This book is quite thick. It includes eight novellas that are connected by a single story. It also includes historical information about each of the people the main character of each novella is based on. There is also a Translation Key in the back of the book for some of the French and German words, as well as photos and information of vehicles mentioned in the stories from that time period. There are also Discussion Questions at the end of each novella and at the end of the book. You will also find an “Inspired by Real Events” section that gives more real historical information. Therefore, this book would definitely appeal to History Buffs, especially World War II History Buffs.

My Thoughts on the Virtures and Valor Series:

As I’ve said, this story is written as eight novellas. Each novella is based on a different character, and each character is based on a real life person from the WWII time period. I really enjoyed reading about each character and learning about their part in what was happening during the war. Ms. Bridgeman chose to base seven of the eight novellas on real life women and the eighth book on a real life man.

I struggled with the actual “story” in which these characters took part. Since Ms. Bridgeman chose to write the story as novellas and each novella was based on a different character, I didn’t feel like the story flowed well. The characters were well developed, but the story was lacking the build-up, tension, and suspense it might have had as one story. Instead, several scenes were simply repeated from the perspective of different characters. Therefore, I didn’t really enjoy the story and found it getting a bit old by the end of the eighth novella.

However, I very much enjoyed everything about the individual characters, and as someone who loves History, I appreciate all of the hard work and research Ms. Bridgeman obviously put into this series to fill it with actual historical people and events.

With all of that being said, I would highly recommend this book to those who LOVE History and learning about true historical people and events. In my opinion books such as this are of great value because so much “true” history is being distorted or hidden from the general public, which, in my opinion, is gross negligence because I believe it is of the utmost importance to know true history, for that is the only way to prevent repeating the horrors of the past.