I keep getting books that are hard to rate! I enjoyed the author's style and the characters were all interesting, though many are never fleshed out. "Pa" was my favourite character as he reminded me of Mr. Micawber (the drunken version). He was also one of the few characters that showed any growth--the most, in fact. I liked the heroine until she interacted with others; each time her actions and haughty speeches or toadying annoyed me and sometimes I found her thoughts a bit hard to reconcile to her actual deeds.
The plot is pretty predictable and the ending left me feeling that something important had been omitted by mistake.
It was the sense of time and place that made this book worth reading. The scenes of Malta at war are horrifying and yet inspiring. I think we tend to think of WWII as the war that showed us how low humanity could stoop. I think this book helps remind us of the courage, strength, and heroism of the normal, everyday people caught up in the midst of it all. I wish we could remember that part of the war as often as we think of the horrors.
All in all, I think I will not keep this book, but I will give Joanna Trollope another try. After all, even her illustrious ancestor didn't get it right every time. ( )

Caroline Harvey is a pseudonym of Joanna Trollope whose books I have always enjoyed. This one is set in Malta during WWII. The wartime story is realistic without being graphic, even though Malta suffered so much because of it being headquarters for the British fleet. True to Trollope, it is essentially about human relationships. In this case with just a touch of romance thrown in. The story inspired me to read more about Malta - the sign of a good book. ( )

Lila Cunningham learns that her father has borrowed money against their home and that now the bank is repossessing it. Her employer and friend owns a home in Malta that they never use so they decide to send Lila and her father there. They arrive at a time just before World War II breaks out. It isn't long until they are taking cover from the bombings. Lila had begun working for a Count who was a historian, but she begins helping a new friend with her hospital in the city after the war erupts. Lila also begins to see a different side to her father. I really enjoyed most of this World War II story which had some of the feeling of a romantic suspense while not being pretty light on the romance and with more of a war theme than the darker suspenseful tones. Ultimately I did not like the manner in which the book was resolved and lowered my rating because of it. ( )