Customer Reviews

Look to the East (The Great War Series #1)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maureen Lang has done it again, written a beautiful story and it is about World War I.

There is an old feud between two families, the Toussaints and de Colvilles in the little village of Briecourt France.

The village finds itself isolated from the rest of war torn France as the enemy marches forward, taking their homes,food, clothing and anything else that they can grab. The isolation forces the village people to take a second look at their circumstances as they learn to depend on one another. They take in people that have been caught behind enemy lines and hide them, even learning to help them escape to other places to help France and themselves be saved. But is it too late?

Charles Lassone is one of the strangers who is hidden in the Church. He is a Belgian entrepreneur.

An outsider all her life in this village, Juliette Toussaint is adopted but when she helps everyone around her, she discovers Charles and as she helps him, she realizes she is falling in love with him. She struggles with scorn and hunger as she helps him to escape to warn the people of France where the Germans are and the predicament that the village is in. She prays it won't be too late and the entire village is destroyed with the people who have lived there for over a century.

Maureen has painted a beautiful picture of the country side of France with it's simple villagers. I enjoyed every step of the way with Juliette and her handsome knight in shining armor. I believe you will too as you immerse yourself in a wonderful story of heroism and what happened during World War I.

Paulette L. Harris
Free lance author/speaker

*This is a review of an ARC version.*

Maureen Lang has a great way with words to weave into a story. I enjoyed this book. Historical Fiction is my favorite genre, although I like to stay in the happier romances. This book was filled to the brim of chill-bump romance and true love, but the entire tone of the book was sad and cold because of the war background setting. For me that brought the book down a couple stars, but that is only my book preference. As far as the character likability, the main characters Julitte and Charles were fabulous and extremely amiable. The antagonists both German and French were highly detestable. Emotions really run rampant with this novel and it reads almost like a two person diary. In my opinion, Maureen is an author to be watched. I just personally need to stick to happier time periods, yet even with that said, I will definitely be looking for the sequels to this series. The peace of God highly showed through in the characters thoughts and actions, and those that needed to grow were shown with heightening strength. Even the characters that were to "fall" as a reader you find yourself thinking of prayers for similar people in your life. It was a very powerful read, and besides the devastation of war a fabulous story.

At the outbreak of World War I, Julitte Toussaint and Charles Lassone meet and are consumed with thoughts of each other. When Charles goes into hiding in the quaint country town where Julitte lives, they grow to love each other despite their families' feud with each other. But when the enemy Germans come to invade, their love, their lives and the lives of the townspeople are in mortal jeopardy.

Maureen Lang's "Look to the East" is a breathtaking old world romance written in old world romantic language that transports the reader directly to the 1914 French countryside. This book has many of the key elements that I look for in an enjoyable reading experience. First of all, I am one of the most hardcore Francophiles that I know! This book is set in France, and is written with the elegance that I have come to associate with that place. This story is about forbidden love because of feuding families a la Romeo and Juliet, although our leading man is the friend of one of the feuding families and separated from his lady love also by caste. In fact, the female lead character is named Julitte. The cherry on the top of this delightful read is a strong, handsome, and kind leading man named Charles - a name I have always adored because it belonged to my Grandfather.

Sometimes I feel like books set during WWI doesn't get as much attention in fiction as WWII stories tend to. I don't know if it's because WWII has more American support or if it was just more "glamorous" but either way I just don't feel like there are enough stories about that time period. Therefore I'm always excited to see books from the European perspective because that's even less tackled area especially in terms of Christian fiction.

The story takes place in France right as WWI is breaking out and deals with several different nationalities in a small village. As with many small villages, there's lots of feuds that are going on with families. Even in the midst of German soldiers raiding their village and forcing them to do things against their will, it's amazing at how some of the families insist on keeping the feuds alive. Instead of joining forces, they are dead set on keeping things apart. The culture of the town is showed in full force and helps to bring the story to life. It is obvious that Lang has done her historical research in creating this story.

Romance is also a big factor in the story as Julitte and Charles find themselves being thrown together during this turbulent time. I honestly didn't really find their romance to be all that interesting. Separately as characters however their stories were much more intriguing as they have to get past the German soldiers in order to survive.

I hate to admit this but I wasn't really a big fan of this book. I normally love Lang's works and have had enjoyable times reading them. However, this book just did not gel with me. I don't know exactly what it was. Maybe I couldn't connect with the character or I didn't feel that they were very developed. It might also have been that I was kind of plopped into the story with not much background. Or maybe it was just my mood at the time. However it wasn't enough to make me stop reading the book. I never felt like I was forcing myself to finish the story.

I did find it overall to be interesting and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. For those who are fans of WWI historical fiction, this gives a different take on the era.

Look to the East is an interesting historical romance set in Briecourt, a small town in France, during WWI. I read her last book My Sister Dilly which is a contempoary novel and thought it was very good. I did not like this one as much but I still thought it was an enjoyable read. Recommended to fans of historical fiction.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Look to the East by Maureen Lang
Tyndale House, 2009
345 pages
Inspirational Historical Romance
3/5 stars
First in the Great War Series

Source: Library

Summary: Julitte lives in the small village Briecourt in France, which is soon invaded and taken over by Germans in 1914. In the cellar of the local church, she discovers Charles, a Belgian in hiding from the Germans. Will she have the faith in God to survive this terrible war?

When I've read other Christian historical romances, I've found it helpful to break the book down and look at each genre separately because that's how I think about them as I read.

Historical: The historical aspects were very strong, in my opinion the best part. While the story opens in a peaceful small village in northern France, war soon begins and the Germans occupy leading to privation that only gets more extreme as the book goes from 1914 to the middle of 1916. I don't know as much about WWI as I do about WWII but everything seemed on target. I could feel the hunger that gripped the population and the fear from being occupied and from not knowing what was going on with loved ones at the front.

Religion: There is a lot of God talk in this book, definitely not recommended for any non-Christians. It is believed in the village that Julitte has been gifted with miraculous powers and that her prayer is more powerful. Additionally Julitte is a faithful Christian who prays a lot especially as the war drags on and she is separated from her love. She sees so much death even among a civilian and her only recourse is to turn to God. I liked that one of the Germans is also able to express his faith and hope for an end to the war. While most of the Germans are painted as villains (obviously), there were some nuances.

Romance: This was the part that was weakest for me and I didn't particularly care for either Julitte or Charles. I appreciated that their romance took some time to grow although it was an instant attraction kind of love. They talked with each other and she encouraged his faith, which was nice to see. His determination to be a "hero" annoyed me as it seemed foolhardy and maybe not even what God wanted (not everyone's a hero).

The End: I'm not sure I entirely buy it. SPOILER: Did Ori sell out the hidden men or how were they discovered? The change to safety occurred so rapidly as Charles returns to spying and Julitte goes off to rediscover her family.

Overall: This book never clicked for me. I don't know if it was something about Julitte's character or maybe Charles's but despite the many things I liked about it, I feel only neutral towards the book as a whole.

Juliette Toussaint is a outcast in her remote French village of Briecourt since she was adopted from a faraway island. And the feud between the families of the Toussaints and the Colvilles rages--with both sides united in their distain of Juliette. Juliette longs for something to change--and she dreams of the tall, blond, handsome Charles that she met.

But then the Germans invade France, and all the young men go off to war. Juliette, the other women, and some older or unwell men are all that are left in the village. When the Germans invade her tiny village, the town most rally to survive.

Charles Lassone is a wealthy Belgium entrepreneur. He dreamed of joining the war and defending his country against Germany, but then he meets up with the French...and his car is stolen. Suddenly, Charles finds himself living the life of a beggar, hiding from the Germans, and struggling to survive. When he lands in Briecourt and hides in the cellar of the church--but if he is discovered by the Germans it will bring danger to the village and could cost Charles his life.

I have read all of Ms. Lang's books so far and have loved every one of them, especially her war based stories. LOOK TO THE EAST is a book that may start a bit slow, but it is engaging and by the time I got to page 50 in the book I was completely drawn in.

I enjoyed getting to know Juliette and Charles and some of the other colorful characters in this book and I had to keep reading to see what would happen. Of German ancestry, I am horrified by the things my German ancestors have done, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the story. I especially enjoyed the Author's note that gave the history of the events included in this book.

WWI is a time period I'm pretty unfamiliar with, having never read much in that time setting. So I've been looking forward to reading this book (which has been on my TBR pile for several months) not only to learn more about the WWI era, but also in hopes of discovering a new author to love.

Most often when I am less than satisfied with a book it's because the plot idea was good but the writing was weak. With Look to the East it was just the opposite; I found the writing to be good but the plot to have several weaknesses, even holes.

Maureen Lang is skilled as a writer; her scenes, her dialogue, her descriptions are all done with a deftness that reflects maturity. The first three-quarters or so of the book has a dream-like quality that is hard to describe; the best I can say is it is "soft focus." The passage of time, for instance, often wasn't clearly defined. As one example, a lot happens in the first few scenes: Julitte's brother goes off to war, the Germans invade her village, Charles tries to escape back to Belgium and gets caught behind enemy lines, and then finally makes his way back to Julitte's village. Throughout all this Lang doesn't clearly specify how much time has passed, and in reading it it felt to me that a month, at least, must have passed for all this to take place. Finally, Lang lets us know that it was really only a couple of weeks; that felt Rip Van Winkle-ish. However, this somewhat fuzzy lack of clarity in her style came through to me as just that: a matter of style, and not a lack of skill. Therefore, I was ok with it.

The weaknesses in his book had to do with elements of the narrative and plot, and there were many. Also, the two main characters Charles and Julitte had some major weaknesses. In Charles' case, it is just that I never could like him very much. Simply put, he was a coward. A handsome, rich, and God-loving coward, yes, but a coward nonetheless. He himself realizes that he is a coward, and indeed spends most of the book in self-recrimination for his cowardice and in telling himself that he's going to prove to himself and everyone else and Julitte most of all that he really is a man. But he just never manages to do it, but rather fumbles his opportunities.

Julitte also failed to touch an emotional cord, I think because Lang failed to connect all the dots in creating her character. She is the only faith-filled and truly God-loving person in a village full of mean-spirited people who have been feuding with each other for generations. And on top of that, Julitte is ostracized by almost all of them; and yet, she seems to have no hatred, no resentment, no bitterness. To triumph over human nature like that certainly requires a lot of prayer, a lot of testing and a lot of effort; but apparently Julitte never had any such struggles, or if she did we are not told about it. Are we supposed to think she was so angelic by nature that she could love everyone, even her enemies? I couldn't buy that.

It is also never made really clear how Julitte came to be such a person of faith. To become a young adult with faith in God, when everyone around her was full of hatred, would definitely require purposeful mentoring and guidance by someone in her life. So who was it who helped teach her such love and trust in God? Her father? Her mother? It's never made clear. Surely she didn't just grow up to have such a close connection to God all on her own-? That seems implausible.

Another aspect of Julitte that was puzzling to me was her "vision" or "sight" when someone dies. The villagers think she can work miracles because of this, but it's never made clear what this "vision" was supposed to accomplish. It didn't enable Julitte to do anything (except to let her know when someone had departed from their body and gone to Heaven), and then suddenly, near the end of the book, it is gone from her. The last two deaths she encountered happened without her seeing any of her usual signs. It just left me scratching my head; ok, so what was that whole "vision" thing about? What was the purpose? It didn't seem to contribute anything to the plot.

And speaking of plot, there were some weaknesses there, as well. First of all, right before the book starts Julitte's father has left. Ok, so he's a sailor normally gone for months at a time; I can believe that. But then Julitte's brother goes off to war and she is left all alone in her village? Would that really have happened in France in 1914? And then for the two or so years covered by this book, her father never comes back? Even though he knows a war is raging and he's left his two young adult children alone? And he never even makes an attempt to get back to his village? This last question is supposition; perhaps Julitte's father did try to get back; we're just never told. And during the whole course of the book, Julitte never thinks about her father, is never worried about his safety, never seems to miss him or wish he would come home. She is so completely preoccupied with the handsome stranger Charles hiding in her village, that she never gives her father a thought. BUT..... when she and her father are finally re-united during the last few pages, we're told that he was "one of the men she'd prayed over, missed, and longed for since the day he'd left just before the outbreak of the war." HUH?

There were other elements of the plot that just didn't work for me, either. However, since this review has already gone so long I will state them very briefly. That Julitte's real grandfather was actually a fabulously wealthy Greek businessman who all of a sudden decides he's interested in the granddaughter he didn't bother to take in when she was orphaned years ago, but whom he now wants to rescue out of occupied France? That made me roll my eyes. And the "and they all lived happily ever after" ending Lang gives her book weakens it significantly. It would have been a much stronger and more memorable book if everything hadn't tied up so nicely and neatly. Yes, she ends the book in such a way that it's obvious the story will be continued in a sequel; I'm afraid this book just didn't impress me enough to make me want to read any more in this series.

In Juliette Toussaint's village you either belong to the Toussaint family or the Colville family, and the two are at the outs with each other. But Juliette is adopted, which makes her an outsider. She meets and is attracted by Charles Lassone, who is several stations about her socially. Charles wants to join the Belgium army and fight for the king, but he soon learns how untrained he is for war. He hides in the church in the village while the Germans invade and loot, taking everything of worth. Charles and Juliette meet again, and now they have more in common. Both are struggling to survive.
Maureen Lang's Look To The East is a gripping tale of fear, fath, and of two people finding hope in a time of great danger. A must for lovers of historical fiction.

Do you love historical fiction that is written well? If so, check out Maureen Lang's new book, Look to the East! This well written book filled with historical facts and references, is well written and will keep you reading to the last page. You will feel the hunger with the characters as a village struggles to survive in the middle of war times and enemy take overs. Jullitte feels alone at times in this story as she is cut off from the rest because of her parents choices and where she had come from. You will not only experience war, small romance, but also the struggles with people's judgment even for things you cannot help. Maureen writes historical fiction that will imprint on your mind and your heart. This is one you will want to check out!