I loved this book.
Historical fiction, based on real events with some poetic licence. Good faction. What’s not to love. Oh, yes. The Nazi’s in France during WW2.
The romance plot woven into the French resistance and the Nazi occupation of France – gives a glimpse of people on both sides of the war doing what they can to survive. And finding love where it pops up, sometimes in unexpected places. Love does not recognise who the enemy is – and even if it did, the kommandant’s wife is hardly the enemy. She refused to toe the party line. Her humanity was displayed for all to see – she was trying to bring up her daughter to be a good person rather than a good Nazi.
I always applaud good research . It was interesting to see the way in which the effects of WW1 on soldiers had an effect on their fathering skills – and how this impacted on those who were adults in WW2. War as a destroying force – not just of buildings but of people – the soldiers and all those around them, the loss of the good lives they could have led, and the loss to the arts of their creativity.
It was also good to see that love and kindness for the children she had looked after won through with nanny and she protected them in the end.

There was of course an epilogue.
This showed how people were able to move on and be known for who they were and what they did, rather than as the kommandant’s wife and child.