany before they are taken to a prison camp.

In Simple Faith, Anja has lost her husband and her daughter, but still has her son. Together they help rescue an American pilot who has to run from a wrecked air plane and escape the Germans before he is captured.

Now we are up to Safe Haven, where Suzanna is a disgraced newspaper journalist because she listened to someone who was feeding her false information that torpedoes her career. She is given an opportunity to redeem herself by going to Oswego, NY, and telling the stories of the refugees encamped there. Among the refugees are Ilse, Franz, and Liesl--who are Beth's relatives. Suzanne met Theo Bridgewater at the Oswego boarding house where they were both staying. Through Theo, Suzanne is able to meet and develop a relationship with Ilse and Liesl, and through Ilse and Liesl, she meets Gisele. She is able to write their stories as "temporary" refugees in a camp that gives them little more freedom than they had in Europe.

Anna has woven history into her story so seamlessly, you feel you are reading an historical account of actual events, or maybe a biography. There is nothing formulaic in Anna's writing, her characters are believable and real, and her events match up with the history of the era. The friendship between Suzanne and Theo builds into love and becomes something very beautiful even with some ups and downs.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a Pulitzer prize winning newspaper article.

This book was provided to me by Barbour Publishing through NetGalley.com. I have received no compensate for honest, yet opinionated review.