Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
Publication Date: July 10, 2024
Page count: 163 pages
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ENJOY AN EXCERPT:
Low, agonized moaning interrupted Yvette’s nightmarish reverie.
That’s a man’s voice. And it’s coming from over there.
She followed the deep groans through a copse of trees to find an American soldier impossibly tangled in a nylon parachute. Suspended from a high branch of a massive oak tree, he was dangling upside down, hanging by an obviously broken leg. A sharp bone protruded from the torn, blood-soaked pants of his khaki uniform, and dried blood—which must have leaked from under his helmet-- covered half of his contorted face. His pitiful wails pierced her heart.
I can’t lower him to the ground by myself. He’s twice my weight. And if I cut the ropes, he’ll plummet headfirst. He already has a head injury, judging from the gore all over his forehead. Please, God, let him hang on until I get back.
“I’ll go get help. I promise to come back soon.” She called up to him, hopeful that he could hear her.
And that he understood French.
Exciting WWII plot filled with history, danger, and romance!
The Witch of the Breton Woods by Jennifer Ivy Walker is an excellent and exciting WWII story full of culture, history, heart-stopping danger, and heartfelt romance. From the start, I was drawn into Yvette and Beau’s story, hoping their romance would have its HEA.
Both main characters are wounded souls. Yvette saw her entire family gunned down on the orders of a Nazi SS officer as the Germans confiscated their farm high on the coast of Brittany. Fleeing to a small cottage in the nearby Breton Woods, she keeps a low profile, but her sudden appearance in the cottage and her knowledge of herbs and healing earn her a reputation as a witch among the people in the closest village. She discovers an older brother survived his wounds and now leads a local band of freedom fighters with the woods as their secret base of operations.
“Beau” is an American serviceman suffering from amnesia he sustained when he was forced to abandon the aircraft he was in midflight, receiving grievous injuries when his parachute entangled in the woods and slammed him against a tall tree. Yvette and her brother’s men rescue him and take him to her cottage for care. With each other’s help, they slowly heal from their wounds and prepare for the day “Beau” is reunited with the American forces who have landed at Normandy. Their attraction to each other is immediate and intense, and with the constant threat of discovery hanging over their heads, consummated with great passion.
The story is set during the summer of 1944, following D-Day, and incorporates historical names, places, and events. The narrative is sprinkled with French vocabulary and phrases that are immediately followed by the English translation, so there’s no confusion about their meaning. Tense plot twists involving the actions of French collabos really amped up the suspense and danger, and the descriptions of French life and privations during the German occupation were heartwrenching.
With its wonderful characters and suspenseful plot, I
recommend THE WITCH OF THE BRETON WOODS to readers of historical romance, especially
those who like a WWII setting.
As a high school teacher, she took her students every year to the annual French competition, where they performed a play she had written, "Yseult la Belle et Tristan la Bête"--an imaginative blend of the medieval French legend of "Tristan et Yseult" and the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast", enhanced with fantasy elements of a Celtic fairy and a wicked witch.
Her debut novel, "The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven"--the first of a trilogy-- is a blend of her love for medieval legends, the romantic French language, and paranormal fantasy. It is a retelling of the medieval French romance of "Tristan et Yseult", interwoven with Arthurian myth, dark fairy tales from the enchanted Forest of Brocéliande, and otherworldly elements such as Avalonian Elves, Druids, forest fairies and magic.
Explore her realm of Medieval French Fantasy. She hopes her novels will enchant you.
Thank you so much for hosting and reviewing today.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting me and for the fabulous review of The Witch of the Breton Woods! It was a totally new genre for me, and a huge scary step as an author, so I am most grateful to have a great review like this one!!! Thanks again very much!
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt and giveaway. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a good excerpt!
ReplyDeleteThanks again so much for hosting me!!
ReplyDeleteThis looks very intriguing. Thanks for sharing and hosting this tour.
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