The Lioness of Leiden by Robert Loewen ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

How do you fight the Nazis right under their noses? With cunning and courage.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

April 2023;  Greenleaf Book Group; 979-8886450224
ebook, print (280 pages); biographical fiction

The Lioness of Leiden is a historical fiction novel set in the Netherlands during World War II and based on the author's mother-in-law who was part of the Dutch resistance.

Hetty is a student at Leiden University.  When the story begins, the Nazi army has not yet invaded the Netherlands and the students continue to hope that they will remain safe.  When Hetty's boyfriend disappears and the Nazis begin to make life difficult for the people of her country, Hetty agrees to work as a courier for the resistance.  At first, she only carries messages and cash but soon gets more involved as she helps Allied pilots escape and assists people who are in hiding.  She believes strongly in what she's doing despite the fact that her father doesn't want to make waves or publically disagree with the Germans.  During the five years of the war, Hetty takes more dangerous assignments and the Nazis identify her as part of the resistance and get very close to finding her on several occasions.  Throughout the years of the war, Hetty remains passionate about what the resistance is doing to save their country and its citizens.  As her life became more precarious and several of her friends died, she continued to challenge the Germans.  Even after the war is over, her life is totally different than she hoped it would be and she still thinks about the friends that she lost.

This is a debut novel and it was full of interesting characters and nail-biting escapes.  I wished that there would have been more backstory on some of the characters.  We got a little bit about Hetty's past but I'd have liked to learn more about some of the other characters and their reasons for risking their lives.  Overall, it was a well-researched look at the life of members of the Dutch resistance in World War II.  Hetty is a brave and tenacious woman whom I won't soon forget.

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Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is two hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.  

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