Temprance’s trial: Book review

Temperance’s Trial: Part 1 of Virtues and Valor Series

by Hallee Bridgeman

Genre: Christian / historical fiction

Synopsis:

MARIE GILBERT and her elder brother flee from Vichy France after the Gestapo arrest her father for suspicion of aiding Jewish children to escape the oncoming fascist front. Once in London, Marie is recruited into an experimental all female cohort dubbed the Virtues, a collection of seven extraordinary women with highly specialized skills.

Known only by her code name, TEMPERANCE, she is trained to operate a wireless radio and returns to her beloved France. With a new identity, Marie clandestinely communicates vital intelligence directly back to Headquarters but unwillingly attracts the attention and apparent adoration of a handsome but ruthless Nazi officer, Oberleutnant LEOPOLD SCHÄFER.

As the H-hour to execute their daring mission draws ever closer, Marie plays a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the unrelenting and merciless young Lieutenant Schäfer and the Nazi soldiers under his command.

The Virtues and Valor series: 7 serialized stories that tell the tale of a daring rescue and escape. Each part is told from the perspective of a different heroine, and each heroine is inspired by a true WWII heroine.

My thoughts:

Novellas aren’t my thing. I like a story with more substance and length. But I wanted to give this series a try because it is written by one of my favorite author currently.

I’m glad I did!! Because I discovered that this is a part of a 7 book series of novellas. They’re all connected and the stories overlap. In fact Mrs. Bridgeman now has a complete set of 8 Virtues of Valor books available as one complete paperback. Though I am currently reading them all individually.

I enjoyed this first installment. We learn who the Virtues are and what their mission is. They each play different covert roles during WWII throughout various countries in Europe. You can sense Temperance’s tense anxiety throughout as she embarks on her first mission and finds herself involved with a German first lieutenant officer. You can feel the rising dread toward the end, as she tries to figure a way out of her current covert situation before it’s too late.

This story ends abruptly but the next story picks up with what’s going on. Also I really enjoyed Mrs. Bridgeman’s addition of the history of the real-life woman of whom Temperance’s character was based off of. Each Virtues of Valor story is based off of a real life woman who was instrumental in aiding in the fight against Germany and overall, ending the war, during WWII.

I definitely recommend this series to those who are fans of historical fiction.