#1 AMAZON BESTSELLER
JAMES D. SHIPMAN
A TIME FOR DEFIANCE.
My newest title will be released in 2024.
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In this gripping, high-stakes novel of World War II, the bestselling author of Before the Storm draws on real events to tell the story of one woman’s daring role in the Dutch resistance as part of a most unusual taskforce.
May 1940: In the months since the war in Europe began, nineteen-year-old Aafke Cruyssen and her family have tried to carry on as normal—running their modest grocery store in Eindhoven, hoping that Germany will leave Holland alone as it did during the Great War.
But this time, Holland will not be spared. The invasion comes, swift and merciless, and Dutch forces are easily overpowered. In Eindhoven, a valuable transport and trade hub, Nazi soldiers swagger through the streets. Aafke’s one glimpse of humanity comes from a young German corporal who intervenes when a gang of looters tries to rob her family’s shop.
Aafke joins the Dutch resistance and is drawn into a relationship with its charismatic leader. Wanting more than the menial missions assigned to women, she and her friends create a taskforce of their own—a “dating club” where women target Nazis, luring them to their arrest or death. Discovery by the Gestapo will mean torture and execution. Just as dangerous is the reappearance of the soldier who once helped her family. Otto Berg is now a high-ranking Nazi officer, intrigued by Aafke’s fragile courage.
As the conflict deepens, so does Aafke’s quandary. The tides of war continue to bring her and Otto into each other’s circles. And beyond the battles that make history are countless sacrifices and unthinkable choices she must make for the sake of the resistance, and to save her own life and those she loves.
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Task Force Baum is a guts-and-glory novel of WWII, based on a true story, told with all the fire and fury of the war. Life-and-death stakes keep the reader glued to the page . . . A striking testament to the glory of the "Greatest Generation." V.S. Alexander, author of The Traitor.
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A Bitter Rain is the best kind of WWII novel, action-packed, populated by complex characters facing deep moral dilemmas, and historically accurate. I loved it.
Mark Sullivan, author of #1 Amazon Charts bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky.
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James D. Shipman's tender, wise novel examines the paradox of human suffering: how irrevocable loss, if we are willing to let it, begets spiritual gain.
Fantastic Fiction
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