The Stuff of Love: Joined by Love for Orphans Four Couples Find Romance During World War II

by Dianna Crawford, Cathy Marie Hake, Kelly Eileen Hake

In four interwoven novellas set in 1941, an American OSS officer enlists a mother and daughter in America and two of their relatives in Europe to carry out a clever plan. They sew dolls for the children of the war-torn continent...but add a life-saving twist: Hidden in each doll are the funds and documents necessary to smuggle children away from certain death. A plan as simple and dangerous as this requires cooperation and trust. Whom can these Christians rely upon? As they labor, each finds a special helper to whom they bond in heart and soul while completing their important task.

Genres: Christian Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

About the author

Dianna Crawford, best-selling author of 13 novels and 5 novellas, lives in Southern California with her husband, Byron, and the youngest of her four daughters. She was given a great start with her first novel in 1992. Writing for the general market as Elaine Crawford, she was fortunate to have it become a best-seller and be nominated for Best First Book with Romance Writers of America. Three more novels and 3 novellas followed under that name.
But she much prefers writing Christian historical fiction. She feels that much of our wonderful Christian heritage has been diluted or distorted, if not completely deleted, from the general market and texts. She felt very blessed when she and co-author Sally Laity were given the opportunity by Tyndale House to write a six-book fiction series centered on the romance, adventures, and miracles that took place during the American Revolution.

The Freedom’s Holy Light series by Sally Laity and Dianna Crawford includes The Gathering Dawn, The Kindled Flame, The Tempering Blaze (for which she was again nominated for a RITA), The Fires of Freedom, The Embers of Hope, and The Torch of Triumph.

Writing with Rachel Druten, she published Out of the Darkness for Barbour. Writing alone as Dianna Crawford, she has published two novellas in A Victorian Christmas Tea and With This Ring. Her latest series, Reardon Brothers, is a frontier romance in the HeartQuest imprint from Tyndale House. The first book, Freedom’s Promise, was published in February 2000. Freedom’s Hope was released in the fall of 2000, and Freedom's Belle in February 2001. Dianna has had five novels featured as book club selections, and two novellas were reprinted in large print.

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty good, not quite what I was expecting, though. I thought it was going to be a little more involved regarding WWII and more focused on the issue of rescuing children through the use of the dolls. I would have liked if the book included something that informed the reader as to the result of the use of the dolls. However, the four authors did an amazing job in connecting their stories. They were all uniform in the way they were written and they carried over nicely to one another. This book could be considered a slightly romantic book, I would say.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novella collection of four stories about people helping Jewish orphans during World War II. "A Living Doll" by Cathy Marie Hake introduces us to Paul Kincaid who sees the dolls Rosemary Fulton makes and gets the idea to use them to smuggle funds to Denmark to use to save Jewish children. As Paul and Rosemary get to know each other, they fall in love. "Filled with Joy" by Kelly Eileen Hake continues the previous story. The Kincaids take in a wounded serviceman, Roy, whose father is a friend of Paul's. As Roy helps them with the dolls, he and Rosemary's daughter, Valerie become close. "A Thread of Trust" by Sally Laity takes place in Copenhagen, focusing on Axel Christiansen, and his sister Annelise who run an import/export business and are Paul's contacts. When American serviceman Erik Nielsen arrives to help forge documents at the same time as a Nazi captain who has designs on Annelise, Axel introduces Erik as Annelise's fiance. "A Stitch of Faith" by Dianna Crawford finds Axel picking up Sorena Bruhn on the street as she races after Shimon, a young Jewish boy who is chasing the Nazi truck that took away his parents. Axel, Sorena, and Shimon have quite an adventure in their quest for safety.

[Soleil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet stories. The romance is rushed but they are short stories

[Kelly Grainger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really hope to find more written by these four authors. Their stories were really cohesive and writing styles complimented each other immensely.

[Shelli Black Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was given to me. I can honestly say that I would have never picked this to read on my own, but I was waiting for a reserved book at the library, and had some time to kill. I'm happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Set during World War II, it tells the story of people from several countries who are helping Jews escape from the Nazis. Their methods are creative, to say the least. The book is fiction, but there are quite a few historical facts as well - enough for any history buff to give a thumbs up. Of course, there are a few liberties taken with the story, things that aren't necessarily historical or even truthful ... but this is a fictional story.

The only downside to the book, for me, were the overly religious overtones, which is precisely the reason I wouldn't have chosen it for myself. It was fairly easy to grit my teeth through the religious ramblings that peppered almost every page and move on to the meat of the story.

All in all, this is a surprisingly good story, and an easy read.

[Susan]

This was really interesting. There was a lot in it that I didn't know about WWII and the resistance to the war efforts here in the United States. I've read stories about the resistance in France and Sweden, but not in Denmark before.

[Colleen Forry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible stories of Americans and Europeans joining together to save Jewish children during WWII.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another series I enjoyed. This follows how several couples find each other, one right after the other, through WWII.