Happy Friday, friends! I’m so glad it’s Friday – for so many reasons, but one is that it’s time for another First Line Friday linkup hosted by Hoarding Books! Today I’m featuring a book that just came out this week, by a new-to-me author: Fragments of Light by Michèle Phoenix.

Aubry-en-Douve

June 6, 1944

“I was dreaming about carousels the night the sky got loud.”

Fragments of Light by Michèle Phoenix

The Basics

Title: Fragments of Light

Author: Michèle Phoenix

Genre: Christian historical fiction (split-time)

My Rating: 5 Stars

From the Back Cover: An impossible decision in the chaos of D-Day. Ripples that cascade seventy-five years into the present. And two lives transformed by the tenuous resolve to reach out of the darkness toward fragments of light.

Cancer stole everything from Ceelie—her peace of mind, her self-image, perhaps even her twenty-three-year marriage to her college sweetheart, Nate. Without the support of Darlene, her quirky elderly friend, she may not have been able to endure so much loss.

So when Darlene’s prognosis turns dire, Ceelie can’t refuse her seemingly impossible request—to find a WWII paratrooper named Cal, the father who disappeared when Darlene was an infant, leaving a lifetime of desolation in his wake.

The search that begins in the farmlands of Missouri eventually leads Ceelie to a small town in Normandy, where she uncovers the harrowing tale of the hero who dropped off-target into occupied France.

Alternating between Cal’s D-Day rescue by two young French sisters and Ceelie’s present-day journey through trial and heartbreak, Fragments of Light poses a timeless question: When life becomes unbearable, will you press toward the light or let the darkness win?

My Thoughts

This was my first book by Michèle Phoenix, and what a great introduction to her writing! I loved this split-time story that took us through the events of D-Day, both through the eyes of a paratrooper who landed in Normandy that day and the discovery of his daughter and her friend 76 years later. Both storylines were equally engaging, with compelling characters and similar themes woven throughout.

This is a story that shows the true cost of war through the heartbreak and sacrifice it required of Cal, but it is not a story without hope. Darlene, Ceelie, and Nate were all faced with difficult circumstances and presented with the opportunity to choose between anger or forgiveness, bitterness or grace, betrayal or faithfulness. Those are choices we can all relate to, whether we have lived through a war or not. This is a thought-provoking, heart-wrenching, beautiful story that will stick with you long after the last page!

Now it’s your turn! Please share the first line of the book you’re reading in the comments below. Don’t forget to head to Hoarding Books to see what first lines other bloggers are sharing, or to share your own!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.