Before The Brightest Dawn (The Half-Bloods Series Book 3)

Book Synopsis: Named as the 2020 Book of the Year at the IAN Awards. Named as the 2020 Outstanding Historical Fiction book at the IAN Awards. A Gold Medal Winner at the 2020 Readers' Favorite Awards.
Jana Petken’s extraordinary Multi-Award-Winning historical epic, The German Half-Bloods Trilogy, reaches its sweeping, heart-wrenching conclusion. In The German Half-Bloods and The Vogels, Jana Petken followed the turbulent lives of an Anglo-German family as they forged their paths through the Second World War. Now, the conflict intensifies in the Soviet States, North Africa, France, and the growing resistance movement in Poland. Will Max, Paul, and Wilmot Vogel survive the most ruthless phase of the war to date? Max takes a path to momentous events in North Africa where he balances undercover games of espionage in decadent Cairo with dangerous missions behind the German Afrika Korps’ lines. Paul’s loyalty to the Third Reich continues to wane as Germany’s extermination programs in Poland expand, and he is stalked by the new Kriminalinspektor, Manfred Krüger. Can he stay one step ahead of a man who has been ordered to destroy him? Wilmot faces new challenges in the Afrika Korps, but is he mentally and physically prepared to lead his men into Libya’s fiery desert and against the British 8^th Army? Before the Brightest Dawn, the long-awaited Book 3 of the Half-Bloods Trilogy, concludes the story of the inextricably entangled fates of three brothers … through a war that becomes increasingly brutal and cruel.
Editorial Review: for Readers' Favorite
In Jana Petken’s Before The Brightest Dawn, Book 3 of The Half-Bloods Trilogy, we are enfolded in a time in history that bears witness to the clichéd saying 'war is hell.' This is a story that reaffirms this wretched truth in a deeply moving way. Told from the perspective of the Vogel family, this epic work of fiction, framed within actual events of World War Two, immerses the reader in foreign worlds torn apart by the ravages and brutality of a global battle for survival. German-born Dieter Vogel and his English wife Laura are proud parents to three sons and a daughter, and when the war erupts in earnest, each member of their family becomes engulfed in fighting in their own particular way, subjected to horrors that confront them and challenge all they hold dear. Thomas Jefferson once said the most successful war seldom pays for its losses. After reading The Brightest Dawn, I know this should read 'never pays for its losses.' In the words of Jana Petken, war holds a ubiquitous disregard for life, and I know life can never be repaid. Before The Brightest Dawn, Book 3 of The Half-Bloods Trilogy by Jana Petken is absolutely compelling reading, which is almost impossible to put down. What is particularly impressive about this book is that in spite of the complexity and detail of the subplots running through the story, the consistency, accuracy, and preciseness of content is maintained to a flawless level throughout. This story has been meticulously laid out to form a coherent and wonderfully gripping tale. The characters and relationships are as real and diverse as any I know, and the empathy I developed for the main players was impressively genuine. I challenge anyone to read this engrossing masterpiece without shedding tears. In summary, this has been one of the best books I have ever read.