WHITE EAGLES & FIREBIRD

Rachael Beresford capably narrates this pair of novella-length audiobooks featuring determined young women facing hardship with courage. In WHITE EAGLES, Kristina Tomiak must pilot a plane from the shattered Polish Air Force across Europe, just a step ahead of the advancing Nazi army. In FIREBIRD, Nastia Nabokova eagerly fights for Mother Russia with only an ancient crop-duster aircraft to pilot against the might of the Luftwaffe. Beresford excels at expressing the girls' inner turmoil and at bringing the anxiety and exhilaration of flight and air combat to life. With her cut-glass English accent and precise diction, she does not attempt to mimic the native accents of her characters, though she does a creditable job tackling a minor character's denture-induced lisp. N.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2021]