Mari's Hope (Odin's Promise #3) by Sandy Brehl *ARC #Bookreview

Title: Mari's Hope
Series: Odin's Promise #3
Author: Sandy Brehl
Publisher: Crispin Books
Published Date: September 1st, 2017
Genre: Historical Fiction, Norway, WWII, Middle Grade, YA
Page Count: 198
Format: Kindle

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
Mari’s Hope delivers the dramatic conclusion to the middle-grade historical fiction trilogy begun with Odin’s Promise, awarded the 2014 Midwest Book Award for Children’s Fiction, and Bjorn’s Gift (released in 2016).

In Mari’s Hope, set in a small village in occupied western Norway in the final years of World War II, young Mari has become a valued helper to the village doctor. She also plays a role in her family’s efforts in the local resistance, despite everpresent dangers, especially from the snooping soldier called Goatman and from Leif, her one-time school friend, now a German collaborator.

As the German war efforts falter, the pressure increases on the occupying troops to hold Norway firmly in their grip. But freedom-loving Norwegians will do their best to thwart those plans.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 My Review:

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.





Mari's Hope is the third and final book in the Odin's Promise trilogy. Now I hadn't read the first two books but I was still able to follow along really easily and fill in the blanks of what had happened previously. Told in letters to her brother Bjorn and a first-person account of what's happening we get to see not only what Mari finds to be important, but what she's also doing in everyday life.

Mari is now a teenager and living in Nazi-occupied Norway. She works with the doctor and helps treat patients while still going to school. She hates what the Nazi's have been doing to her country and her family is even part of the resistance. Meaning she is always on the lookout for something to happen and loathes her other school friends who appear to be helping the Nazi's.

Mari is a character I loved not only is she full of life, but she also wants to help and finds so many different ways to and takes many risks along the way all while keeping the true purpose of why she's doing what she is in order to help keep those around her alive.

“Baby girl, you’ve become a beautiful young woman. We’ve been so busy surviving that I missed your childhood. You’ve missed it, too.” 

This is sadly the reality for Mari and so many other young people during this time in history. Everyone grew up fast and worked to survive and to keep some of their heritage intact and hoped for the allies to save them.

Overall I really did love this story, it might have been a short one and the final one in the trilogy, but it felt like so much more. Between seeing Mari disobey the Nazi's in little ways and the nicknames everyone gave certain ones. To learning about medical history and finding out how doctors still managed to treat people with very little supplies and how they found ways to get more supplies by playing on the Nazi's fears. This is everything I love about historical fiction, and the fact that it was in Norway I loved even more. Not many books are set in Norway that I've read so learning the history and how the country was able to keep a force and a sort of government intact in secret while the Nazi's had taken over I found really interesting.  Also seeing the everyday life of Norwegians I really enjoyed as well.
I think I might just decide to go back and read the first two books in this trilogy to see how it all began.