A daddy’s girl through and through, Wanda Odwaga passionately follows in the footsteps of her family in standing against Hitler. But this courageous stand costs Wanda dearly. Her brother is missing, her father has been murdered in their home, and Wanda is anything but safe. To Wanda, this dreadful war has taken on great meaning in a very personal way. Across the ocean, Finn Keller is recruited for a unique undercover mission. His twin brother is a vicious Nazi zealot and Finn is to travel to Europe and slip unnoticed into the role of his brother but as a spy, hopefully turning the tide of the war. The trouble is, Finn never counted on falling in love with the woman whose father his brother assassinated. After complex family drama, war fervor, romantic tensions, and missed opportunities, The Last Sketch reaches its electrifying climax.
Gosia Nealon writes from the heart in The Last Sketch, an incredibly moving piece of historical fiction picking up near the end of World War II. The well-documented atrocities fomented by Hitler’s Third Reich make it difficult to write an enjoyable novel taking place during that period. Yet, Nealon manages to suffuse enough love, courage, and hope into this agile story, helping to balance out an oppressive regime and its senseless genocide. The pacing is brisk, barely leaving time to develop the characters, as the brave men and women that form the resistance and Wanda’s personal life are revealed to readers in quick snippets. Although the book’s history is several decades in the past, the punchy dialogue feels utterly modern, making for a less daunting read than a more immersive, heavy work. My favorite aspect of the book is the resolute theme of always moving forward. Whether times are good or bad, Wanda and Finn somehow always manage to move on, even when their hearts beat heavily in their chests and try to pull them in different directions. For a peppy take on a dark time in human history, The Last Sketch is an action-packed story that dots all the i’s and crosses all the t’s.
