Title: Beloved Enemy: A Conflict of Love and Duty
Author: Sheila Munds-Belbin
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
ISBN: 978-1-4817-9267-7
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 242
Reviewed by: C.C. Thomas
Pacific Book Review Star
Awarded to Books of Excellent Merit
Author Sheila Munds-Belbin takes readers back in time to World War II in this historical romance and thriller. The main character, Allison Grant, is the heroine of the tale and struggles with her own personal demons as the war rages around her, both at home and on assignment behind the lines of enemy fire.
Allison is an interpreter and her unique language skills also enable her to be a spy since she can speak both English and German fluently. When the story opens, Allison has returned to her life after the war but is shadowed by her experiences and can’t seem to reconnect with those she left behind, including her best friend and husband. What makes her return so hard is the understanding that her work on undercover missions must remain secret. She can’t go forward and she can’t go back. Allison is stuck in a no- man’s land of emotion and can’t fit in to the future before her.
Allison’s story is explained through a flashback that details her dangerous mission. After parachuting into enemy territory, she has to assume a new identity. Naturally, she is nervous about her first adventure, but meeting compatriots behind the enemy line puts her in a firm frame of mind for her mission. Her assignment? To spy on a German military officer who is a reputed ladies’ man and wealthy widower.
As might be expected, Allison finds she is irresistibly drawn to her enemy, the very man she has sworn to spy on. But, what’s not to love? Colonel Carl Von Richter is handsome, wealthy, and a dedicated father to his only child. He is also quite in love with Allison and wants to make a future with her. Allison is so conflicted. Even though she moves into his home, she continues to live a double life. Some nights bring passion and love, while others have Allison drugging him so she can ransack his secret paper and photograph them. Allison isn’t so in love that she gives up her mission, though. She has several close calls while spying and with the Gestapo that adds to the readers’ suspense and will have the reader biting their nails.
In Beloved Enemy, Munds-Belbin has created a character that is irresistibly engaging. Her tortured yearnings in love and with duty causes the reader to alternately rejoice, cringe, and scream with frustration. Allison’s decision to simply live in the present and ignore the other part of her life is a train wreck the reader can see just waiting to occur. However, there are no easy answers on how to reconcile love and duty. Finally, though, an experience saving an English pilot reminds Allison of her duties and her life back home. She realizes how out of touch she is with reality and knows she can no longer dwell in her fantasy life. An impossible situation causes Allison to make an impossible decision that is impossible to predict.
Readers will not be disappointed with Beloved Enemy and there’s a bit of something to offer every kind of reader. Those looking for a good romance will find a sweet love story; those wanting suspense won’t be disappointed in the espionage; and, those looking for historical accuracies will be delighted with this feminist version of international espionage. In the end. Allison’s weaknesses as a character are revealed to be very human weaknesses and readers will struggle with each decision that she makes while debating how they would handle such moments—as a heroine true to her convictions or as a woman torn between two loves.
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