Author: Elizabeth Wein
Pages: 447
Publisher: Egmont Press
My Rating: *my rating will be at the bottom of my reviews from now on*
Goodreads rating: 4.17
Published: January 1, 2012
Source: Audiobook/Borrowed
Description:
I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.
That’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.
He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.
We are a sensational team.
I figured since I'm going to be sharing this copy with 20 lucky people for World Book Night 2014 this April 23rd, I should reread it and review it on my blog. Good idea, right? I thought so, too. And I'm looking back at my notes {because, if you're going to be handing out a book for WBN, you should really know it, right?}, and, my word... all I can think is oh my gosh, no wonder I never wrote a review... everything I say will be *spoilers*! That being said, let me try to write up a decent review without just saying "READ IT!" over and over again.
The title character "Verity" is a wireless operator who end up basically getting shot down over Nazi occupied France during WWII. And the book is the story of her and her pilot friend {best friend} Maddy. Guys, this one is an amazing book. Verity is a "cooperator", telling the Nazis her story, and peppering it with the information they need. Its heartbreaking to read, and halfway through the book your heart starts to mend, only to be shattered again. Its probably one of the most beautifully heartbreaking stories I've ever read.
I had a difficult time reading about Maddy and Verity and not picturing two 17-year-old girls! I can't remember, but I believe they're both 19-21 {I didn't actually write down their ages, and I can't remember if the author mentioned it or just said they're out of school... I'm pretty sure Verity went to college or finishing school...}... still young, but not quite as young as I read them to be. Throughout the book, you get glimpses of Verity as a woman and not a girl {in some of her stories and in some of her documentation of the happenings during her captivity}, but not a lot with Maddy. Maddy I kept seeing as this very young woman who just happened to be a wiz with mechanics and flying.
This book totally ripped apart my heart. It was so heart-wrenching, but beautiful at the same time. I honestly avoided reading it for a little while {borrowed it from the library and returned it twice before finally sitting down and reading it}... I read that its about a young woman, who betrays her country for a couple extra weeks to live. It was so much more than that. The only thing I regret about reading this book was not reading it sooner!
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