2021 The Christy Award Finalists (and a Giveaway!): Sarah Sundin & When Twilight Breaks

Happy Thursday one more time for today! Continuing until October 28th (culminating with a list of winners), I have the privilege of featuring all of the 2021 The Christy Award Finalists! Today I’m featuring Sarah Sundin and her historical romance Christy Award finalist book When Twilight Breaks! You can check out a list of all the finalists HERE.

WHEN TWILIGHT BREAKS
GENRE: Inspirational Historical Romance
PUBLISHER: Revell
RELEASE DATE: February 2, 2021
PAGES: 372

Munich, 1938

Evelyn Brand is an American foreign correspondent determined to prove her worth in a male-dominated profession and to expose the growing tyranny in Nazi Germany. To do so, she must walk a thin line. If she offends the government, she could be expelled from the country–or worse. If she does not report truthfully, she’ll betray the oppressed and fail to wake up the folks back home.

Peter Lang is an American graduate student working on his PhD in German. Disillusioned with the chaos in the world due to the Great Depression, he is impressed with the prosperity and order of German society. But when the brutality of the regime hits close, he discovers a far better way to use his contacts within the Nazi party–to feed information to the shrewd reporter he can’t get off his mind.

As the world marches relentlessly toward war, Evelyn and Peter are on a collision course with destiny.

affiliate links used

I asked the author for a peek inside…

Berlin, Germany
March 15, 1938

Evelyn Brand had done a crack bit of journalism, and she hadn’t even had to dress like a man to do so.

She perched her hip on the desk in the American News Service office in Berlin, while Hamilton Chase, the European bureau chief, reviewed her article.

George Norwood, the Berlin bureau chief, paced the office, glaring at Evelyn. If he’d arrived in Vienna on time, the story of the year would have been his, not hers. But he hadn’t, so it wasn’t.

After Adolf Hitler bullied the Austrian government into allowing Nazi Germany to annex the country, German troops had marched across the border without firing a shot.

And Evelyn would get the ANS byline.

She’d stood under the blood-red swastika flags as the Führer’s cavalcade rolled into Vienna to cries of “Heil, Hitler!” In her story, she’d described the little girl tossing flowers and the black-uniformed SS officer handing the bouquet to the Führer.

But she’d also described how a mob forced two dozen Jews to scrub anti-Nazi graffiti from the sidewalk. She could still see the silver-haired man down on his knees, still see the jeering boy knock the gentleman’s hat into the gutter.

When Chase set down the article, Evelyn gave him a triumphant smile. “It’s good, isn’t it?”

He ground his cigarette in the ashtray. “Yes, it’s good.”

“Good?” Norwood flung a hand in her direction. “She shouldn’t have been there. She’s assigned to Munich.”

“I’m in the room, Mr. Norwood.” Evelyn sent her boss a thin smile. “I was already in Vienna.”

“I was on my way.” Norwood glowered as if Evelyn were a naughty five-year-old.

Silver fanned back in Chase’s sandy hair. “Why were you in Vienna?”

Evelyn rearranged her skirt over her knees. “My roommate is a flautist, and she wanted to attend a concert in Vienna. I didn’t think she should travel alone, given the tensions.” More like she’d used the concert to lure Libby into accompanying her to Vienna. Bait and switch, Libby had said. She wasn’t incorrect.

“She tried to sneak into the press conference.” Norwood ran his hand through his hair.

“I didn’t sneak. I presented my press pass and asked politely.” Instead of asking why Evelyn was in Vienna, Chase should have asked why Norwood wasn’t. The only major news service without a correspondent in town. Almost criminal.

Norwood blew out a roiling cloud of cigarette smoke. “She knew she wouldn’t be admitted. She wasn’t on the list.”

Evelyn crossed her arms. “Sorensen from the New York Press-Herald wasn’t on the list. He got in. But he’s a man. I should have—”

“Don’t even think about it.” Chase speared her with his gaze. “I will not have a repeat of the Paris fiasco.”

Evelyn lowered her chin. “Yes, sir.” If only she’d used more pomade that day. With her fence-post figure and a man’s suit, she’d been admitted to the press conference given by that woman-hating French official. No one would have been the wiser if tendrils of hair hadn’t sprung from under her fedora.

Chase handed Evelyn’s article to Norwood. “Send it to New York.”

Evelyn clutched her hands in her lap. “Please keep the part about the man and the hat. America needs to know. I owe it to him.”

“To him?”

“The man on his knees.” If Libby hadn’t held her back, Evelyn would have rushed to his aid. And she would have failed, one woman against a mob.

“Fight with words,” Libby had told her. “Your words have power.”

Not if edited to death by George Norwood.

Sarah Sundin, When Twilight Breaks
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2021. Used by permission.

Sarah Sundin is an ECPA-bestselling author of World War II novels, including When Twilight Breaks and Until Leaves Fall in Paris (coming February 2022). When Twilight Breaks is a 2021 Christy Award finalist, The Land Beneath Us was a 2020 Christy Award finalist, and The Sky Above Us received the 2020 Carol Award. A mother of three adult children, Sarah lives in California and teaches Sunday school and Bible studies. She serves as co-director of the West Coast Christian Writers Conference and enjoys speaking for church, community, and writers’ groups. http://www.sarahsundin.com.

Sarah Sundin is offering a print copy of her February 2022 release, Until Leaves Fall in Paris, to one of my readers! (US only. Will be mailed to winner once book releases. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What about you? What makes you want to read the historical romance Christy Award finalist When Twilight Breaks by Sarah Sundin? Or, if you’ve read it already, what did you love about it?