What do you think?
Rate this book
For Beau: The Sarah Ashdown Story
The ground shook with each bomb that fell on London. The night sky lit up, and the sounds of gunfire overwhelmed the city as our brave men fought back. It took so many bombs to fall on this great city to make the Germans realize that England could not be defeated. It took just one bomb to make one woman realize her true destiny.
Sarah Ashdown’s insurmountable guilt and remorse over the death of a young girl sets in motion one of the most unbelievable stories of World War II. An ordinary housewife who defied the odds to become one of the most wanted women in occupied Europe, her story of determination and courage will shock and inspire those who read it.
Sarah Ashdown’s insurmountable guilt and remorse over the death of a young girl sets in motion one of the most unbelievable stories of World War II. An ordinary housewife who defied the odds to become one of the most wanted women in occupied Europe, her story of determination and courage will shock and inspire those who read it.
408 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 15, 2016
96 people want to read
About the author
Simon Gandossi
3 books95 followersSimon Gandossi is a historical fiction author who was born and raised in Western Australia. From an early age, Simon discovered a passion for history and writing. It is that passion combined with his desire to bring to light the different aspects of the past that makes him a unique writer. There are a lot of people who give up so much to follow their dreams, and Simon is no different. To become a professional writer is difficult, but his hard work and determination has seen him develop from an amateur to a full-time writer in just a few years. To learn more about Simon, please visit www.simongandossi.com.
"I want everyone to take a step back in time when they read my books. Every book should take the reader on a journey. With my dedication to preserving history, I know that each and every person will begin that journey from the very first word" - Simon Gandossi
"I want everyone to take a step back in time when they read my books. Every book should take the reader on a journey. With my dedication to preserving history, I know that each and every person will begin that journey from the very first word" - Simon Gandossi
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 14, 2018
Thoroughly enjoyed this.
July 30, 2018
This book will haunt you days after reading. I am still haunted. Set in Britton during the height of World War II for Beau tells the moving and compelling tale basically of women’s secret participation in the World War. Sarah Ashdown is found and her story is remarkably harrowing. Gandossi wraps history and fiction into a believability that harrowing and emotional. While this is historical fiction you can not forget that this fiction is not too far from facts. The character of Sarah Ashdown is probably based on a real person. I think that is what makes For Beau so heart turning.
Gandossi writes his words with passion making you unable to pull away. While I love history, historical fiction is not really my thing, yet Gandossi entertained me. Haunted me with his work. The only thing that bothered me was his use of italics. He used italics to represent the present and non-italics to represent the past. This disrupted my reading a bit for the editor in me would think the present would be in non-italics and the past in italics. That aside the book was enjoyable and Sarah Ashdown's harrowing tale will resonate with me for a while.
Gandossi writes his words with passion making you unable to pull away. While I love history, historical fiction is not really my thing, yet Gandossi entertained me. Haunted me with his work. The only thing that bothered me was his use of italics. He used italics to represent the present and non-italics to represent the past. This disrupted my reading a bit for the editor in me would think the present would be in non-italics and the past in italics. That aside the book was enjoyable and Sarah Ashdown's harrowing tale will resonate with me for a while.
July 20, 2017
This story was amazing! Gandossi did a wonderful job portraying Sarah’s story. Sarah’s dear friend passed away and her husband disappeared. Sarah couldn’t cope with the loss so she left everything she knew and moved to France. Now, the French Resistance was working to fight off the German Army at this time and Sarah decided to help fight instead of doing nothing.
I really liked Sarah and how brave she was to leave everything she knew and move to a different country. That in itself must’ve been hard enough let alone joining an army to help fight a war. I highly recommend Gandossi’s For Beau.
I really liked Sarah and how brave she was to leave everything she knew and move to a different country. That in itself must’ve been hard enough let alone joining an army to help fight a war. I highly recommend Gandossi’s For Beau.
February 26, 2019
3.5 Cranky Stars
I enjoy reading Historical Fiction, especially books about WWII, so I was looking forward to this book. The description of the book says that it is about an ordinary woman, Sarah Ashdown, who joins the Resistance after a young girl is killed during an air raid bombing in London.
The young girl, named Beaux (Beau) idolized Sarah, much like a younger sister. When Sarah gets angry and tells Beau to go home, she leaves in tears and is killed in the air raid shortly thereafter. Sarah is full of remorse for Beau's death and decides to join the Resistance to fight the Nazis who are threatening her way of life.
The story of the air raids and their effect on the people of London is truly haunting and very descriptive. The author does a wonderful job of making you feel like you are right there with Sarah as she walks through the devastation.
Another part of the story that was poignant was Sarah's friend, Mary, who becomes pregnant while her fiance is away fighting the war. I would have liked to have more insight into Mary's thinking about her actions during this time, but her story is basically just a sideline to Sarah's.
There were several things about this book that made it less than a great book for me. First of all, the book starts out with Sarah in her later years of life, living in a nursing home and telling her story to a group of journalists. Once she starts telling her tale, the author often interrupted the flow of the story with a comment about Sarah being offered tea or tissues while telling her tale. I would have rather had the story be just about Sarah's time during the War instead of having this secondary part of the book added in. I did not think that it contributed anything to the story and in fact found it to be very distracting.
At times, the author's writing was very descriptive and really drew me in, while at other times, I got bored reading about Sarah's fixing tea, walking past vendors, etc. Some of these long descriptions were told in choppy, short sentences, which I find bothersome.
There were some notable quotes:
"Being scared means the enemy gets what they want. If I was to be killed by a bomb, then it was just my time."
"She will always be with me, wherever I go. From now on, everything I do is for her."
"Sometimes it takes a tragedy to make you realise how much a person meant to you."
Maybe I am just used to reading more exciting, faster moving tales, but this book tended to drag for me. I found myself skimming through a lot of it instead of savoring the read.
I enjoy reading Historical Fiction, especially books about WWII, so I was looking forward to this book. The description of the book says that it is about an ordinary woman, Sarah Ashdown, who joins the Resistance after a young girl is killed during an air raid bombing in London.
The young girl, named Beaux (Beau) idolized Sarah, much like a younger sister. When Sarah gets angry and tells Beau to go home, she leaves in tears and is killed in the air raid shortly thereafter. Sarah is full of remorse for Beau's death and decides to join the Resistance to fight the Nazis who are threatening her way of life.
The story of the air raids and their effect on the people of London is truly haunting and very descriptive. The author does a wonderful job of making you feel like you are right there with Sarah as she walks through the devastation.
Another part of the story that was poignant was Sarah's friend, Mary, who becomes pregnant while her fiance is away fighting the war. I would have liked to have more insight into Mary's thinking about her actions during this time, but her story is basically just a sideline to Sarah's.
There were several things about this book that made it less than a great book for me. First of all, the book starts out with Sarah in her later years of life, living in a nursing home and telling her story to a group of journalists. Once she starts telling her tale, the author often interrupted the flow of the story with a comment about Sarah being offered tea or tissues while telling her tale. I would have rather had the story be just about Sarah's time during the War instead of having this secondary part of the book added in. I did not think that it contributed anything to the story and in fact found it to be very distracting.
At times, the author's writing was very descriptive and really drew me in, while at other times, I got bored reading about Sarah's fixing tea, walking past vendors, etc. Some of these long descriptions were told in choppy, short sentences, which I find bothersome.
There were some notable quotes:
"Being scared means the enemy gets what they want. If I was to be killed by a bomb, then it was just my time."
"She will always be with me, wherever I go. From now on, everything I do is for her."
"Sometimes it takes a tragedy to make you realise how much a person meant to you."
Maybe I am just used to reading more exciting, faster moving tales, but this book tended to drag for me. I found myself skimming through a lot of it instead of savoring the read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews