All God’s Children by Anna Schmidt

• ISBN-13: 9781620291405

About the book:  Living in Munich with her relatives was supposed to result in a dream fulfilled.  Instead, Beth Bridgewater, A German American, finds herself in a nightmare as World War II erupts – a war in which she takes no side, for she is a Quaker pacifist.

Apprehension rises in the household of Beth’s Uncle Franz and Aunt Ilse, and the presence of Josef Buch only adds to it.  Josef seems a good man, a passionately patriotic German and a medical student who rents the attic space above Beth’s uncle’s apartment, but his father is a high-ranking government official.  Could Josef by spying on them?

Just as she gains opportunity to escape Germany, Beth decides to stay, feeling called to help the helpless.  And Josef is becoming involved in his own secret ways of resisting the Nazis…Despite differing motivation and beliefs, Beth and Josef join together in nonviolent resistance, and they cannot deny the spark between them.  But in the midst of such evil, does their love stand a chance…if they even survive at all?

Review:  “All God’s Children” is the first book by this author that I have read.  I did not enjoy this book.  It’s not that it’s a particularly bad book, but I struggled to follow the story.  The timeline within the story did not flow and it was challenging to believe the characters.  There were moments within the story that caught my attention, but these were few and far between.  For some, this book may be very interesting.  Unfortunately, I did not find it so.

DISCLOSURE: A copy of All God's Children was won on the Goodreads.com program. A review was not necessary but is a courtesy to the author.