Customer Reviews

Night Song: A Story of Sacrifice (The Liberator Series, Book 3)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My mom who is the author of The Birth to Five Book: Confident Childrearing Right from the Start gave me this novel to read.

I'm a teenager who is sick of uninteresting, shallow novels with vulgarity slipped in. Night Song was a refreshing change! I was glad to find a book that was funny, sad, had good characters, good messages and a clean read. There's a subtle Christian message but the author did not beat religion into this book.
Night Song isn't just one story but offers four different plots that come together at the end. You read about a nazi, a Jewish boy in a concentration camp, an Austrian woman whose in the resistance movement, and her American financee who is trying to find her.
It took me only a week to read this fascinating book. I highly recommend this excellent novel and look forward to more by Tricia Goyer. We need more like this one.

Night Song begins with American medical student, Nick Fletcher, and his Austrian girlfriend, Evie, discussing what they hope to be a bright future when their lives are changed in ways neither of them could've ever imagined. Instead of building their lives together, they are torn apart.

With Evie's family deported back to Austria in the wake of World War II, Nick volunteers for Europe as a medic in the US military. His medical training goes into warped speed as he cares for the wounded in less than ideal conditions. Evie, on the otherhand, can't believe the atrocities committed against the 'enemies of the state' and there is no way she can just sit back and watch what's going on around her.

In Europe, Jewish families are being separated, their belongings plundered, and their bodies tortured and starved. The family of a shopkeeper in Prague is no exception. After the father is taken, Jakub, Daniel, and their mother are sent first to a concentration camp where the living conditions are inhumane at best. From there, the inhabitants that actually survive are transported to a work camp where conditions are even worse. Most would come to welcome death.

Goyer does a superb job of showing the horrors of war through the eyes of an American medic, an Austrian sympathizer, a Jewish boy, and even a Nazi loyalist. Not only do we get to experience the war from four different angles, Goyer majestically weaves the stories of the four characters together, showing us how each of them impacts the others' lives in sometimes surprising ways.

A MUST read for anyone who enjoys historical romances!
Edee Wilcox, author of If I'd Only Known... The fictional account of a teenager's struggle with acceptance, sex, and Christian values.

I can't sing loudly enough the praises I have for Tricia Goyer's Night Song. The characters are engaging and real, the scenery is vivid and the circumstances haunting.
Though this is a historical romance, the reader can identify with the characters through strong and timeless emotions and circumstances. The character's responses to these situations are what lend a sense of reality and urgency to the page. Goyer gives no pat answers and offers no sermons, but instead lets the character walk through the dilemma and so take the reader with them on a journey that is both daunting and exhilarating.

Andora Henson
9-30-04

I hate to appear curmudgeonly, given the overwhelmingly favorable reviews of this book, but I've just read it and can't quite join in the enthusiasm.

As a Christian I am on the side of this genre of writing; as a society we need less of the sleazy and crude offerings that we are presented with in the print and visual media. So I started this book sympathetically. It didn't quite succeed in engaging me.

I have no complaint about the storyline in general, but thought the plot lacked some needed tension at critical points and was altogether too self-conscious in its invocation of Scriptures and Christian principles, as much as I appreciate their value.

The story culminates with a Dickensian feel, when main and subordinate characters are brought together through coincidental (or Providential) events. But here again the scheme is contrived -- the assembling of the bare bones predicts the outcome; we needed a bit more of the accidental unfolding to enhance the surprises at the end.

A niggle: as a non-American I was put off by current Americanisms appearing in the mouths of 1940s characters. The idiomatic use of American English has changed considerably since the Second World War and an authentic feel can only be achieved by reflecting the voices of that earlier period. Also, the author's attempt to fuse coded American "values" (freedom) and icons (the statutette of Lady Liberty) with the Christian ethos is an unfortunate device and might limit the appeal of this book to non-American readers.

I found the closing third of the book to be closer to my expectations, more tightly written and approaching dramatic tension. The memorial to those victims of the camps was substantial and worthy, and provided details I have not encountered elsewhere.

Night Song by Tricia Goyer proves that inspirational fiction doesn't have to be shallow or filled with bad language and questionable behavior. It also proves that Tricia Goyer is not just a one book novelist. The intricacies of weaving four plots together makes for a fun read. Tricia's research and attention to detail are obvious with this book as it was with From Dust and Ashes, her first WWII novel. I love books that are well written with fleshed out characters, interesting plots, and something for me to learn. Night Song has all this and more. I highly recommend this book and suggest that parents of high school kids ask that this book be placed on the reading list because it makes history come alive.

I love reading WWII fiction and have been a fan of the Thoenes's series for years. Tricia's account of what happened in Austria during that era and the atrocities of the concentration camps is compelling. I visited the Holocaust Museum in DC in 2003 and reading her novel was like going back for a visit to the rooms with the chilling history of death and torture. Though not grossly graphic, she gets the truth of the sadism and inhumane thinking of that era across without sounding preachy. Also, the plot kept my interest and the characters were well developed. I found it to be very true to life. She did a great job weaving a fictional tale around a true life account of someone else's suffering. I keep thinking about the story after I've read it and that is unusual for me. From Dust and Ashes (first in the series) also sticks with me, but Night Song surpasses even that wonderfully written story. I can't wait for her third book to come out.

I just finished reading "Night Song." I think that is the first Christian fiction book that I have read and really didn't expect to like it so much. The touching individual storylines just drew me in.... Before I knew it I was caught up in the days of the past and the lives of the intriguing characters. It is so well written ~ the stories are woven easily together as the reader is introduced to each side of the conflict. I have recommended "Night Song" to others and look forward to starting on my next Tricia Goyer book, "From Dust to Ashes."

Night Song by author Tricia Goyer is a fictional work with the historical backdrop of the Nazi regime during WWII. The stories of four compelling characters are told as separate threads which are woven skillfully together at the end of the novel. Two star-crossed lovers are separated by war, one, an American doctor, the other, an Austrian socialite. They are torn apart but remain faithful to each other through turmoil and temptation. The other two main characters are a scheming German SS officer and a young Jewish musician. Each seeks to survive despite the circumstances of war, politics, and privation. The conclusion brings these four together in the most unlikely of places, the deadly Mauthausen concentration camp in Germany. The book is well-researched and rich in detail, yet sensitive to the brutality of that time and place. Goyer reminds us that we ought not forget what many endured; she reminds us that many sacrificed their lives so that others might live on. The book resonates endurance and hope in even the most hopeless of situations. Night Song makes the powerful declaration that the greatest conquering force of all is love. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading the future works of Tricia Goyer.

Those three words popped out, though their order eludes me. Tricia's historically accurate novel contrasts love and hatred, inner peace and world war. This is a family novel--teens upward--for those who think family novels are boring. And NIGHT SONG will help today's social progressives differentiate between those who simply disagree with their libertine agenda, and true racial supremacists.

I really enjoyed this book because it gave me such a deep sense of the time of World War II and what the Jewish people went through. Tricia has a wonderful way of weaving story and characters so that I wanted to keep reading and see what would happen next...especially how the separate characters would be woven together in the end. It has some fun twists and turns. I recommend this for a great reading time.