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A review by kellyj2025
White Rose, Black Forest by Eoin Dempsey
1.0
Well, another free Kindle book down. Done with my free trial of unlimited and I can't say I'll be extending it.
The blurb on this book makes it sound like this is a tightly wound action novel. 80 percent of this book isn't and by the time I got to the end where the action was, I was bored and skimming.
But let's go back to the beginning for the positive points. The bones are all there - Franka has an interesting, and I daresay realistic backstory and since we spend a lot of time learning her backstory (I'll come back to this point), so I felt like I had a good understanding of her character.
A daring rescue in the middle of a wintery forest. Being alone with a handsome spy for 6 weeks has a lot of potential for romance - dual broken legs aside. I thought the setting itself was also pretty fresh for the surge of WWII fiction I’ve seen out recently.
All these good points - and yet this story still felt flat for me.
As I was reading on my kindle, I know it literally took 50 percent of the book to get Franka’s backstory. And it was told almost entirely in exposition. That’s a lot of just telling me what happened. It almost felt like the author didn’t think the readers would be able to guess how Franka felt - something bad would happen and he’d have to tell us how she felt sad. Like, duh. John gets a few background chapters of exposition, then he immediately jumps into trusting Franka with some serious spy shit.
That last point, and the random romance, felt like it wasn’t developed very well and was definitely rushed. It was way to easy for untrained Franka to save the microfilm and I’m sorry, but you’re not running through the snow six weeks after seriously breaking both your legs. Then just fall into each other’s arms a few years later and ride off into the sunset. It helps that Franka’s whole family is dead and John’s family is rich.
Overall a big disappointment. Other than Franka, the cast was flat. The story was unrealistic (and at times, modern words would sneak in - Franka’s dad giving her a thumbs up (?!) at her treason trial?!) and the plot felt alternately over and underdeveloped. Too much exposition. Would not recommend.
The blurb on this book makes it sound like this is a tightly wound action novel. 80 percent of this book isn't and by the time I got to the end where the action was, I was bored and skimming.
But let's go back to the beginning for the positive points. The bones are all there - Franka has an interesting, and I daresay realistic backstory and since we spend a lot of time learning her backstory (I'll come back to this point), so I felt like I had a good understanding of her character.
A daring rescue in the middle of a wintery forest. Being alone with a handsome spy for 6 weeks has a lot of potential for romance - dual broken legs aside. I thought the setting itself was also pretty fresh for the surge of WWII fiction I’ve seen out recently.
All these good points - and yet this story still felt flat for me.
As I was reading on my kindle, I know it literally took 50 percent of the book to get Franka’s backstory. And it was told almost entirely in exposition. That’s a lot of just telling me what happened. It almost felt like the author didn’t think the readers would be able to guess how Franka felt - something bad would happen and he’d have to tell us how she felt sad. Like, duh. John gets a few background chapters of exposition, then he immediately jumps into trusting Franka with some serious spy shit.
That last point, and the random romance, felt like it wasn’t developed very well and was definitely rushed. It was way to easy for untrained Franka to save the microfilm and I’m sorry, but you’re not running through the snow six weeks after seriously breaking both your legs. Then just fall into each other’s arms a few years later and ride off into the sunset. It helps that Franka’s whole family is dead and John’s family is rich.
Overall a big disappointment. Other than Franka, the cast was flat. The story was unrealistic (and at times, modern words would sneak in - Franka’s dad giving her a thumbs up (?!) at her treason trial?!) and the plot felt alternately over and underdeveloped. Too much exposition. Would not recommend.