This is aWWII true story. Hannie Schaft, Truus Oversteegen, and Freddie Oversteegen are three sisters in occupied Netherlands, in the city of Haarlem. They joined the underground resistance and became a terrifying force de resistance. They sheltered Jews, political dissidents, and fellow Dutch Resistors. They took direct actions like sabotaging bridges and railways. They transported weapons and attacked military facilities. They were assassins and seasoned spies. Tim Brady did his homework when researching these women and bringing their heroics to the worlds attention.
This book started out strong, but around 40% it started to drag. It became more a reciting of facts than a story. I felt like Hannie, Truus and Freddie were ignored. I wanted more details of them. It cam back around at the end but, it was too late I had lost interest.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. It is a fascinating story of the Resistance in the Netherlands during WWII. I had no idea that the efforts were so fractured, partisan and difficult. Hannie is a hero who gave her life for the cause. Imagine putting your life in danger over and over to help people you had never met and would rarely know the fate of. Freddie and Truus are just as fearless and brave in the face of danger and sabotage from within the Resistance. The Resistance in The Netherlands was not only disorganized, but underequipped and members were in danger not only from informants and the Nazis, but members within The Resistance. The communists didn’t trust the nationalists and likewise. These three teenage women were brave, resourceful and selfless.

The Netherlands received almost no assistance from other allied counties. There was little cooperation with resistance groups in other countries. They were flying blind. It was one of the last to be liberated. It’s Jewish population was decimated. However, this is not a book about the Holocaust specifically.

That said, it is a difficult book to read. Dutch is a difficult language and while it is written in English, names and common phrases are of course in Dutch and completely impossible to pronounce. I ended up giving nicknames to the people, and towns. I am not familiar with the geography of The Netherlands. I would have found maps, translations, a dictionary and and even those hated foot notes helpful. The book circles around itself frequently. Was it important who in the Communist group did what as opposed to what was done and why? I found myself scrolling past details of little import to get to the end which is sad, enlightening and clearly told. The Epilogue is very enlightening. Decades after the war ended, there was still dissent over how the heroes and especially Hannie should be honored.

There are other books that document the efforts of the Dutch resistance and Hannie. While this book may be all encompassing I would really like a straightforward narrative without a gratuitous nod to Anne Frank whose story is probably the best known Dutch Holocaust story.

Truly engaging book. So many emotions while reading.

Found the ending to be plausible and satisfying.

When the Nazis occupied the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, not yet one year since Hitler launched World War II, there was ongoing uneasiness with the way the British and the French handled the War. It was an irony that the major resistance movement in the Netherlands was initiated by the leftist element, especially the communists since Stalin just concluded the Nazi-Soviet Pact the year before in which the secret protocol gave the Soviet the excuse to invade the eastern part of Poland. It is in this book that Tim Brady gives voices to the unheard part of the resistance. Three ordinary girls who did extraordinary things, Truus and Freddie Oversteegen and Hannie Schaft carried out arduous tasks during the Nazis occupation of the Netherlands as the face of the resistance movement.

This book, by no means, describes really well the face of the resistance movement in the Netherlands against the Nazis and its cronies such as NSB (Nationale Socialistische Beweging - the Dutch fascist movement who takes its main ideological foundation from the Nazis and Italian Fascists) and other collaborators from the Dutch side. The resistance movement in this sense takes a lot of elements from partisanship in the Soviet Union. Tim Brady highlights the downplayed roles of women during the War, which are often shadowed by their men counterparts. Through each sentence, he describes the many faces of the resistance movement and he will particularly focus on the RVV, a leftist element organisation which was focused on armed resistance against the Nazis and Dutch traitors who supported the occupation.

There are already many books written about World War II, especially concerning many battlefronts and political circumstances surrounding them. But little did people know about resistance movements. To me, this book is an important gem to understand the roles of the resistance movement in altering the balance of power during the four years of Dutch occupation. They had important roles not only in sabotaging the Nazis but also in rescuing the Jews who got misplaced by the Nazis occupation. The author frequently mentions Anne Frank in this book, matching the timeline of each movement by the three heroines, which I think would bring the sense of reading alternate universe within the same timeline to everyone who has read Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl".

What I particularly like about this book is that it describes the actions that each character bring in the face of the resistance without making me lose the sense of the timeline. Tim Brady provides notes from each sequence in World War II, therefore providing readers with important information that still fit within the context. Besides that, this book also provides good reasoning about the root of the Cold War which stemmed from the postwar division between the leftist element with the face of old-time administration in the Netherlands. Even in a small country like the Netherlands, it was already evident even only a few months after the War that there was little appreciation from the Dutch government in honouring the contributions made by the Dutch communists and other leftists during the occupation. Something which would turn into a grand scale, spanning around 40 years until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Tom Brady’s book, Three Ordinary Girls, is anything but an ordinary tale. This well researched and highly detailed account of three brave young teenaged women who risked their lives during WW II while working with the Dutch Resistance to defeat the Nazis. This true story is a page turner that will keep you up reading until the wee hours of the night.

Absolutely amazing story .A tribute to these brave young women who did their best to help save and protect doing ww11.Full of intrigue heroisim a group of young women you will not forget.So well written looking forward to reading more by this author,#netgalley#kensingtonbooks

Wow! I was honestly really impressed with this storyline. I usually do not read this type of genre but oh my goodness I loved it. Excellent!!

#ThreeOrdinaryGirls #NetGalley

Special thanks to NetGalley and Kensington books for providing me with ARC.

I love biography so much, it allows me to live in a time that i am not even born.

This the first book to me by Tim brady but will not the last , the writing is so smooth, i felt in love with it.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The book is definitely thorough and well-researched, and it did make me want to learn more about the Dutch resistance during WWII, but ultimately it was too dry for me and I ended up DNF'ing it at 32%. I felt like the writing was a bit stilted and just too reminiscent of a high school research paper with fact after fact after fact and footnotes on each paragraph. For me, nonfiction is better when it's a bit more curated or edited to help tell the whole story instead of hyper-focusing on every detail and losing the bigger picture.

I received this book free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

THREE ORDINARY GIRLS {BOOK REVIEW}
November 13, 2020 by dailydwelling@gmail.com (Edit)

Three Ordinary Girls, by Tim Brady is a fascinating true story about three teenage girls who served in the resistance in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II.

I initially thought this was a historical fiction book, but upon beginning to read it, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was in fact a well-researched non-fiction book telling the story of these three brave and daring teenage girls.

SUMMARY

Three Ordinary Girls is the complete account of three teenage girls, Hannie Schaft and sisters Truus and Frannie Oversteegen, who join a small resistance cell in the Dutch city of Haarlem. These three eventually band together to form a female underground squad, serving as spies, saboteurs, and Nazi assassins.

Hannie, Truus and Frannie took terrifying and decisive action against Nazi targets. Their brave actions included sheltering Jews, political dissidents and other Dutch resisters. They sabotaged bridges and railways, led children to safehouses, and covertly transported weapons. They also carried out assassinations of German officers and traitors.

In telling the story of these three young women, Tim Brady gives an eye opening view of the Dutch resistance during the war. He gives a well-researched and in-depth look at how these “girls” became involved in the underground and how their fervent dedication evolved into dangerous, life-threatening missions regardless of the consequences.

WHAT I LOVED
I was fascinated by this book and the stories of these three incredibly brave and passionate women. I mistakenly thought I was going to be reading a historical fiction book, but I am now so thankful that it was a TRUE story of the real lives of three heroes of the resistance that I have never heard of before. It was much more than a fictional novel could have been.

I loved seeing how Hannie, Truus and Frannie were changed by the war and their participation in the resistance, but also didn’t regret their involvement.

It was also interesting to references to Anne Frank and where her family was at different parts of the book.

RATING
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I was provided with an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) by Net Galley in order to read and review this book that will be released in February 2021.

This book is incredibly researched. Kudos to Tim Brady. I read 70 pages but could not go any further. To me, It read like a an enormously detailed history book. I commend the systematic investigation that obviously went into the writing of this novel. However, it was not for me. I will give it four stars because of all the hard work undertaken by the author. Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Very interesting Three Ordinary Girls was a great surprise on each page!!!! Tears, Happiness and a must read by Tim Brady. Told my friends about this great book.

This amazing true story about three Dutch teens who fought during the resistance in WWII is a fascinating look at their lives, their challenges and their survival. The teens had tremendous responsibility and daring-do: they were key players in shooting Nazi collaborators in and around Haarlem and Amsterdam, traveling by bicycle and carrying their pistols in their bike bags, trying to elude the secret police and home in on their targets. The girls initially were met with skepticism by their own all-male leadership but won them over through sheer force of will and determination.. When asked later in life if they had regrets about these killings, one said they had no pity for killing those who betrayed the good people -- "A soldier shoots the enemy."

The first half of the book is very compelling, as the development and training of the teens into spies and hit women are told. I highly recommend it for understanding the nature of the times and places of the period.

This biography about Hannie Schaft, Truus Oversteegen and her sister Freddie Oversteegan, three girls who fought in the Dutch Resistance was fascinating. It is well written and well researched.. it is a scholarly book about the political, economic, deprivation, persecution, , execution and suppression of the Jews, Dutch people and resisters during WW2 about which I was unaware. It was a different perspective of the WW2 that is not well known and often overlooked. We tend to think the war was all about the Jews, Roma people, disabled people and resisters and don’t think about the “normal “ people left behind.

Thank you #Netgalley for letting me review the book.

This is an unfamiliar story from a familiar place. 3 teenaged girls during the times of Anne Frank in Amsterdam set our to be part of the resistance. Certainly a story that had to be told, bringing the struggle of the Dutch during the German Occupation to life.

One gets the impression that this book is well researched and Tim presents the facts in a pretty linear fashion. But as the story progresses, it seems at times a little too coldly written, for my taste not as emotions spell binding as some other books of the times.

Still, a solid piece of important Dutch History, now permanently enshrined in a book. If you like the "Diary of Anne Frank", you will certainly like this one as well. The books have more in common than the time and place of the events in question.

With only an excerpt provided; my review is only based on the impression that I got from it. The excerpt sets the scene of the Netherlands before the war and the girls upbringing oblivious to the threat from the rise of the Nazis, believing that they would remain neutral as before .When the Germans invaded the ill prepared Dutch army was quickly overwhelmed as the government fled to the UK. How the Germans gradually imposed their rule after a honeymoon period and how resistance evolved within the divided loyalties of the population also throws light on why the British attempts to infiltrate agents failed. It is supposed that the rest of the book will dwell on the actions of the girls in the resistance. Whether it throws light on the overall story of all the parties involved remains to be seen; if not then there is still another story to told.

I absolutely love, love, loved this book. How brave these women were to step into they positions they did, putting not just their own lives, but also those of their families' at risk. I cant imagine being so young and having to deal with war time realities. Having to potentially step into the opposition yourself, as a teenager. This story is written in such a cinematic way. I felt like I was there, watching this incredible story go down. It's wonderful that their story is finally being told.

Absolut irre und lesenswert. Dieses Buch fand ich grossartig, ich kann mich gar nicht beruhigen. Ich lese eigentlich alles aus der Nazi Zeit, aber dieses Buch hat mich begeistert. Die Geschichte dreier Niederländerinnen, die sich gegen die Nazi Herrschaft stellen und sich als Spione einsetzen lassen um den Machenschaften der Nationalsozialisten entgegenzuwirken. Was mich am meisten begeistert hat war, die Jugend der Mädchen und mit welchem Kapfgeist und Leidenschaft die Geschichte geschrieben ist. Man fühlt sich den Protagonisten so verbunden und leidet und fiebert mit ihnen. Vergleichbar gut fand ich das Alice network, das habe ich auch nicht aus der Hand legen können und hier ging es mir genauso. Am Besten jetzt schon Vormerken.

I read an excerpt of this book provided by NetGalley and Kensington publisher. The writing flowed very smoothly for something so well-researched. I had no idea about these young women or their story. I can’t wait for the book to be available in its entirety to continue this learning journey.

Very well researched book! The three girls were amazing in their strength and commitment to the cause. Their bravery as resistance fighters was astounding. Recommended to readers who love WWII history.