This is the first book I've read written by Tricia Goyer. What an interesting read!  The topic of Allies' photographic investigators being the "brains" at work of WWII air raids and the involvement of MI5 in the war effort were both unique and fascinating. The author's writing flows well and her description of the countryside in the midst of war is so detailed. 

At first, I was a little confused and had trouble following the premise of the story. I wasn't sure how the characters introduced in the first few chapters were all connected and how these characters will bring together the story. A third way into the story, events and roles of each character fell into place and I raced to the end to find out how the mystery gets solved. 

Emma is an intelligent, vulnerable, stubborn heroine working as WAAF bent on contributing to save the world from Hitler. Will is a loyal, compassionate, loving MI5 agent posing as a painter to thwart the German spies. Their faith is tangible, their loss is real. Their romance felt a bit choppy, perhaps because the plot concentrated heavily on the intrigue of why and who is trying to bring down Danesfield where the photographic reconnaissance is being played out and planned. The ending seemed a little rushed as well, but I guess good overcoming evil can't be dragged out too much. 

Perhaps there will be a sequel?  It sure felt that way when I finished the last page.....

There were more grammatical errors than I would have expected, but since I received an advance review copy, hopefully those errors would have been corrected by now. 

I received ARC from Harvest House via NetGalley. I was not required to give a favorable review. All comments and opinions are solely my own.

An excellent World War II spy novel. Filled with secrets, danger, Emma is a keen eye and works in a secret project looking over photographs. She has to pay very close attention to details. Will is assigned to find out what the threat is to Danesfield. Berndt is determined to bring down Danesfield. Filled with several twists and turns and surprises! Well worth the read! Can't wait for book 2 in the series!

A Secret Courage by Tricia Goyer is a marvellous nail biting, Christian historical suspense. It is the first book in The London Chronicles and what a fabulous series that promises to be.
With the action set in 1943, at the heart of the war, everyone is on high alert. A military house where staff are working on top secret photos and documents, plunges the reader into a world of secrets and lies, agents and double agents, espionage and intrigue. The theme of trust runs deep. "Loose lips sink ships" means secrets must be kept and mouths guarded.
The theme of trust extends to God. He is the Rock and can be trusted. "The only thing she could fix her mind on, was God." War focuses people. They either run to God or away. "She'd believed in God most when the world seemed a safe, good place, but he had found Him while fighting through the darkness." Suffering and death make no sense. If God is good, why does He not step in? "You could stop this war." Life is a battle between good and evil. We have to trust God, especially when life makes no sense.
There is the theme of fathers. Earthly fathers may be absent, for whatever reason. Characters search to belong. 
Life hurts. War exemplifies this hurt as people die. Fences are erected around hearts. "She didn't mind risking her life but the last thing she wanted was to risk her heart." These are meant to protect from hurt but actually mean lives are lived in isolation. God wants us to bring our hurts to Him. "She'd given her broken, guarded heart to God, and He'd softened it." God can be trusted with our hearts.
War changes everything - not just the landscape but people too. Hearts may become hardened and loyalties change. War can bring out the best and the worst in people.
Tricia Goyer has spun a fabulous tale in A Secret Courage. With an intricate plot, and twists and turns, even I began to doubt who could be trusted. The leading lady is wonderfully drawn with a strong work ethic, loyalty and a mixture of strong but vulnerable. She is likable and easy to empathise with.
A Secret Courage was a marvellous read and I cannot wait for book two. Tricia Goyer's books always entertain and inform. I love them.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

A Secret Courage was every bit a riveting as The Swiss Courier! I loved it, even though it made me pretty anxious at times ;)

Emma is a young American woman working as a photo investigator in England during WWII. I did not know about photo investigators or the cool way the photos were taken so that the PIs could find hidden details. That was pretty cool.

Will is, well, I spent about half the book trying to figure out what he was. It was driving me CRAZY! Is he good or bad? Whose side is he on? It really is quite the operation he is running and Goyer does a good job keeping it all straight.

There is sad betrayal and the characters, mostly Emma, sometimes struggle with the horrors of the war and the morality of what is being done. This makes the characters relatable. Emma's struggles with trust and love also make her a more accessible character.

I don't want to reveal too much, but this was a really great book, full of suspense, and it had a nice ending with a happy surprise!!! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction and I'm looking forward to more in this series.

As all Tricia her books this book was great. I just loved it. Had to get used to the fact it wasn't Amish cause thoose are the books i;ve only read of Tricia cause they are translate to Dutch. Do i recommend this book. YES.

One of my favorite periods of history to read about is World War 2. My own grandfather served in the war and I'm sure this is what fuels my interest in this period. A Secret Courage is the first fiction title I've read from Tricia Goyer. I was very excited to give this novel a try and I was not at all disappointed!

A Secret Courage is set in war-time England and centers around the covert operations of the war. Wars are fought and lost upon the backs of the dedicated men and women willing to risk their lives to uncover the secrets of the enemy. It is hard, often overlooked work because of the need for secrecy. I loved learning about how covert photos were taken and analyzed in secrecy. It was a fascinating side of the war I was unfamiliar with prior to this book While the history fascinates me, I do not enjoy reading fiction books which end up feeling like a history text. The author skillfully weaves in the historical information with accuracy and grace so that I was engaged through every page. 

I also liked the slightly different take on the love-story. As with most historical, romances I had a pretty good idea from the beginning which characters were going to get together, but rather than the usual cat-and-mouse game authors tend to give their readers, these two quickly came together. Now every good love-story needs some challenges to overcome, and they are definitely present, but I won't tell you about those and spoil the book for you!

I was also surprised by the ending. Again, I do not want to spoil it, but it was anything other than a neatly wrapped-up story. What I can assure you of is you will not be disappointed. It was one of the best historical fiction books of the World War 2 era I have read in a long time.

Really enjoyed Emma's and William's journey with setting in WW2 and character interaction. This author always delivers a good read to settle in with. 
Ebook from Net galley and publishers with thanks. Opinions are entirely my own.

I enjoy reading WWII fiction because I feel like I learn so much. Such was the case with this story. I liked learning about the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit--their employees, the process, and even the instruments they used. Emma and Will were likable characters, if a bit dramatic, at times. Sometimes, I felt the interactions between characters were stilted or unclear, such as when Emma meets Will's friend, Ruth. At first, Ruth seems to welcome her but then is abruptly cold towards her for no reason. These uncertain interactions happened between several characters. I think the author was trying to throw in some uncertainty so the reader is not sure which character is good or bad but I just found it confusing. I thought some parts awkward and choppy--as if it needed to be edited a bit more. The pace slowed during the middle of the book but then picks up towards the last third. It became more interesting and I was investing in the villain getting his due. There is a slight twist in the end that was a welcome surprise. Overall, I appreciated the historical information and the spiritual component but felt the writing needed to flow more consistently--3.5 stars.
* I received this book free of charge from NetGalley.

Tricia Goyer has written over fifty novels, but I think this is the first I’ve read. The big-picture historical background was new to me, and fascinating. I’ve heard of the codebreaking work that went on at Bletchley Park in World War II England, but I’d never heard of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit at Dansefield House near Henley, England. Reading about the work these men and women did was fascinating, and was the novel's greatest strength. 

The details were less strong—tea with cream, a fried egg for breakfast (rationing, anyone?), references to sidewalks, signposts, the United Nations, and majoring in history in college (a Brit would read history at university).

There was unintentional comedy in the references to British efficiency (if we’re talking national stereotypes, Germans are efficient. The British are bureaucratic). And while I’d like to think the typos in my review copy were all were corrected in the final published version, I don’t think that’s the case. I was able to search the Kindle Look Inside and find Blenheim Place (should be Palace), and American accident (should be accent). Awkward … 

In terms of the plot, I found the first quarter confusing. While it was obvious Will was a double agent, it was less obvious where his true allegiance lay. This made it difficult to engage in the developing romance as I didn’t know whether I was supposed to like Will or loathe him. This made it impossible to engage in what was supposed to be a romance. The middle of the novel often dragged to the point where I considered giving up several times, and I didn’t feel the suspense aspect of the plot really kick in until the last quarter. 

This is the first book in The London Chronicles series, but I can’t say I’m interested enough to follow the rest of the series, even though World War II is one of my favourite historical fiction genres. 

Thanks to Harvest House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

I really enjoyed this book! The romance, intrigue and Christianity were all equally balanced. The only issue I have with the book is the girlfriend of Samuel. Why would Bain need Emma to verify the dead body of the pilot? If the girlfriend loved him so much to hire this man, why wouldn't she be able to tell from the photo herself that it wasn't Samuel?

Unable to read this book fully due to the scrambled formatting of the chapters. The beginning three were fine, then it skipped around to other random chapters after that. I was really looking forward to reading it as I am a fan of the subject matter covered. I have put in a request to my local library to receive a copy and will hopefully be able to receive it soon. I will also hopefully be able to write and submit a proper review for this book within the next couple of months.

I love history , the story was well written , light but very readable but a book that I found hard to put down , fascinating facts , emma  and will the main character s make you wonder about the work men and women did during the war , shows how careful you had to be and how brave  people were . I loved it would love to read another by this author

A Secret Courage by Tricia Goyer

World War Two remains one of my favorite settings for a novel and I’d enjoyed other novels by this author placed in that era, so naturally I was anxious to read A Secret Courage.

A picture is worth a thousand words; Emma Hanson knows this first hand. She spends her days at Danesfield House, peering at photos of Germany through a stereoscope, looking for anything that will help the war effort. Will Flemming believes in this old adage as well. He’s part of a contingent of artists capturing Britain’s changing landscape before the war changes it beyond remembrance. But that’s just his cover; his real job is to find the Nazi spy working out of Danesfield House. When he spots Emma at a café in London, it doesn’t take him long to make her as one of the AICU. He quickly strikes up a conversation and before you can blink, the two are making plans to meet again. Will is working in a town nearby; just close enough to make it easy for them to start seeing each other

I had some struggles with this story. For starters, the deprivation of the war years seems to have passed our characters by, with cream, sugar, and coffee all being readily available in England in 1943. Will’s cover assignment as an artist rather than being assigned directly to Danesfield House seemed odd to me as well. I didn’t find the arguments made for this choice to be very strong.

Add in the fact that the book depends entirely on the love at first sight trope and that the characters are two dimensional and you have a story that skims at a slightly below average range. There is some interesting history sprinkled throughout the text and a mildly intriguing mystery gives the tale a modicum of momentum but I found A Secret Courage to be slow-going overall. I will hopefully enjoy the author’s next book more but I simply can’t recommend this one to anyone but Ms. Goyer’s diehard fans.

Always enjoy the writings of Ms Goyer...another masterpiece.

One of my favorite aspects of historical fiction is getting to experience a piece of history I never knew about. With Tricia Goyer’s A Secret Courage, it was seeing women examining photographs to try to figure out things that Hitler was doing during WWII. I found it to be a fascinating aspect of this novel.

A Secret Courage does a wonderful job of immersing the reader in WWII England after the blitz on London. There are military secrets and espionage all over this book. It made it a fun read and really transported me there. While I prefer characters that are a bit more developed than I found in this book, they were still fun to get to know as they invited me into their world.

One piece of this book that I struggled with though as a reader, was that at times who some of the characters were are a bit confusing. When dealing with spies and double agents, it isn’t always clear who is on which side. While sometimes this can allow for some interesting twists, in this case, it just made for a slower read.

But overall, I did enjoy the book. And if you are looking for a good WWII read, this is certainly worth looking into.

I just finished reading A Secret Courage (The London Chronicles Book 1) by Tricia Goyer.  Travel with me to the countryside from London circa 1943 to Danesfield House.  Hidden behind the doors of this beautiful manor estate are men and women doing their part to win the war in Europe. What they didn't know could have crippled their work and cost them their lives because a spy was in their midst!  Espionage and intrigue made for those special discoveries that led to usurping air strikes that could have decimated Great Britain following the terrible blitz on London.

The cast of characters were brilliantly written and each part played a role that suited their surroundings. Emma, our heroine was an American who traveled to England to study at Oxford. Her mother hailed from England and emigrated to America after marrying a soldier from the states after W.W.I.  Emma joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force soon after war broke out.  Stationed at Danesfield House, her job was carefully studying aerial photographs taken over Germany for signs of anything out of the ordinary.

Will Fleming, is a handsome Englishman who worked for the British government recording the changes in the landscape of the country through his painting.  He and Emma met by chance at a bookstore while she and her friend Vera were on leave for a day.

Vera, along with Georgette are Emma's friends and coworkers. These women work closely together and also share living quarters.  The ladies lived in Nissen huts, which are what I grew up knowing as "Quonset huts.  
 
Adding to the intrigue was Berndt, who, as a handyman, seemed to be everywhere.  Edward, the sergeant who was Emma's superior officer, supervised Emma and her coworkers.  The work being done on this estate was paramount to the cause and security was strict. People who worked together didn't necessarily know all the pieces of a project or why locations of study were chosen.  The timing was just as cryptic, making it difficult for the information to be cracked.

Emma was a dedicated member of the W.A.A.F. who was vigilant in the secret nature of her work.  Her only brother, Samuel, a pilot lost his life when his plane was downed.  She mourned his loss greatly and she worked all the harder to contribute her best to the war effort. It was her fervent hope that if she could find an important clue while studying the photographs perhaps she could help save the lives of others.  

The plot of A Secret Courage was well constructed and the characters well written.  All mysteries seem to have a red herring or two and while I had some suspicions, I'll admit I was surprised more than once.  It is fun to guess an outcome but much better find that the author truly kept a mystery, creating a better book.  I heartily recommend this book. I am glad that it is only book one in a series because I feel there is more to unfold in this story.

Tricia Goyer writes incredible Amish Fiction, and she writes World War II Era fiction and some non-fiction.  A Secret Courage is a WWII era book that details the life of a Photo Investigator. There are spies, double agents, counter spies, and a budding romance. I didn't find this book as enticing as her Amish fiction.  With all the characters carrying main roles in the book, there just wasn't enough time or space to develop them all.  The setting was well described and fit its role in the book.

Emma is the Photographic Investigator charged with scouring photos of the German countryside looking for weapons installations and possible rocket launch sites. 

Will is an artist whose job it is to paint pictures of England where the war has not touched it. 

Berndt is a German spy wanting to bring Emma's work down.

Ruth is a German woman taking care of war orphans, but that's only her cover for her duplicitous actions.

Both Will and Berndt want to get to know Emma more because she has information that can help or hurt the English cause by their own agendas. 

I wish I could have liked the book better than I did.  Three stars.

My thanks to Harvest House Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.

"One's true character shines brightest in the midst of storm."
A young American woman becomes immersed in a special branch of military intelligence working as a photograph investigator in WWII England. She finds her gift for memorizing details places her in a unique position to help the Allies, and help further the war effort. As the loss of her brother motivates her to focus on work, an unexpected romance just seems to bring complications.

A large country estate in a little English village was the perfect setting for a special intelligence operation, and a group of dedicated women working covertly in the WAAF. It was interesting to learn more about their roles in the war and think how difficult it was to keep everything under wraps. "Loose lips sink ships." 
As the tension built and plot twists were revealed, the story picked up and grew suspenseful. A lot of inspirational moments added depth to Emma's character as she wrestled with her questions of faith. 

Recommend to readers who like clean historical romances with faith and some action. Okay for teens and up. Fans of Foyle's War and WWII stories will like this one.

A Secret Courage

by Tricia Goyer

Harvest House Publishers

Christian , Historical Fiction

Pub Date 01 Apr 2017 

I am voluntarily reviewing a copy of A Secret Courage through Harvest Hope Publishers and Netgalley:

Emma Hanson came to England from America to study at Oxford, her best friend is Vera Miller but at the height of the war she joins the Auxillary Air Force during the height of World War 2 where she is quickly recruited to become part of the secretive Photographic Reconnansance Unit.

Will Fleming is an Englishman, and a young artist who is called onto change the landscape in paintings, soon Will and Emma develop a friendship.

Soon Emma finds herself facing danger, fearing for her very life.  Can Emma find love in a time of war, can she overcome her looses.

I give A Secret Courage five out of five stars.

Happy Reading.

I love stories about the roles women played in any of the war efforts, especially World War 1 and 2, and no one can truly write a great novel about the war, women, romance and a little intrigue better than Tricia Goyer. In her latest London Chronicles series, A Secret Courage takes us into the life of Emma Hanson, an American who is employed working at Danefield House in Medmenham, a small English village at the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit. Her job is to survey the photographs that Spitfire planes used over Germany in hopes of planning the next bombing run and hopefully ensure a success. She is feeling guilty since her brother Samuel was killed during the war when his plane didn't return. Emma's job was to look at these photos allied survey pilots had returned from their flights photographing German points of interest - bases, airfields, manufacturing plants, bridges. Upon landing at Benson airfield, First Phase photo officers debriefed the weary pilots, attempting to pinpoint the exact locations where the photos were taken. Once the actual photographs were printed, the prints were plotted and initial information put into a report. Both the report and photos were setnt to Emma's team and that is where her work began.

Her job was to spot inconsistencies in the photos and uncover where the Germans might be hiding artillery, building new weapons or as Emma is about to find out, discovering where Hitler plans on unleashing his secret weapon, a rocket that can hit England. She finds comfort with her friends Vera and Georgette who believe she needs to find someone who can steal her heart. But she isn't about to let anything stand in the way of her work. After all, she signed the Official Secrets Act and word of her work to anyone breached her oath, and she could be court-martialed. She just doesn't plan on falling for Will Fleming, a fellow book lover whom she met in a bookstore and now he serves as an artist in the war efforts to capture the essence of what remains of the towns after the war in hopes of keeping the faith of those involved in the war alive and well.

But Will is not at all whom he seems and needs to find a way into the Danefield House due to reports that all that are employed there might be compromised in their security by someone working on the inside. But who can trust whom? If Will is hiding something from Emma does that mean he is hiding his true feelings for her as well and she is only a pawn in his espionage plots to gain information on what is happening in Danefield House? The plot is just beginning to thicken as the body counts begin to rise and Will just might be the next target!

I received A Secret Courage by Tricia Goyer compliments of Harvest House Publishers and Net Galley. I absolutely loved learning about the PI's or photo investigators like Emma. How she signed up with the Women's Auxillary Air Force, where she was conscripted into a special unit without a clue what it entailed. It must have been difficult not knowing if you could trust your friends, because even they didn't share what they were working on and you had to be careful what you said in casual conversations. I absolutely LOVED this new series and can't wait to expand on what I believe will be Vera's and Georgette's novels in the future. I give this one a 5 out of 5 stars!