White Rose, Black Forest

By: Eoin Dempsey

Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

An Amazon Charts bestseller.

In the shadows of World War II, trust becomes the greatest risk of all for two strangers.

December 1943. In the years before the rise of Hitler, the Gerber family’s summer cottage was filled with laughter. Now, as deep drifts of snow blanket the Black Forest, German dissenter Franka Gerber is alone and hopeless. Fervor and brutality have swept through her homeland, taking away both her father and her brother and leaving her with no reason to live.

That is, until she discovers an unconscious airman lying in the snow wearing a Luftwaffe uniform, his parachute flapping in the wind. Unwilling to let him die, Franka takes him to her family’s isolated cabin despite her hatred for the regime he represents. But when it turns out that he is not who he seems, Franka begins a race against time to unravel the mystery of the airman’s true identity. Their tenuous bond becomes as inseparable as it is dangerous. Hunted by the Gestapo, can they trust each other enough to join forces on a mission that could change the face of the war and their own lives forever?

©2018 by Eoin Dempsey. (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Narrator doesn’t know pronouns!!!

I, he, she, it, you, and they. Personal pronouns. If the narrator cannot keep she and he separate, then it may keep many people from not continuing on. I wanted to know how the story turned out or I would have quit within ten minutes. It is pathetic and should be re-done. Forgive my harshness, but the story is grand and I loved and enjoyed it very much.

Loved the Historical Story, Hated the narration

My recommendation is read this don't listen. The Narrator speaks very slow. I did increase the speed of the book because otherwise I would stop listening and come back and say, what just happened. The Narrator is also a male, which is usually not a problem. The main character is a female, so it was very hard and annoying to listen to a male read as a female. He didn't do a very good job at it. A female voice for the lead character would have worked much better.

Wonderful story that needs a new narrator.

I have to agree with another listener who noted the narrator’s constant use of “he” instead of “she”. This made it challenging to discern which character was saying or doing what. Shame on the producers for letting this pass as acceptable.

Great Listen...

What did you love best about White Rose, Black Forest?

The historical aspect with a romantic undertone

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When her old beau, a Gestapo, came calling and John came to her rescue

Any additional comments?

Kudos to the narrator for doing all the voices...however Franca was a bit too 'breathy' for my liking...it seemed she was always 'turned on', which didn't fit the story at times.

Keeps you entertained

A little contrived, but if you overlook that? A good story about an airman downed in Germany during WWII, saved by a beautiful young lady. (Of course!)

Great story

Really enjoyed the story, but the downside is the narrator. Flat affect, and SLOW. I sped up the reading and that helped, but his voice was still annoying. It's a shame because the story really is worth listening to.

An horrific period of time......

captured in a beautiful story. I always wondered why the german people stood by and let Hitler do the horrible things he did. Although this tale is fiction, there is a lot of truth woven through it. It was thrilling to look online and see that some of the people named in the book were actual beings who lived during the war, and contributed to the effort of bringing the truth to the people. On top of that, this is a very good book, full of sorrow, fear, bravery, suffering, and, of course, LOVE. Thankfully, it wasn't mushy, nor explicit, rather realistic in times of great danger.

Highly Recommended Love Story!

Beautiful love story. Engaging from the first sentence. Well written. Loved Eoin Dempsey’s Finding Rebecca and this new book is wonderful too. I don’t know if it’s fair that I downgraded the performance to a 4. The narrator did a good job, it’s just that his deep baritone voice made the female characters a little difficult to endure. In fairness his performance overall was very good. The book whizzed by so fast because I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended!

So detailed and ends rather abruptly!

The story drug on forever and then ended rather abruptly. I listened to this book on audible. If I was reading it I would have given up.

Amazed at negative comments

I thoroughly enjoyed this and thought the narrator did an excellent job. Historical fiction, interesting story.