Flame of Resistance by Tracy Groot

Book Description:  Years of Nazi occupation have stolen much from Brigitte Durand. Family. Freedom. Hope for a future, especially for a woman with a past like hers. But that changes the day American fighter pilot Tom Jaeger is shot down over occupied France. 

Picked up by the Resistance, Tom becomes the linchpin in their plan to infiltrate a Germans-only brothel and get critical intel out through Brigitte, a prostitute rumored to be sympathetic to the Allied cause.D-day looms and everyone knows that invasion is imminent. But so is treachery, and the life of one American pilot unexpectedly jeopardizes everything. He becomes more important than the mission to a man who cannot bear to lose another agent and to a woman who is more than just a prostitute, who finally realizes that her actions could change the course of history.

My Review:  Flame of Resistance by Tracy Groot is one of those reads that just begs to be read slowly and with much thought...not a quick-race-to -the-finish read!

If you're familiar with your Bible readings then you'll know that Rahab was woman of the night but yet she saved many by not just following her heart but following God.  Brigitte is somewhat like Rahab.  The Nazi's in all of their cruel and unusual power play have taken her hope, her family and her freedom.  But she sees can see past all her hurt and her disappointments to help save others....changing the course of history!

This read is a real tear jerker.  {Have kleenexes, will cry!}  

This read is all about the French Resistance.  Love this quote at the beginning of the beginning of the book, "Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished." -Charles De Gaulle.  There are people, like Madame Bouvier, who placed signs in their shop windows that they would not serve Jews because to all outward appearances they seemed in step with the Nazis but their hearts were not.  So, they saved countless Jews behind the enemies backs.

Now, Clemmie, the grandmotherly woman helps all who cross her path.  She is a kind, sweet heart of lady.  Her beliefs are put to the test and yes, her story will make you cry.

The characters in this book could have stepped out of history bringing their stories and adventures to us through faith and sometimes selflessness.  Of course, not all the people were kind and selfless.  There were some who fought not to lose all they had acquired.  These people lost more than worldly goods.

A powerful read!  If you love historical reads filled with faith then this is the book for you!

*This book was provided for review by Tyndale House Publishers*

Meet the Author:

Tracy began her writing career at age 8 by starting stories and never finishing them. She finished them only under duress for school. In school, she wrote stories and collected a few writing awards and had an idea she'd be a writer when she grew up, but funny thing happened on the way to college: she became a Christian. She then had a misguided notion she had to swap writing for this new life she was grateful for, so she threw out the stories and went on with Life.
One day, our hero (Tracy) was working as an accounts payable clerk in a big corporation. She wrote and circulated office memos because they were more interesting than data entry. She had an epiphany: she'd rather write. She finally got it into her brain that God was not a sicko meanie-head and gave her the desire to write for a reason. She got the heck out of Dodge, and landed a job writing radio commercials.
Tracy wrote commercials for a year, quit to have a baby, and didn't return to the writing job because by then she'd gone past fetching back into the kind of writing she really wanted to do: books. She didn't buy it when a famous writer said to her face that she'd first have to write magazine articles to pay the price for writing books. She lied politely and said she'd get right on it, but once the famous writer was gone she took to her computer and wrote what she wanted, not stupid articles.
Tracy heard of a writing conference nearby, the Calvin College Festival of Faith and Writing. Without a clue for what she was doing-and she's discovered since then that clueless works if you're persistent-she threw together 3 chapters and a synopsis, signed up to talk to a few editors, and sold her first books, two young adult novels in a series called, Casey and the Classifieds. The books did okay for a few years. Then they went out of print, a stupefying notion that never occurred to Tracy. But Tracy wants to think she's like a particular Rich Mullins lyric, shaken forward and shaken free, so she didn't let it get her down and went looking for other stuff to write.

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers (May 18, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1414359470
• ISBN-13: 978-1414359472