Monday, March 30, 2015

A Parcel for Prudence (Virtues and Valor, Part 4) by Hallee Bridgeman













Title: A Parcel for Prudence (Virtues and Valor, Part 4)
Author: Hallee Bridgeman
Pages: 96 (approximately)
Year: 2014
Publisher: Olivia Kimbrell Press
Note: A received a free eBook copy of this novella through The Book Club Network in exchange for my honest opinion.

About the book:

     The exciting Virtues and Valor serialized story continues with book 4.

     MURIEL TOLSON grew up with all of the luxuries life could offer. As the daughter of a duke, she married the second son of an earl and lived in style on his family’s estate. When her husband ships off to fight the Nazis in Africa, Muriel heeds his request to use her intelligence and language skills to help with the war effort. She approaches the British secret services and soon finds herself recruited into an experimental all female cohort dubbed the Virtues, a collection of seven extraordinary women with highly specialized skills.

     Assigned the code name of PRUDENCE, her natural French allows her to infiltrate Occupied France where she works as a courier; carrying messages, money, and sometimes people through the secret resistance network aiding the allies to accomplish very dangerous missions behind enemy lines.

     When Nazis capture the agent code named TEMPERANCE, the team shucks previously laid plans and fast-forwards operational timelines. Is the team ready for this daring mission, or will the Third Reich thwart their plans before they can even get started?

     A PARCEL FOR PRUDENCE is part four of seven serialized novellas entitled the Virtues and Valor series.

     Seven valorous women – different nationalities, ethnicities, and social backgrounds – come together as a team called the Virtues.

     In 1941 Great Britain has a special war department that assembles an experimental and exclusively female cohort of combat operatives. Four willing spies, a wireless radio operator, an ingenious code breaker, and a fearless pilot are each hand-picked, recruited, and trained to initiate a daring mission in Occupied France. As plans are laid to engineer the largest prison break of Allied POWs in history, the Nazis capture the Virtues’ radio operator. It will take the cohesive teamwork of the rest of the women to save her life before Berlin breaks her and brings the force of the Third Reich to bear.

     Some find love, some find vengeance, and some discover the kind of strength that lives in the human heart when all they can do is rely on each other and their shared belief. Courage, faith and valor intersect but, in the end, one pays the ultimate price.

My review:

     This part is as fascinating as the previous ones.

     Muriel Tolson, code name Prudence, is the character that takes center stage in this part of the serialized novel. She is as well developed as the main characters in each previous part. Her background is just as clearly presented. I connected with her just as much as I did with the others. Early on in this novella there is a horrible scene where Muriel is tortured. The description of it was so detailed that it both made my heart race and ache for what she endured.

     The rest of the story is very well written. I enjoyed seeing a few of the things that happened during Temperance’s Trial told now from Prudence’s view point. It really is adding more depth to the overall story that is being told. I am really looking forward to reading the other three parts of this serialized novel.

     As with each of the 3 previous parts to this story I am finding that I have to give this one, Prudence’s point of view, 5 stars. I am also once again highly recommending it.

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