Arms of Deliverance by Tricia Goyer

This may be my favorite of the four books in Tricia Goyer's World War II Liberator series. All are fiction, but they are based on interviews with WWII veterans, civilians, and historians who testify to the accuracy of the facts. Arms of Deliverance: A Story of Promise is the fourth and last in the series. Each book stands alone, so there is no need to read them in sequence. I chose to read this one first because of the connection to the exploits of the B-17 crews of the Eighth Air Force (because my father was one of them).

The story has a number of characters which makes it a bit hard to keep up at times. First is Katrine, a Czech Jew, who has managed to pass as "Aryan." Katrine dates a Nazi SS officer who is concerned with the "purity" of the Aryan race. Katrine becomes pregnant and finds herself in a Lebensborn home, a facility where women and children with "pure" genes are confined. She discovers that her baby will not be hers to raise but will be raised to serve the German state.

Lee and Mary are American reporters who have managed to get themselves assigned to war reporting. Lee is a society gal with connections that open doors for her. Mary's mother was the cleaning lady at the paper where she works. There's an interesting sideline about her father, too. I wondered if  women reporters were actually used in the war zone back then. Just a little research showed they did. Mary rode along on a bomber mission to write about the crews and the challenges they faced.

Eddie, the navigator on Destiny's Child, the bomber on which Mary flew her mission, ends up being her protector when they have to bail out. The adventure is white-knuckled suspense from there on. Eddie and Mary bond during their adventure, and their story eventually intertwines with Katrine's.

I loved the book. The story lines were a bit hard to follow simply because there were so many characters. The way the stories are brought together at the end is heartwarming, if not a bit preposterous. Well, I thought that at first, but, when you read some of the true stories from WWII, you realize that a lot of unbelievable things happened during those years.

Historical fiction tells a story, but it also educates. Goyer is a master at making history come to life. In this book, she pays tribute to the news reporters, the bomber crews, the ground crews, and the Europeans who participated in the resistance. The scenes in the B-17 reminded me of the stories by dad used to tell. I recommend it. It's an absorbing story that shows you how people lived during WWII.

Check it out on Amazon. The Kindle edition is here.