A Song Unheard

A Song Unheard
(Shadows Over England, Book 2)
Roseanna M. White
(Bethany House Publishers)
ISBN: 978-0764219276
January 2018/416 pages/$15.99
If Betraying Her Heart Means Saving Countless Lives, Will She Find the Courage?

Willa Forsythe is both a violin prodigy and top-notch thief, which makes her the perfect choice for a critical task at the outset of World War I--to secure a crucial cypher key from a famous violinist currently in Wales.

Lukas De Wilde has enjoyed the life of fame he's won--until now, when being recognized nearly gets him killed. Everyone wants the key to his father's work as a cryptologist. And Lukas fears that his mother and sister, who have vanished in the wake of the German invasion of Belgium, will pay the price. The only distraction he finds from his worry is in meeting the intriguing and talented Willa Forsythe.

But danger presses in from every side, and Willa knows what Lukas doesn't--that she must betray him and find that key, or her own family could pay the same price his surely has.

Read an excerpt.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award-nominated author who has long said that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she's homeschooling her two kids, designing book covers, editing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books . . . to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. You can learn more about her and her stories on her Facebook page and at www.RoseannaMWhite.com.


MY THOUGHTS

Roseanna M. White is a must-read author for me, and she delights once again with A Song Unheard. White creates vivid and compelling characters that charm their way into my heart, even when one is a pickpocket and a skilled thief such as Willa! (Who knew thieves had such scruples?) This tale offers the perfect blend of intrigue, treachery, danger, and romance--not to mention the magnificent music that practically wafts off the pages. I lost track of time as I read, experiencing the setting, circumstances, and emotions as if I were transported back more than a century and across the pond to Wales. You don't simply read A Song Unheard; you feel it! Grab a blanket and your favorite warm drink and curl up with this extraordinary novel.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book free Bethany House Publishers and Roseanna M. White for a blog tour. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”


Q & A WITH ROSEANNA M. WHITE

1. Where did you get the idea for A Song Unheard?

When I was researching Great Britain during World War I for the first book in the Shadows Over England series, A Name Unknown, I came across information about the hundreds of thousands of Belgian refugees that flooded the country in the first few months of the war—and specifically about an orchestra composed of Belgium’s best musicians. Two sisters from Wales, Margaret and Gwendoline Davies, devised the idea of funding a refugee orchestra. They actually sent men into Belgium soon after it was invaded by the German army to offer the musicians a safe haven in Wales during the war. They wanted to help provide for them, and also to bring some culture to their small neighborhood. As soon as I read about that, I was intrigued!

2. Both your hero and heroine in this book are violinists. Do you have a musical background?

I do, yes—though not on the violin. I’ve been playing the piano since I was seven. I also learned clarinet during school, for the band, and organ in high school. I’ve been the pianist/organist at one church or another since I was fourteen. So I had a lot of musical knowledge and background to pull from when writing this story, and just needed some input from a violinist to make sure my details about that instrument were correct.

3. What was the most interesting or fun part of the research for this book?

Probably all the beautiful music I got to listen to! I needed to be able to refer to several pieces byname and composer, so first I just wrote the scenes describing what sort of piece I’d need (fast, difficult, soothing, etc.) and then I bought an album of classical violin music and enjoyed listening to it until I found compositions that fit what I needed. Not exactly a hardship, I confess.

4. Did you learn anything that surprised you?

Definitely! I read a book all about the invasion of Belgium in the first days of the war and the occupation throughout it, and it was shocking. I had no idea how similar the practices of the German army during this occupation were to the Nazi regime we all know so much about from thirty years later. More, because the press sensationalized and exaggerated it during the war, it was then totally dismissed afterward, and the world didn’t heed any of the warning signs. Historians now look to Germany’s treatment of Belgium as a direct precursor to Nazi practices. Of course, there were still a few German military leaders who tried to speak reason to the High Command, and I do give them their due as well. We see all of this through the eyes of my hero’s little sister, who, along with their mother, is caught up in the chaos of the invasion when their hometown is burned to the ground.

5. What hope do you leave the readers with in A Song Unheard?

Though the world around them is grim and my heroine especially can’t see much reason to trust, faith shines brightest in dark times. In this story, I wanted to show how God will make himself real to each of us in the ways we most need. For some, like Lukas, it’s in sending the right people into our paths the moment we need them. For others, like Willa, it’s in sending us a song when that’s the only Gospel that we’ll let around the walls of our heart. Our Lord isn’t confined to one way of reaching us with the news of His Son, and for that I am so grateful.

Thanks to Roseanna M. White and Bethany House Publishers for providing this Q & A!

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