Our Stories BEFORE The Story ~ Love's Belief ~ Pia and Dieter

My name is Pia Hertz, and I’m from Berlin, Germany. I wanted to be a doctor and attended university, but it became apparent rather quickly that I was swimming against the tide and would never be accepted to medical school. I finished my degree in biology and went into practice with my mother Sabine. It’s been just the two of us since Vati passed away when I was a young girl. It was hard to grow up without a father, but Mutti did her best, and we are very close. I decided I would never marry after my fiancé threw me over for another girl. Mutti and I have been helping women from all walks of life deliver their babies since long before Hitler came to power. But the Nuremburg Laws were enacted requiring us to report the birth of Jewish babies and infants who are born with defects, so the authorities can take them away. We cannot let that happen, so like the midwives in the Old Testament who saved the babies from Pharaoh, we are disobeying the mandates. We can only hope we are not caught, because the punishment is death.

I’m Dieter Fertig, and despite disagreeing with Hitler and his cronies, I was drafted into the German Army in 1939. As horrifying and painful as it was to lose my arm at the Battle of Drøbak Sound in April of 1940, the injury got me out of the military. I returned home to Berlin to my wife, and we opened a small shop that carries a little bit of everything. She became pregnant, but childbirth was difficult, and I lost both her and my son. They’ve been gone just over two years now, and I didn’t think I’d ever love again, but I met the most intriguing woman, who is determined to put herself at risk for the sake of mothers and their babies. Then she asked for my help. Life is now more dangerous than when I was carrying a rifle for the Führer.

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Our Story Title:   Love's Belief

Our Story Genre:  Christian Historical Romance

Our Story Releases:   May 15, 2019

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The Author of Our Story:    Linda Shenton Matchett

Linda Shenton Matchett is an author, speaker, and history geek. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry and has lived in historic places all her life. Linda is a member of ACFW, RWA, and Sisters in Crime. She is a volunteer docent at the Wright Museum of WWII.

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  Get Connected:

• Website:  http://www.LindaShentonMatchett.com
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LindaShentonMatchettAuthor
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lindasmatchett
• Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/lindasmatchett

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WHERE can the book be purchased?

• Amazon: https://amzn.to/2GeGmfR
• Kobo Books: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/love-s-belief
• Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/book/id1459365377

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Linda Matchett will gift a winner an autographed copy of
LOVE'S BELIEF

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHERE TO REACH YOU IF YOU WIN!

DRAWING TO BE HELD WEDNESDAY EVENING ~ July 24, 2019.

My Story BEFORE The Story ~ Maria von Wedemeyer ~ My Dearest Dietrich

My name is Maria von Wedemeyer. I was born in 1924 at Pätzig Estate in Pomerania. I’m the third of seven children. Growing up, I was blessed to be a part of a loving and supportive family. I’ve always been especially close to my vater, Hans von Wedemeyer. He taught me how to ride a horse, how to appreciate nature. Together, along with my dear brother Max, we would spend hours on horseback, touring the estate and stopping to chat with our tenant farmhands. Rarely have I felt freer than in those moments.

Our extended family is also close, and I share a special relationship with my maternal grossmutter, Ruth von Kleist. She taught her grandchildren the piano, and her home was always open to our visits. One Sunday morning when I and some of my siblings were staying at her home, she announced we would be attending church at a chapel run by a group of seminarians who were studying in the area. Due to Hitler’s restrictions on the church, pastors who wished to be trained independently of the Reich had to do so in secret. My highly-opinionated grossmutter would not be told what to do by anyone, least of all Adolf Hitler, and she pledged her full support to this group of seminarians and their leader. That morning, I met him for the first name. His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I found myself awed by him, and moved by his sermon. As a young person growing up in 1930s Germany, it was difficult to know whom to look to for guidance, whom one could trust was truly doing the will of God. Our family found such a person in Dietrich.

I attended boarding school at Wieblingen Academy. The leader of the school was Elisabeth von Thadden. We students recognized right away that our fiery teacher wasn’t about to bow to the Nazis, nor teach us to do so. Even in the way she gave the Hitler salute—compulsory at the start of morning classes—she showed her dislike by limply raising her arm as if swatting a fly. I dearly loved that school and graduated with honors, especially in mathematics.

After graduation in 1942, I embarked upon a round of visits to friends and family before beginning my compulsory term of national service. Foremost among these was a stay with my grossmutter. It was there, on a sunlit June evening, that I was reunited with Dietrich Bonhoeffer again. After that evening, nothing in my life would ever again be the same.

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My Story Title:  My Dearest Dietrich:
A Novel of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Lost Love


My Story Genre:  Historical Fiction


My Story Released:   June 09, 2019

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The Author of My Story: 

Amanda Barratt is the ECPA best-selling author of several novels and novellas, including My Heart Belongs in Niagara Falls, New York. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and a two-time FHL Reader's Choice Award finalist. She and her family live in northern Michigan.

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  Get Connected:

• Website: www.amandabarratt.net.

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WHERE can the book be purchased?

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• Christian Book Distributors

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Amanda Barratt will be honored to gift a winner a signed copy of
My Dearest Dietrich

Be sure to leave a comment to be entered into the drawing!

DRAWING TO BE HELD WEDNESDAY EVENING ~ July 03, 2019.