“Only last year, Fannie O’Brien was considered a beauty with a brain, and her future shone bright, despite the war pounding Europe. With her father’s sudden death and her brothers overseas, Fannie must now do the work of three men on their 200-acre farm—until eight German prisoners arrive and, just as Fannie feared, trouble comes too. Someone seems intent on causing “accidents,” and Fannie is certain the culprit is one of the two handsome older Germans—or possibly both. Can she manage the farm, keep the prisoners in line, and hold her family together through these turbulent times?”
Series: Part of the series “Heroines of WWII”, but is not connected to any other book.
Spiritual Content- A couple Scriptures are quoted; Prayers, Thanking God, & feeling peace afterwards; A few talks about God & praying; ’H’s are capital when referring to God; Fannie doesn’t want to go to church one Sunday because she thinks there’s other things that need to be done, but her mom insists; Mentions of God, Jesus, & receiving His peace; Mentions of prayers, praying, answered prayers, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, church going, services, & pastors/chaplains (including one pastor giving a “hard and fiery” sermon because of German prisoners in the congregation); Mentions of Christians & faiths; Mentions of Jewish people; A few mentions of Christmas; A few mentions of hymns/songs; A mention of someone from the Bible;
*Note: Religious phrases: ‘thank heaven’ and ‘for heaven’s sake’ are both said once; A few mentions of luck & being lucky.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blah blah blah’, a ‘darn’, a ‘dumb’, and six forms of ‘stupid’; A mention of a curse (said, not written); Some eye rolling & sarcasm; Being held at gun-point and threatened, Being attacked and grabbed, Throwing up, & Seeing blood/bleeding and fighting (up to semi-detailed); Staring a fire, sabotaging, & thinking of killing others (up to semi-detailed); Watching a film reel about malnourished and mistreated people and prisoners & dead bodies (up to semi-detailed); Two of Fannie’s brothers are fighting overseas and her family has not heard from them in a while which worries them (she wonders if they are still alive or are being mistreated by the Germans; *Spoilers* One brother comes home due to becoming deaf and is very upset about the German PWs on their farm; The other brother comes home later in the book after being a prisoner of war in Germany and very mistreated, but wants to get past the war and tries to accept the PWs on the farm *End of Spoilers*); Some of the German soldiers do not believe that Jews are being executed and that their American counterparts are being mistreated in German prisoner camps; Set during, all about, & many mentions of World War II, battles/fights, prisoners of war, captures and possible missing soldiers, prison camps, guns/weapons, injuries (including amputations and burnings), & killing and deaths (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of deaths, seeing deaths, possible deaths, & grief (including Fannie and her family for her father, all up to semi-detailed); Mentions of mass graves & prisoners being malnourished and mistreated; Mentions of rumors about Hitler’s hatred of Jews, him deeming them subhuman, & concentration camps; Mentions of gunfire, explosions, & bombs; Mentions of sabotage & fires; Mentions of prisoners escaping or trying to escape; Mentions of hatred & prejudice (including shown by spiting at others and threatening to shoot others); Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of alcohol & drinking; Mentions of cigarettes & smoking; Mentions of hunting; Mentions of using the bathroom outside; A few mentions of firing squads & executions; A few mentions of nightmares; A few mentions of lies & lying; A mention of manure;
*Note: A prisoner reacts badly to be called a ‘Mischlinge’ (someone with mixed blood), mentions of him abandoning his family due to it, & mentions of Hitler declaring he can null that those with mixed Jewish blood are not Jewish if they met certain requirements and would fight for him; Fannie is strongly against having German Prisoners of War on her family’s farm because of her brothers overseas fighting the Germans (this is a major part of the book with her concern over them being Nazis and being the enemy), but as the book continues, she tries to remember that they are human and want to go back home to their families (though she still struggles at times with hatred and blame); Fannie’s younger sister makes comments against the German Prisoners of War, viewing them as Nazis, spies, and “not quite human”; Fannie ignores her mother’s orders a couple of times (which later causes trouble); Mentions of books (‘Rebecca’, Rabbit Hill’, ‘Gone with the Wind’, & ‘The Sword in the Stone’); Mentions of movies, actors, & actresses (‘Since You Went Away’, ‘The Seventh Cross’, ‘The Adventures of Mark Twain’, ‘Hollywood Canteen’, Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Spencer Tracy, & Roy Rodgers); Mentions of singers & songs (Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, & the Andrew Sisters); A few mentions of car brands.
Sexual Content- A (unwanted) kiss (on the neck, up to semi-detailed) and a semi-detailed kiss; Some touches, hand holding, shivers, & nearness (including a character on purpose trying to fluster Fannie and get close to her); Wanting to touch & embrace (up to semi-detailed); Blushes; Noticing, Staring, & Remembering another’s body (including at curves and muscles, up to semi-detailed); Some of the German Prisoners stare, ogle at, and lick their lips when seeing Fannie and her little sister (which makes Fannie uncomfortable and flush; This is mentioned often at the beginning of the book; Wolfgang thinks the men “deserved a bit of sport…even if it was only in admiring a woman they could never approach”and calls the men “harmless” which is later showed to not be true of all of them); Leo’s mind wanders to “feral thoughts”when staring at Fannie’s body; Fannie warns her little sister (age thirteen) that some of the prisoners are barely older than her and haven’t been around any girls in a long time (and warns her from giving them any “notions”); One of the prisoners teases another about Fannie’s little sister being too young for his “lovemaking”; *Spoilers, but about an assault* Leo grabs Fannie, pulls her into a small room, threatens her with a gun, touches her hair, and kisses her neck; She is rescued by Wolf and others before he does anything else; After being arrested, Leo taunts Fannie with kissing the air towards her and is later given a twenty-five year sentence for his actions *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of men ogling at Fannie (including when she has wet clothing); Mentions of shirtless men (including Fannie staring at a one); Mentions of prisoners of war trying to escape to meet women; Mentions of girlfriends/boyfriends & break-ups; Mentions of blushes, crushes, & flirting; A couple mentions of kisses; A couple mentions of cute men; A mention of a man dancing with “bar floozies” to make his girl jealousy or mad; Love, falling in love, & the emotions.
-Fannie O’Brien, age 22
-Wolfgang “Wolf” Kloninger
-Leo Friedrickson
P.O.V. switches between them
Set in 1944-1945 (Final chapter in 1947)
256 pages
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My personal Rating-
My dad was born and raised in Wisconsin, so because of that and having extended family there, I was curious in this book and the history. I’ve read other books that mention about German Prisoners of War working in American factories and on farms, but this was my first book that actually showed it. As a gardener, I also found the farming and agricultural interesting, if not a little repetitive at times.
However, I didn’t care for the comments and suggestions towards and about Fannie and her younger sister from the German soldiers. I kind of expected it to a degree, but there was more about their shapes/curves/figures and it bought a crass undertone to the story. Because of that and an attempted sexual assault, it honestly reminded me more of a secular historical fiction book about this time period than a Christian Fiction one. This was the major reason for my low rating and why I won’t be recommending it. Their comments and suggestions were brushed off and felt like a ‘boys will be boys’ kind of mentality, down to a comment from Wolfgang that the men in his team were “harmless”, but that’s later shown to be not the case when one attacks, corners, and kisses Fannie.
This book had it’s interesting moments and gave me a lot of bunny trails of history to research, but ultimately I didn’t care for some of the content—not necessarily the war content, but the sexual suggestions and hints. It was lustful at times, particularly the couple chapters in one of the prisoner’s POVs which was very uncomfortable to read and border-lined on creepy.
A major part of the story is working through prejudice, which I honestly think was very understandable for Fannie. Her two brothers are fighting overseas against the Germans and here she is, having to accept help on her family’s farm from German PWs. It had an interesting moral dilemma because of that part of the story, but I find it a bit hard to believe about her falling for a German Prisoner of War—and him falling for her—during everything going on. It almost had the forbidden love trope because of it, but because he isn’t a true Nazi (noted in the book as he didn’t join the war for his own beliefs, but to protect his students that had enlisted), that can gave their potential romance a little more of a likely possibility of happening. Overall, I would say I have mixed feelings on it and just the book in general because of the sexual parts. It was good to learn more about this family in history, but I wish the sexual comments and parts would have been left out.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
