This is a compelling and amazing story of strength, courage and bravery. A story of three women who put themselves on the line to help with the efforts of World War II. They go beyond the call of duty to help win the war. Ms Lane has brought to life these women in a truly fabulous story that I loved from start to finish and cannot highly recommend enough.

Rose is French, and she has always been strong-willed, but when she loses her husband while he is helping the Resistance, Rose is determined to take over from him. She starts helping serviceman get back home from her little part of France. This leads to her meeting other women who are doing the same thing and brings her into the Resistance.

Hazel is English and engaged to be married, but when her fiancé goes off to war, Hazel wants to help where she can. Just because she is a woman should not stop her, and it doesn’t. She ends being trained by the best and is soon parachuted into France to do her bit with the Resistance, and this is where she meets her dear friend Rose.

Sophia is German and what she has gone through with the Nazi’s is unthinkable, but she keeps her boyfriend, Alex, a Jew safe for a while before they escape. Alex to Sweden, her to London, then France and becomes one of the Resistance. She is best known as The Little Fox, and it is hard to keep Sophia down. When she teams up with Rose and Hazel, they become a team not to be tangled with.

This story will have your heart pumping as the ladies go undercover, track through the night to help destroy bridges, and get under the skin of the Nazis, and save soldiers and airmen among a lot of other things, working in their little bands together helping the war effort. I could barely put this one down. I was cheering them on as I turned the pages, and yes, there were tears, and there was heartbreak. I wouldn’t expect anything else in a book of this type, but the ending had me crying again. This time so happy for them, and I send a big cheer to the women who did this during World Wars. They are true heroes. Thank you Ms Lane for a keeper. It is going to stay with me for a long time to come.

This is the story of three brave women during World War II. At the time it was thought women couldn’t contribute much to the war effort. But these women, and others like them, proved this to be wrong. They sacrificed as much as their male counterparts and sometimes paid the ultimate price. This book is very well written and kept my interest until the end. Hazel, Sophia and Rose are the heroines of this story. All three of these brave women did not hesitate to step up and give up their comfortable lives to save others. It is a very good book and I would recommend it to family and friends. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest review.

Hearts of Resistance is a story set in the times of World War II that perfectly features, includes and revolves around women.


The plot is centered around three women—Sophia, Rose and Hazel—who work against their expected roles at the time of a war. Instead of waiting on their partners to return from the battlefield, sewing socks for the soldiers or working in the farms, they take up front-row roles in the underground movement against the Nazis, called The Resistance.

Let's start with the best aspect of this story, the one that won my heart straight away—strong women. I can't emphasize enough about how important it is for me, as a reader, to come across characters who are not just magically or fictionally strong, but realistically powerful. These three women, and a few others who supported them through the story, were exactly that. Each one of them is from a different country—Rose is from France, Sophia is from Germany, and Hazel is from England—and how they end up together as a team in this crusade is a story different for all the three.

Characters in this book grow and a good character development is one of my favorite things to gush about.. There are circumstances, instances and situations that crafts all three of them over the course of the story. Rose was an outspoken wife of a rich businessman and pregnant, Sophia had a Nazi in the name of father and a Jewish boyfriend, while Hazel was engaged to a fighter who clearly didn't deem women fit enough to take up a role that she was intending to. When they first sign up for this, with or without training, they are scared and they don't know if this would eventually be successful, if they'll ever be able to return home, but they fight anyway. And they don't look dumb at all. More often than not, when characters take impulsive decisions especially risky ones, I tend to consider them a bit stupid but here, they appear willed and positively adamant on playing their roles in this war.

The realism in this book! I love a story that not only touches the practical aspects of the setting but also incorporate those in the plot. People get caught, shot, and brutally killed, because isn't that what happens in a war? Characters die, even when you don't expect them to, because that's bound to happen. In fact, the author didn't overuse the advantage of having female main characters who could use their seductive skills while being undercover; I was so glad to not always have the three of them put on some lipstick and flirt with the Nazis to get out of situations. Kudos for a well thought, well planned and well written novel.

Which brings me to yet another appreciable thing about this: writing. Everything from the dialogues to the prose is so precisely concise and yet detailed that nothing reads over-the-top for me. The novel is written in a third person POV and alternates between the three main leads. It's beautifully planned out with the peaks at all the right places and the revelations at the right pace. Being a war story, there's also enough action and thrill in addition to the women-focused fiction. You keep wondering if they'll be caught in the next scene or if someone's gonna die in the next moment. Also, there aren't any plot holes, the credit for which I think would go to the ideas loosely based on facts because the general story line was actual during the time of WWII.

Overall, this was one amazing read and I would recommend this to all those who like a good historical fiction that doesn't solely revolve around the battlefield but is centered around the unenlightened underground movements, and of course, strong female protagonists.

This book was good but not great. It wasn't one that I just couldn't put down so it took my a little while to read it. Not a book I would read again .

This was my first book by Lane but the cover, title, and back cover caught my eye. I love just about any novel set during WWII and I especially love strong female leads so this one about 3 strong women was perfect.

I really enjoyed getting to know each of the women both separately and together. I was especially inspired by Sophia's bravery. In her circumstances I felt she was probably in the most danger for the longest amount of time. Truly though, I admire anyone who did what these ladies did during WWII working for the resistance. It would have been absolutely terrifying, yet so important.

Some of the relationships in this book were a little too fast for my taste. But, then again during a war things probably can move that fast. I guess when you almost die it changes your perspective on life

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Three women from three diverse backgrounds make the decision to become involved in the war effort in 1944. Their shared goal is to do whatever they can to stop the Germans, and help the Allies to win this seemingly-endless conflict. Rose is Parisian, fluent in French. Sophia is desperate to do something after her Nazi father catches his wife hiding Jews and hangs her along with all of them. Hazel is looking for a way to help after her fiancée leaves to join the troops.

These three wonderfully strong, tough and courageous women are trained, sent to France to work with the Resistance, and there become the stuff of legends.

You'll find yourself totally immersed in their lives, rooting for them every step of the way.

I read this Ebook courtesy of Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley. pub date 01/10/18

I was given an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and independent review.
Three women from different backgrounds united in their fight for freedom and their commitment to the Resistance.
Whilst the book had the potential to be a real winner based on the subject matter, I felt that it was lacking in historical content and also in emotion. I wanted to feel their fear , feel the dangers they encountered and the risks they took. For me the book just skimmed the surface and lacked depth and at times it was as if parts of the story had been missed.
2.5**

Quite a fast read about the French Resistance in WW2 from the viewpoints of three different women. It would suit someone who is new to learning about this period of history as it doesn't go into overwhelming detail. As I know a bit about this period I would have liked more detail, hence the 4 stars.