Whisper on the Wind by Maureen Lang

Whisper on the Wind by Maureen Lang (The Great War Series, book 2) (Tyndale, August 4, 2010), 432 pages

Summary
Isa Lassone, a young Belgian-American socialite, sneaks into Brussels — after being whisked to the United States before the war started — to rescue those dearest to her, Edward and his mother. While there, though, she works to keep the underground newspaper running.

Thoughts
I was drawn to this book because of the underground newspaper. This was my first experience with Maureen Lang.

I kind of struggled with Whisper on the Wind. I generally like war stories, and I often love stories that revolve around newspapering.

Each chapter opens with a quote from the underground newspaper. I was disappointed to learn, though, that most of the quotes were fabricated rather than from the very real newspaper. Actually, I was hoping for a bit more use of actual history throughout the book. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with a book that’s mostly just set in a historical context but is actually all fictional. But since I knew this was at least partly based on a newspaper that actually existed, I expected a bit more fact with my fiction.

I was also disappointed that the story didn’t even touch on the newsgathering, writing, and editing aspects of the paper. Partly because of this, I felt the newspaper was mostly only a jumping off point for the story. The story followed these characters, who risked their lives for this product/cause, yes, but it was so much more about the characters than the product or cause. Perhaps this felt like a leap to me because I haven’t read book 1 in the series, Look to the East, but I doubt that’s why, since that appears to feature different characters.

This is historical fiction in the way that Julie Lessman’s Daughters of Boston series is historical fiction — it’s fiction, set in a historical time and place, but it’s mostly a romance. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this type of book, but it’s not what I generally prefer, and it’s not what I expected, either. Lessman’s books I still quite enjoyed, because of the characters. I didn’t appreciate this one as much.

The third book in this series is schedule for release in March 2011, Springtime of the Spirit.

About the author
Maureen Lang (blog) lives in the Midwest with her husband, two sons and their dog, Susie. She is the author of seven Christian fiction novels including this one.

Other reviews
Window to My World
Bookfoolery and Babble
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