Today I’m pleased to be taking part in the blog tour for Hidden In The Shadows. I’m sharing a guest post from author Imogen Matthews with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the blog tour and of course, Imogen Matthews for writing her guest post!

Blurb:

Escape from the hidden village is just the beginning

This riveting sequel brings the story of the WW2 fiction bestseller, The Hidden Village, to its dramatic conclusion.

September 1944: The hidden village is in ruins. Stormed by the Nazis. Several are dead and dozens flee for their lives.

Instead of leading fellow survivors to safety, Wouter panics and abandons Laura, the love of his life. He has no choice but to keep running from the enemy who want to hunt him down.

Laura must also stay hidden as she is Jewish. Moving from one safe house to another, she is concealed in attics and cellars. The threat of discovery is always close at hand.

On the run with no end in sight, the two young Dutch people despair of ever seeing each other again.

As cold sweeps in signaling the start of the Dutch Hunger Winter, time is running out.

Wouter’s search now becomes a battle for survival.

Where can Laura be? Will they ever be reunited?

Hidden in the Shadows is an unforgettable story of bravery and love, inspired by historical events.

Guest Post:

Imogen Matthews tells us more about Hidden In The Shadows and its prequel, The Hidden Village. 

Hidden in the Shadows is a heartrending and unusual love story set in WW2 in German occupied Holland. Wouter and Laura meet and fall in love while in hiding from the Nazis, but are torn apart when their woodland hiding place is discovered. In the chaos that ensues, they lose one another, but must keep moving to evade capture by the enemy. Laura is Jewish and risks deportation to a concentration camp; Wouter is forced into hiding after refusing to go to work in Germany for the Nazis.

Although Hidden in the Shadows is a novel, it is based on true events from WW2, when the Netherlands was invaded and occupied by the Nazis for five whole years. Imogen has strong associations through her Dutch mother, who was a young woman when war broke out, and her frequent visits to the Veluwe, where her novels take place. 

On one of her many visits, Imogen discovered the woodland village which was built specifically to shelter persecuted people, including many Jews. Her research uncovered a local community who pulled together with considerable risk to themselves to ensure their fellow human beings remained safe. 

This woodland hideaway was the setting for Imogen’s first novel The Hidden Village and is where the sequel, Hidden in the Shadows, begins. From here, the story zig zags across the country as Laura flees from one hiding place to another. Wouter follows one tip-off after another and never gives up his search, often at great danger to his own safety. But as cold sweeps in signaling the start of the Hunger Winter, Wouter’s search for his beloved Laura becomes a battle for survival. 

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Hidden In The Shadows and The Hidden Village are both available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: