Once more, I started this book hesitantly and ended up loving it! This is a great story, perfectly written. In this heart-wrenching story, we meet 3 special people. Helene, the wife of a Nazi SS guard; Peter, an American G.I.; and Micheala, a Polish girl who has survived the Mauthausen concentration camp. After Peter and the other G.I.s have liberated the concentration camps, he is doing all he can to help the survivors. Helene is shackled by guilt because of the cruelties that her drunken husband and all of the Nazi's have inflicted upon fellow human beings. Micheala is caring for her traumatized friend and trying to adjust to being free once again. Can Peter, Helene, and Micheala find the love and forgiveness they all so desperately need? This is definitely worth reading! I have heard it said that those who do not know the past are condemned to repeat it. Never let us forget the price others have paid for our freedom. Never let us forget the Third Reich and the horror they caused. Let us pray these things never will be repeated. And let us all do our part to ensure that they never will. 9780802415547 I've been looking around for a Christian author I could recommend to others, and finally can say I've found one. I picked up this book from my local library's Inspirational Reading shelf and decided to give it a try. This is the only book I've read by Tricia Goyer, but I would recommend it. It's a story of the liberating of a concentration camp in the weeks/months leading up to the end of WWII. The author did a good job of allowing you to feel the horrors of the camps without getting too graphic. The reader is pushed to look at the situations of all involved: the prisoners, the soldiers who liberated them, the SS prison guards and their families, and the townspeople who lived their quiet lives just outside the barbed wire, knowing full well what was going on there.
The plot took enough twists and turns to keep me interested, and included elements of redemption, forgiveness, intrigue and romance. I like that the characters were messy and fallible, as we all are.
I enjoyed this book, and when I'm ready to curl up with a good inspirational novel again, I'll seek out another book by this author. 9780802415547 I can't recommend this book. It was offered free by Amazon; and I got what I paid for. I picked this book no only because it was free, but because it dealt with WWII and Germany. I have always been fascinated by the time period, what led up to the war, the war itself, and immediately after the war. The back cover of the book and the recommendations given lead one to believe that this story was based upon true events, and was accurate in its historical detail. Well, that might be a little stretch of the truth. Yes, there were death camps near the town the story takes place in, and yes the 11th Armored were the soldiers that entered the camps and released the prisoners; from that point on fiction takes over. The characters reminded me of the kids on South Park; flat, no depth, what you see is what you get. The good guys were all very good and the bad guys were always very bad, no shades of grey here. Another thing that bothered me was that this turned out to be a Christian book. Th... 9780802415547 In lieu of Remembrance Day, I wanted to read a story with a WWII theme. Since I love Tricia Goyer's other books so much, I decided to give hers a try.
It was exactly what I knew the author would deliver. A solid story that pulled at my heart in so many ways. Helene is a strong woman that should be admired. I'm so glad she gets her happily ever after. Peter is such a gentleman. Michaela and Lelia show the bonds of friendship. Plus as always, God is ever present to lead the way.
The Nazi parts were tough to read, as they should be. It should also teach people how not to be.
I don't normally read war stories, but I would read more from this author. She just knows how to blend the reader's emotions and keep them rapt. I guess now I'm off to save Night Song to my list! 9780802415547 The Aftermath of WW11
Tricia Goyer has done her research so well that it made this reader forget it was fiction. The author had interviewed and came to know veterans from the second world war, personally. She wrote this story based on their experiences from the time the American service men entered the death camps in Austria to free the victims to the first two years after the war ended. Although the story was fiction she was able to make it seem real because of the time she spent talking with these veterans at their last reunion.
The story was filled with accounts of the struggles the victims from the concentration camps faced as they healed and recovered from the horrible treatment and starvation they experienced through their years of imprisonment. Readers were swept into many unpredictable situations that made for edge of seat reading. The love of God shone through whenever a compassionate character reached out to help these holocaust victims recover and adapt to living outside the concentration camps.
I had previously read The Night Song , book one of this series which took readers from the prewar years and on through WW11 and as the war ended. I plan to continue on in this series .
Readers who love reading WW11 stories , Christian Fiction or follow the author will love this book. I highly recommend it.
I bought an ebook copy from Amazon. A positive review was not requested. All opinions expressed here are my own. 9780802415547
It is 1945, and a group of American soldiers liberate a Nazi concentration camp. Helene is the abandoned wife of an SS guard who has fled to avoid arrest. Overcome by guilt, she begins to help meet the needs of survivors. Throughout the process, she finds her own liberation--from spiritual bondage, sin, and guilt. Readers will be intrigued and touched by this fascinating story of love, faithfulness, and courage amidst one of the darkest chapters of mankind's history.
From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation (World War II Liberator #1)
A poignant and powerful story of life in the aftermath of World War II. Highly recommended! 9780802415547 Wow. This. Book. Was. Amazing. I got it for Christmas but I didn't get a chance to read it until recently. Now I need to collect the whole series!!!! :)
Tricia Goyer does an excellent job intertwining the lives of the three main characters. There were many times I thought I had figured out how it all would end, only to be thrown a whole new twist in the next chapter. and of course it's set in WWII, which is my favorite time period ever!!! I can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series! 9780802415547 In May, 1945, advance elements of the 11th Armored Divsion rolled into St. Georgen, Austria. What awaited them there would be gouged into the soldiers' memories for the rest of their lives: the Gusen concentration camp.
Sergeant Peter Scott is among the first to arrive at the front gates. The skeletal remnants of men and women cling to the fence and clutter the main entrance to glimpse their liberators and beg for even a morsel to eat. He encounters the gaunt figure of Michaela, a Polish Christian, standing erect among the dead and dying, intent on thanking the saviors of the camp with her final vestige of dignity. He also encounters Helene, the recalcitrant wife of a former SS guard bringing soup and whatever comfort she can to the emaciated prisoners. The lives of the three are inextricably bound together from this point forward.
Sgt. Scott has fought the European war from the Normandy beaches to the Rhine River, his once-strong faith now smothered under too much carnage and destruction. Michaela fights her own war of physical and emotional restoration from years of internment, her faith still vibrant, but confusing in where it's leading her. Helene must deal with her own conscience at too many years of silence, if not acceptance, over the atrocities her husband has committed. Each leans on and learns from the others in winning their own personal battles.
From Dust to Ashes is a tender story of love, faith and redemption overlying a background of indescribable horror and bruality. It may not be the most recent work by Ms. Goyer (released in 2003), but it has to be one of the best. The book is not for the faint of heart, but neither is it overly graphic in its depiction of reality. Meticuloulsy researched and skillfully presented, From Dust to Ashes is an entrancing read. Highly recommended. 9780802415547 Should have read some reviews. Didn’t know this was Christian fiction and once that became clear it was already to late with my annoying habit of having to finish a book I started. Well at least it was short but my god it was dull.
The characters where bland and their stories less then inspiring. Maybe it would have been better if she had showed more instead of telling us about life altering events. Really? We are going to jump from Michaela hating her betrayer in one chapters to having already forgiven and accepted him back into her inner circle once the next started? My little black heathen heart would have never found that believable but at least try to sell it. This was just awful.
& don’t get me started on Helene, in the end she was mad at her husband for leaving her above anything else? After everything he’s done? Really? & again it ends in forgiveness. Yawn. But the worst part was her wanting him to find Jesus so he can access heaven!? If heaven exists he has no place in it whatsoever, utterly disgusting. And poor Peter, he was the true victim, that character was used solely for the author to sell her Christian message, him falling in love with Michaela and then Helene so quickly after each other made me roll my eyes and truly that story line was one of the only ones that could have worked in my opinion, if only the author had sold it better but again she told us of their feelings, instead of showing it, it was just there one day.
I regret not liking this book, because I was planning on reading the rest of this serie and the Spanish civil war one, amazing topics but if this one is any indication the execution will be bad. So I’ll pass, and I’ll drag my little heathen heart away from Christian fiction again. 9780802415547 So gripping that I had to tear myself away to get to bed!
From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation(The Liberator Series,Book 4) was so hard for me to put down. I love it when a book is THAT good! I also love when an historical teaches me history,as this novel did. It was fascinating to read that General Patton ordered the liberating American soldiers to make the civilians around the concentration camps to help bury the dead and attend funerals for them,so they would be forced to see and acknowledge what their inaction had caused.
I don't see how a book about this era could have been more perfectly written.This book is so perfect that I wouldn't want to change a single word of it!
I got totally wrapped up in the characters and really cared about wanting everything to work out for them.
This book is not a 'light' read.It will really stir your emotions and make you ask yourself some questions about how you would conduct yourself in the same situation,and even questions about how did these horrors affect people's faith and how would you handle those questions about where was God?
The author was perfectly right to bring such questions into the story,because I know any thinking person,has asked them.
The romances were also wonderfully developed and so sweet.
I just realized when I was almost finished with this book,that I had read the last book in the series,first,so now I will go back and read the other 3 in order!
I highly recommend this WW II historical romance to any who have an interest in this horrible period of history.
Be forewarned however,that it IS tagged Christian fiction and Christian Historical Romance!
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