The Land Beneath Us by Sarah Sundin (Sunrise at Normandy Book #3)
Lilian's Rating: 4 out of 5 bookmarks

Editor's Note: See our reviews of Book 1 and Book 2 of the Sunrise at Normandy series.

What an interesting end to this series! I'd only read The Sky Above Us (the second book in the series) prior to this book, and I didn't love it but I was interested to see how things would play out!

Sarah Sundin has a really unique writing style that isn't quite for me but would definitely appeal to most people; it's clear and fluid and fits the suspense genre well in my opinion! I personally thought it made the story drag a little bit sometimes though.

The Land Beneath Us features Clay Paxton, the youngest of the Paxton brothers, and Leah Jones, a librarian who longs to reunite with her birth family after having been bounced from family to family as an orphan child. I really thought Sundin did a phenomenal job with the plot twists and how unique and special the storyline is. Clay repeatedly has dreams about his death and knows that they're from God, and therefore he only lives for one thing—to fulfill his dream of death. I think that really separated Clay from the generic male character and really set him apart. There is also a lot of character development from Leah. Throughout the book, her core character stays pretty consistent but God does gradually change some of her flaws.

I also love how much emphasis is placed on family dynamics and how important growing together as a family is in this book. This is definitely where I saw the most development. Through multiple arguments (to put it extremely lightly), the Paxton brothers broke apart and in this book their family finds a lot of healing through forgiveness and letting go of guilt.

Overall, The Land Beneath Us is a read well worth the time. I found myself growing attached to the characters and loving the plot, and I would definitely recommend it to lovers of historical suspense fiction!




Lilian S. has been a hardcore bookworm since the tender age of 7 and a book reviewer for a couple of years. She is currently a student and in her spare time enjoys singing, graphic designing, and interacting with other Christ-minded readers. A couple of her favorite genres in both books and movies are: Christian contemporary, fantasy, and dystopian. She occasionally enjoys science and historical fiction and likes a good suspense novel as well. Lilian is also an athlete (Ultimate Frisbee, anyone?), a blogger at Green Tea With Books, and founder at reviewer site Stellae Books.


Disclosure: The publisher provided us with a free copy of this book for promotional purposes. A favorable review was not required. This post contains affiliate links.