Springtime of the Spirit by Maureen Lang

I’ve learned that with all good things come not so good things, too. For me, publication curbs what has been the love of my life: reading. It isn’t that I don’t run for a book in every spare moment like I used to, it’s just that those spare moments are harder to find.

That’s the reason it took me way longer than I wanted to finish Maureen Lang’s newest book Springtime of the Spirit. It’s the third book in The Great War series and it took me to a place I’d never been before: post WWI Germany. I learned all kind of fascinating things as I followed Christophe and Annaliese’s journeys to find themselves and each other. I’ll admit I tend to ignore most of the politics of the past. They have just never interested me as much as the social history—the lives of everyday people. But as usual, Maureen sucked me in with great characters and their own personal conflicts. In spite of myself, I learned some political history. (Of course it doesn’t hurt that I truly love this time period!)

This book can definitely be read as a stand alone, but I love that all three of the books in this series tackle a different time period of those war years in Europe. It really helped me put things in perspective as a whole, especially since most of my own study of the decade of 1910-1920 has focused on America, which had a very different experience from Europe. So if you are looking for a good story in a unique time and place, I encourage you to find all the books in this series: Look to the East, Whisper on the Wind, and Springtime of the Spirit. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!