I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Absolute tear jerker! I cried so hard. I love historical fiction and this one won me over.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

I enjoyed Melinda Sue Sanchez's first novel, The Fisherman's Daughter so I looked forward to reading this book. I'm so glad I did. I really enjoy WW II historical fiction and this one really kept my attention and I always ended up staying up way too late to read it. The relationship between Peter and Franca grows slowly and I began wondering if they would ever get together... Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

I do love historical fiction and that love was the attraction to The Enemy Between Us. And boy, did it deliver! So much action and intrigue.....and of course a love story. But this story was different, in that it was set in Italy and directly involved a German, during WW2.
Love for your family, your country and your enemy. Forbidden love.
Crossing divides in a wartorn country.
Our two key characters are Franca and Peter. Italian Franca Chessari's sole focus is on supporting her family amid Nazi occupation. She doesn't know that her parents are both high-ranking partisans. Franca is drawn into the war through not only her parents but also her best friend who is capture d and tortured by the Germans.
Peter Weimer is a German soldier forced into a war he hates. He also has a personal battle to wage with his superior, an evil and sickly violent man from Peter's childhood.
From opposing sides of the war, Franca and Peter were nothing more than two strangers from enemy countries, but when their paths collide amid the horrors of war, they are swept into an epic journey of chilling danger, unparalleled courage, and a sweeping passion that could cost them everything.
At times ugly and very realistic, I believe we are painted a realistic picture of the often sadistic and totally unhinged characters dictated to by Hitler. But Peter shows us a human of morale belief and Franca a young girl who grows almost on a daily basis to step up and fight the evil which will always haunt the worlds history.
Melinda kept me riveted to the pages until the last.....surely could this love be shattered right at the end??
I so enjoyed this book, Melinda will be added to my list of favourite authors.
Thanks to NetGalley, Covenant Communication and Melinda Sue Sanchez for this free copy.

Melinda Sue Sanchez's novel, The Enemy Between Us, is enthralling. I utterly enjoyed every minute of it, even when tears threatened. Based in Italy during World War II, the book follows Franca, a young Italian woman, trying to keep her household running, and Peter, a German soldier who deserted his country because he could not handle the atrocities of the Nazi party any longer. When their worlds collide, they will find that they are not truly enemies. But, can Franca trust this Peter? And how can Peter live with himself when he knows what horrible things he took part in. The story will carry you across Italy and into war ravaged lands as the two of them fight both against and for each other. I adored this story. I actually had a family member ask me why I wasn't in bed because I didn't want to stop reading it. If you read historical fiction, you will find The Enemy Between Us to be accurate, wrenching, and heart warming. I highly recommend it!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book! All opinions are my own!

I enjoyed this book. I loved the author’s writing style. The storyline kept my attention and there was just the right combination of history, romance, and action. The author’s research into these times added much to the book. Although there’s quite a bit of WW II fiction available now, I liked that this book was set in Italy and that gave it a different perspective. The characters were wonderful, and as I finished the book, I felt as if I knew them very well.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I read The Fisherman’s daughter and was excited to see Franca Marianna’s best friend was going to get her story told. Franca is a being spoiled and pampered at first but throughout the story she finds her inner strength and fights for what she believes in. There are some harsh parts of this book as there is usually with books that involve war. Overall I really enjoyed it and felt pulled into the story from beginning and it had my full attention until the end.

This novel tells the story of Peter, a German soldier who is fed up with his sadistic commander and so deserts the Nazi Army, and Franca, a young Italian woman struggling to make it through the war. The author is a talented writer, particularly in her descriptions. This one had a good balance of romance and action.

This book demonstrates perfectly why I love historical fiction. I've read a lot of WWII books set in many various places, typically England and Germany, but not so many set in Italy. I loved the dual first person perspectives from Franca and Peter which really helped me see and feel their inner struggles and desires.

I thought there was an excellent balance of charged moments of danger and still, more mundane moments where the characters could just be. It allowed the story to flow at a good pace and still gave me time to digest and relate to the characters. The happy, gentle moments stood out strongly against the many hardships of living in the midst of the war. These characters faced more difficulties than they did happy moments but the author did a great job of weaving hope into the characters and the story so that I never felt too overwhelmed.

Peter and Franca are both fantastic characters. Strong, even though they both feel weak in their own ways. Courageous, even when they are both afraid. Determined. Good. They both have heart and it really shined through. I could have kept reading more about these two and been perfectly content. I haven't read a historical fiction book in a couple months so this was a fun dive back into a genre I love.

Content: peril, war time violence, kissing

- I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

I wanted to like this one more than I did, and had high expectations based on other novels I’ve read and enjoyed in this genre. It was good, but wasn’t the kind of book that sucked me in and held my attention the whole time. When I had to put it down for one reason or another it was several days before I felt like picking it up again.

"The Enemy Between Us" is a historical fiction story of where you find two different people telling the story the way they see it through their eyes. During World War II in Italy, you have not only at but two people falling in love! Will they? You have a German Nazi who has had enough,doesn't abt to be a Nazi anymore and a Italian girl who has had everything she wants but to reduce her way of living cause if the war. Different characters are introduced throughout this story that have different opinions on the war and the situation they have found their selves in. Hate,love,death surround this story but will they all survive? The book started out kinda slow for me it's like we had one scene and it just went on and on not moving I guess fast enough for me. As I continued to read,it did start to get better til it was "the end"! It really was a a good story but it could have been a bunch better,I think! Thanks Net Gallery for letting me read to give you my honest opinions. I will read another book from "Melinda She Sanchez" just to see how she writes that book!

Told from 2 very different perspectives, through the eyes of Franca, a naive young Italian from a wealthy family and Peter, a member of the Nazi army that identifies as German and not as a Nazi, this read weaves a tale of life in occupied Italy in WWll. Forbidden love between an Italian and a German, family secrets, loss of family, the horror of war, and the determination to help family and loved ones all play a pivotal role in this engaging read. Loved Peter and also enjoyed watching from the sidelines as Franca was forced to grow up so quickly. Thinking there may be a spark between Bettina and Bruno...
Many thanks to Melinda Sue Sanchez, Covenant Communications, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read this very recently published novel.

I could not put this book down. It was a mix of drama, love, and all the feelings. I flew through this book, I just wanted to keep reading!

Peter Weimer is a German soldier stationed in Italy, who has a higher ranking officer with a personal vendetta against him. When Peter is ordered to torture and kill a young female prisoner he decides he's had enough. He hides the prisoner, escapes, then turns himself into soldiers at an Axis prison camp telling them about the young women he hid in the cave so they can rescue her.

Franca Chessari's life is now drastically different than it was. Away from the comfortable home she and her family have lived in, she's now on a farm with her mother, sister, and her sister's baby and husband learning to do chores she's never done before, and make do with the little food and necessities they have. One of the things Franca has to learn is not all Germans are Nazis.

What a wonderful story. Both Peter and Franca are wonderful characters. Peter doesn't want to fight, but doesn't want to betray his friends who are like him--only in the war because they have to be. I loved how Peter was willing to do whatever the Chessari family needed him to do. He was used to hard work and wanted to help others. He also had a moral compass that he followed as much as he could.

I admit I had to get used to Franca. I had to remember that her life had changed drastically and she was the youngest in the family so she had been sheltered. She equated being German with also being a Nazi, and refused to trust Peter or let him help her with the chores for awhile. She could be stubborn, and it made a life that was already hard a little harder than it had to be. Her character had a lot of growth in the story and she went from being a sheltered young woman to joining a partisan group to find her parents. The Franca at the beginning of the war wouldn't have been able to do that.

I liked the dual perspectives of Peter and Franca, so we can see how each felt. Their romance was slow and wasn't the main focus of the story. The passages telling of the war and the cruelty others can inflict on people just because of war were so well written, it felt real. It was gripping yet sad. Not knowing who to trust--were they really on your side or not? I'm glad most of the villains got what they deserved and Peter and Franca got their happy ending.

This was my first book by this author but I don't think it will be my last. I received a complimentary copy from Covenant Communications via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

An exhilarating story full of danger, betrayal, and love from Melinda Sue Sanchez! I was excited to read this story, because although I read plenty of WWII fiction, The Enemy Between Us details a side of that history I have not read before. There was always a lot going on and the story moved very quickly, but there were times where it dragged a bit. Overall, I liked the story and found it interesting, but I wasn’t grabbed by it. I still recommend this story to anyone who likes WWII fiction, especially since it is unique in its perspectives. 2.5/5 stars

received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Set in Italy during WWII.

Franca comes from a wealthy family that owns several vineyards, but is living in the country with her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew without any hired help.

Peter is a German soldier who left his command when told he must torture a woman by his vile commander. Peter hides the woman in the process and reports to the Americans to surrender and send help for the woman.

The woman, Marianna, just so happens to be Franca’s best friend and her brother-in-laws sister. Mari brings Peter to the countryside for his protection and to help her family with chores. Franca and Peter can’t help but be attracted to one another even though their countries are enemies and they would never be allowed to be together. When Franca’s parents go missing they go their separate ways, but Franca wants more than anything to find her way back to Peter after she finds her parents.

I really liked the setting of this book. Most WWII fiction is not set in Italy. So this was new for me. However, the storyline kind of dragged in places and was pretty predictable. It is a trope that is overdone. Star crossed lovers. I prefer my historical fiction to have very little romance in it, but this is marketed as a historical romance so I knew romance would play a bigger role in this book.

I also found the main character, Franca, to be a boring character for the first half of the book. She really shines in the second half of the book. I did like Peter the entire book, but who doesn’t love a German that hates Nazis too? The supporting characters were pretty interesting for the most part. The few complaints I have I can’t mention because of spoilers.

Overall, I would recommend this if you like WWII fiction and like a romance mixed in with it. It is predictable and enjoyable.

ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This book is one of my favorite World War II books ever! I loved the way the author wrote it. And I loved that it had characters that I loved in her first novel, The Fisherman’s Daughter.

This book is about Peter and Franca. Peter is a German soldier, serving in Italy in World War II. He sees the brutality of war in his comrades and decides to not be part of that any more. When he tells the Italians of a spot where the Germans are hiding, he knows he can never go back to the army. He ends up hiding with Franca’s family. I loved the way he wanted to help her family. He was always wanting to do whatever chores he could, or help the Italians in any way he could. But war is tough. And Franca couldn’t trust him.

Franca was a great character. She had gone from being the pampered daughter of a vineyard owner to having to serve and take care of everyone around her. I can’t really blame her for having a hard time trusting Peter. But…I wish she could have trusted him sooner. It may have saved her some grief and it really would have saved her a lot of work and stress.

I loved the World War II setting of this book. It’s always fascinating to learn a little bit more about history and what people might have thought as they were living in it. I hope this author has more to write!

I was sent an e-copy of The Enemy Between Us as a gift from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

The Enemy Between Us by Melinda Sue Sanchez is an excellent historical fiction novel that held my interest throughout. This is a story that takes place in occupied Italy during WWII. Not many novels in this genre focus of the events in this beautiful landscape, so this is what initially drew me to this book.

This novel has it all: suspense, romance, tension, complexity in its characters, interesting plot, and a satisfying ending. I enjoyed the growth in Franca through the trials that she faced as the story goes on, and I always enjoyed the character of Peter, the German soldier forced to escape his ranks to do what he felt was right. I thought both characters worked well together and that their chemistry and passion towards one another was fitting and realistic. I enjoyed the twists and the suspense that the author created, and I enjoyed this story from beginning to end.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Covenant Communications for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

The Enemy Between Us strikes the fine balance between a romance novel and staying true to the difficulties associated with life in Italy during World War 2. Peter, a nazi deserter, and Franco, a devout Italian, have huge barriers between having a future together and Melinda Sanchez illustrates the heartbreak and hopelessness associated with living on difference sides of the war. The emotions are intense and feel real. Each has their own flaws based on their desires for a good future and self-sacrifice.

While this story dives deep into Italy's World Ward 2 post-Mussolini, the culture is represented with the Italian language, authentic meals, and descriptions of different parts of the Italian landscape. Melinda Sue Sanchez created a deep story here.

I loved this book! It is inspiring, intense and gripping from the first page. The themes of forgiveness, love, kindness are throughout the book. It is set in Italy during WWII. Peter and Franca along with the other characters are so well written. The trials that Peter and Franca and their respective families encounter are tremendous. I would highly recommend this book. I really liked how it was set in Italy. I haven't read a WWII era book set there before.

War is ugly. I love history, especially European. I love this was set in Italy and how well the author described the war torn country to help us feel like we were there. Peter and Franca are amazing people and had a lot to overcome to be together. Their romance was sweet, but this story did not shy away from the hardships of war. I had to take a break a couple times and read a lighter story, but I am so glad I read this book. It was eye opening, inspiring and uplifting.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley, but this is my honest review.