A Girl During the War: A Novel

A while ago, I reviewed another World War II novel of Abriel’s, Lana’s War. I found it interesting, though somewhat lacking. I did enjoy it enough that I decided it would be worthwhile to try out her latest, A Girl During the War. The struggle to save art from the Nazis makes for a compelling storyline, and even if I knew I would be more invested in that than the romance I knew would be there, I do enjoy a tense wartime love story.

Unfortunately, fascinating as the plot was, the writing either didn’t serve it very well or tried to serve it too well. Everything happens far too neatly. Marina happens to have a friend who can take her in after her father’s death, the friend happens to live near a young woman who happens to decide she and Marina are to be best friends, the young woman happens to know an attractive young man who happens to not only find Marina attractive but also happens to be a partisan who can give Marina a way to avenge her father… there is no tension and hardly any struggle. I couldn’t get invested in the book at all.