Sunday 24 May 2015

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke (Prisoner of Night and Fog, #2)

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman is the second book of her Prisoner of Night and Fog series.

The girl known as Gretchen Whitestone has a secret: She used to be part of Adolf Hitler's inner circle.  More than a year after she made an enemy of her old family friend and fled Munich, she lives with a kindly English family, posing as an ordinary German immigrant, and is preparing to graduate from high school.  Her love, Daniel Cohen, is a reporter in town.  For the first time in her life, Gretchen is content.

But then, Daniel gets a telegram that sends him back to Germany, and Gretchen's world turns upside-down.  And when she receives word that Daniel is wanted for murder, she has to face the danger she thought she'd escaped-and return to her homeland.

Gretchen must do everything she can to avoid capture and recognition, even though saving Daniel will mean consorting with her former friends, the Nazi elite.  And as they work to clear Daniel's name, Gretchen and Daniel discover a deadly conspiracy stretching from the slums of Berlin to the Reichstag itself.  Can they dig up the explosive truth and get out in time- or will Hitler discover them first?

The Breakdown:
1. Blankman is amazing at writing historical fiction.  She seamlessly builds her story around actual historical events and people.  Her characters are believable in the situation, and it is not hard to imagine that they were actually there.  I love that the story shows the events that allowed Hitler to come to power in Germany, and the events he used to plunge Europe into war.

2. This book hard me on the edge of my seat throughout most of it. She builds an excellent thriller in who killed the woman that Daniel is accused of murdering, and why did they do it. Multiple times, she has me wondering if Gretchen and Daniel will make it out alive.

3. I love that Gretchen and Daniel's relationship is dynamic.  The grow and change during the book.  While neither ever questions their love for the other, both question if they are the right person to make the other one happy. I like that they are equals in the relationship, and that each does what they can to ensure the safety of the other.

To Read or Not to Read:
Read, especially if you are a fan of historical fiction.

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