“At some point, Willa-Wil, you’ll realize that you’re letting them win by not letting anyone close. You’re being nothing but what they made you – an abandoned child.”

How dare he – he, who knew better than anyone what it felt like to be a scared child on a mean street? She stood in front of him, too mad to sit at his side. “I let you in, didn’t I? And Pauly and Rosie. And the others, all of them. I love our family.” It wasn’t just a word, a lie, with them. They were all the same, floundering on the same sea.

“There’s no risk in loving us, though, is there? We’re safe.”

A strange thing to say about a horde of thieves. But he had a point. Not that she’d admit it to him. “Look, maybe, someday, someone will be worth that risk. But not Lukas De Wilde. Never him.” He was a mark.

Book: A Song Unheard by Roseanna M. White, Bethany House Publishers, 2018

Genre: Historical Fiction

Target Audience: Adult Women

Subjects: Family Relationships, War, Lies, Crime

Summary: A mark. A target to steal from. That’s all famous violinist Lukas De Wilde is supposed to be for Willa Forsythe. And all she is supposed to be to him is a friend of an acquaintance. Except there’s that one tricky matter of her playing the violin as well, and having to play for him just once and him seeing the prodigy in her and falling in love with her. With being abandoned as a child and spending her life on the streets with the band of thieves she calls family, Willa is an expert at two things: stealing and guarding her heart. Willa scoffs in offense at his hasty proposal but accepts his offer of lessons. After all, what better way to find what she needs to steal than to be in his hotel room? What she doesn’t know is that she’s not after an object, she’s after a person, a person very close to Lukas. And what she absolutely will not admit is that he has genuinely fallen in love with her and she with him.

What she does know is that she’s not the only one after Lukas and the others are not afraid to resort to violence to get what they want.

Notes: A Song Unheard is the second in the Shadows Over England series, set at the very beginning of World War I. This book features the second girl in the group of thieves that have banded together to become family. An influential man in the government hires members of their family to do various jobs stealing information. Willa is a very jaded character, refusing to believe anyone will truly love her, to the point where she tells Lukas “Even if you were faithful a year, a decade, I would always be waiting for you to leave. Expecting it.” She sees herself as broken. And she rejects all the spiritual encouragement of her sister, her friend, Lukas, the church, and her brother, dismissing God, particularly when she is told He is a father. Lukas isn’t so whole himself though, having given his life over to his career and frivolous pursuits until his mother and sister disappear when the Germans invade their home and he himself is injured. Both characters have to accept who God is and that He genuinely does care for them and is with them, helping them. And for Willa, that requires finding herself as alone as she was as a child.

I highly recommend this book to anyone struggling to accept God is actively involved in His creation and genuinely loves and cares for them.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Enjoyment Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Colossians 1:15-22 – The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation

To celebrate her tour, Roseanna is giving away a Grand Prize Package of a signed copy of the book as well as a lovely album of soothing songs based on the Scriptures called Hidden in My Heart (winner’s choice of CD or digital download)!!

https://promosimple.com/ps/c72a