Simple Faith by Anna Schmidt

This is the second in The Peacemaker series (see my review of All God's Children here). While it can be read alone, the story is better understood if All God's Children has been read.

From the first novel: Anja is a Quaker woman whose husband and daughter were killed by the Nazis. She managed to escape with her son, Daniel. Anja is now aiding downed Allied airmen travel over the mountains to France, then Spain and eventually back to their own troops.

As this novel opens, an American plane goes down near Anja's grandparents. Daniel helps Peter, a wounded airman, hide from the soon arriving Nazis. He is taken in and hidden by Anja's grandparents. Plans are made for Peter to traverse the secret resistance route and because the Nazis are on to Anja, she and Daniel must escape too.

This is a great historical novel. Schmidt bases the novels in this series on historical facts so they are very interesting to read. The resistance had safe houses along the torturous route for rest. People along the way took over the task of leading individuals to the next safe spot. The dangers of going over the mountains showed the dedication the resistance had in helping Allied troops escape Nazi held territory. It was good to read how nuns and monks helped protect those whose lives were in danger. Along with the adventure of traveling the escape route was the very real possibility of betrayal by Nazi sympathizers who infiltrated the resistance.

Readers of historical fiction will like this novel. There is lots of adventure, several periods of suspense, and some romance thrown in. I also found it interesting to become more familiar with Anja's Quaker faith. A very good novel of the World War II era.

Anna Schmidt is the author of over twenty novels. She has received the Romantic Times' Reviewer's Choice Award and has been a finalist for the RITA award for romantic fiction. She enjoys her winter home in Florida.

Barbour Publishing, 320 pages.

I requested and received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this independent and honest review.