Audible Narration Switch back and forth between reading the Kindle book and listening to the Audible narration. Add narration for a reduced price of $3.49 after you buy the Kindle book.
Includes Bluey, Peter Rabbit, Spot, Peppa Pig, Roald Dahl and more. Click to explore.
From the Editor
This dramatic story of sacrifice and hope opened my eyes to the resilience and heartbreak so many women faced on the World War II battlefields. It is a book sure to leave you enthralled and, in my case, incredibly humbled by the courage of these women who endured so much.
In 1944, two trailblazing female journalists, Ella and Danni, board a ship to Normandy to report the unfolding war effort. Faced with the trauma of experiencing war-torn Normandy, these women, determined to succeed, must also battle gender prejudice in their fight to bring their much-needed press coverage back home. When tragedy strikes and Danni, tortured by guilt, becomes obsessed in her quest to find a missing colleague, it is anyone’s guess if the three will make it home alive.
Rife with the realities of war, this gripping and heartwarming tale draws on the power of female friendship and camaraderie. Not only did I find it empowering, but it also filled me with optimism—it’s a story that will long stay in my memory.
"This fast-paced narrative is packed with subterfuge, action, and romance." --Historical Novel Society
"What a wonderful read! In turns fascinating, frustrating, and uplifting, Lane's tender tale of three courageous woman seeking to bring the human stories of World War II to a waiting world against more than just the obvious barriers of war will keep you turning pages to the very end." --Imogen Clark, bestselling author of Where The Story Starts
Soraya M. Lane graduated with a law degree before realizing that law wasn't the career for her and that her future was in writing. She is the author of historical and contemporary women's fiction, and her novel Wives of War was an Amazon Charts bestseller. Soraya lives on a small farm in her native New Zealand with her husband, their two young sons, and a collection of four-legged friends. When she's not writing, she loves to be outside playing make-believe with her children or snuggled up inside reading. For more information about Soraya and her books, visit www.sorayalane.com or www.facebook.com/SorayaLaneAuthor, or follow her on Twitter: @Soraya_Lane.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.
I loved this book. It is was very interesting as it introduced Nazi Hunters to me. I didn’t know very much about them. Also it introduced the Night Witches. This was a group of Russian Women Pilots and the only women Pilots in the world during the Second World War. The story is well written and explores Russia’s involvement in the second World War and also ties in a group of Nazi Hunters. It is very well written and I enjoyed it immensely. Can’t wait to read more from this author.
I have been looking forward to reading this book as I have read a lot of books about the French resistance and am always amazed at the bravery of people. While this book is of interest of how female journalist were treated I found it was more like a Hollywood movie where people came back from near death and America won the war forget about all the English and other nations envolved. It was an entertaining read.
Interesting story about women correspondents in World War Two in England and France and those around them. At times the language appeared too modern and not realistically from mid twentieth century which effected the authenticity of the book and its characters. The women characters appeared too weak to face the hardships that they would have had to at the time, to survive the horrific events around them.
Another great read, quite different to what I expected............well researched and written, kept me interested all the way. Felt as though I was there, couldn't put it down and found it hard to tear myself away during the action. Definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fast paced, almost historically correct fiction.
If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. Women correspondents & photographers during the war, the way they were discriminated against, their hardships & sacrifices for their arts & talents, the friendships developed because & in spite of it all had me admiring the women on whose lives this was based.
I enjoyed the mix of fiction and non-fiction woven throughout the story. It was an easy read but a great reminder that the strong women who challenged the status quo when it was considered totally unladylike behaviour 80 plus years ago who have won us the rights we have today.
It was pretty unbelievable that the protagonists could drive back and forth several times across the front lines in Normandy just after D-Day without encountering any troops of either side.
2.0 out of 5 starsA trivial story about a tragic time.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 October 2020
Verified Purchase
Had I realised that this book would be little more than a boosted Mills and Boon style romance - feisty heroines and mean, nasty men trying to get in their way whilst sed.ucing them with harsh words and scathing looks, I really wouldn't have bothered. To convert the Normandy Landings and the work of the French Resistance into something SO superficial took some kind of sad determination.
Everything in this just comes too easily. Find boat, hide on boat, get to the beaches before all the accredited journos. Want jeep, steal jeep, drive into a scene of death and destruction, find a Resistance man who 'just happens' to be exactly the one they're looking for. Honestly, it's weekday, mid-afternoon television romance for those who don't want to have to think too hard.
I've read about the lives of other female war correspondents - both WW2 and later - and this book singularly fails to pay respect to the bravery and efforts of those women. It also fails to give any sense of the practical aspects of HOW correspondents get their stories and their photos back to their papers. And WHY make two of the three women Americans? Was that an attempt to sell more copies in a bigger marketplace? Weren't British girls good enough for this author to let them have an adventure too?
On the plus side, it's a quick read so my suffering wasn't extended. It read more like a screenplay than a novel. There was very little depth to any of the characters. This one definitely wasn't for me.
I got it both as a review copy and as an Amazon Prime first read.
I really did enjoy the story and the characters. I didn’t know about the prejudice for female journalists. I did find Chloe’s naivety strange about the war after living in London for several years during the war and not realising occupied France wouldn’t be easy.
I’d also noticed a comment made that the British journalists only worked afternoons while the Americans worked much harder!!!! That made me then notice that there seemed to be a bigging up of the American characters. The acknowledgment at the end was all for American journalists. What about Clare Hollingsworth? She was the one who helped refugees escape but no mention of this British journalist. I’m not nationalistic and there’s lots of wonderful Americans but it was just noticeably one sided which was disappointing.
A photo-journalist, forbidden from reporting from the frontline, together with her long time friend and colleague Andy get on board a hospital shop bound for Normandy for the DDay invasion: only to find that an equally determined woman has smuggled herself aboard the same ship. Initially hostile, but eventually gaining a deep friendship. Chloe a naive young woman and sister to Andy, is determined to return to France in search of the man she fell for during a passion filled week before the war. Their experiences, the prejudices they endured as women trying to report the truth through images and words to those far away from the dangers and tragedies of the front. This is a multiple leveled novel with great narrative, characters and great historical setting. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend.
5.0 out of 5 starsWildly romantic, heroic and full of women's history as a bonus
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 October 2020
Verified Purchase
I started reading 'The Last Correspondent' slowly. Very slowly. Then.... suddenly I couldn't switch off my kindle. I rescheduled everything I'd planned to do and carried straight on to the end.
I loved this story and I loved all the protagonists. I also loved that it taught me a lot about women's history. I was aware of Martha Gellhorn and Lee Miller, and all they had achieved in WW11. The (fictional) characters in 'The Last Correspondent' gave a vivid life to these two women's adventures, the prejudice they battled against and just the general overall courage needed to be a war correspondent. All respect to them and to Soraya M Lane!
As for the romance and the heroic adventures, all good with me! I was completely captivated by this story.
However, be warned, you will need to keep a box of tissues to hand.....
I was lucky enough to spot this on my October first reads from amazon and so got to read it a month early! I love love love all of Soraya's historical fiction books. This being her 6th I believe and all of them are great reads but this one has really got to me. I knew nothing about the female war correspondents and jumped on google more than once wanting to learn more. I am also going to hunt out more on the subject. As always Soraya gives us great characters with all their faults and flaws, which makes these women real and recognisable. Making us care for them and want to know them but also give us so much huge pride in the women who stood up and said, I CAN DO THE JOB AS WELL AS ANY MAN CAN!!! I have grown up with women as fighting soldiers, pilots, war correspondents etc as well as hundreds of other working roles that back before WW2 were seen as "men's work". However these women and of course those from WW1 were the hard women trailblazers to stand up and force themselves to be counted as important and useful to the war effort. The research that goes into these books is amazing and I for one am very grateful to receive not just an awesome read but food for my curious mind on all sorts of historical events for me to then want to go and learn more about. Really looking forward to the next one Soraya, I believe something to do with Dunkirk!!