Ellie Keaton

Setting is World War II England. It is refreshing to read a book that both teaches some history, but is also clean. Gracie's twin brother and his friend are training to be pilots. Both sign up to help the war effort. Although Gracie's parents are not thrilled when she joined up, they were still proud of her dedication of wanting to help England.
This is the first book of the Women & War series. Another character introduced in this first book is the main character of the second. I plan on downloading that one soon.… (plus d'informations)

3.5 stars

The author has done a fantastic job in upping her game with world-building and historical details in this latest volume of Women & War. I was swept away in even greater measure than the last volume, sucked into this world of survival, growing up, love, and war. There is a lot more descriptive detail in this book, exploring the world in which her characters inhabit. The little details of life in bombed out London and occupied France were very vivid (let's just say I don't think I'll look at bacon the same way again!).

The story itself was mostly engaging but halfway frustrating as well. The parts actually in occupied France sucked me in like nobody's business. I was kept on the edge of my seat reading about the shadowy corners and heart-pounding escapes of the Resistance as well as Penny's involvement with them.

However, the parts with Gracie and Nell in Britain didn't seem to jive with the rest of the engaging story. They were interesting and informative, don't get me wrong. But the narrative would jump between them and Penny in France and I felt jarred. Both story lines had very different atmospheres and levels of tension that when I was flipped between them, I felt disengaged and just thrown around.

Now as for Penny.... This is a hard assessment to make. I found her likable enough to obviously be engaged in her story and to want to know what happens to her. Yet, I found her far, far too perfect to be all that relatable. She was beautiful, helpful, courageous, intelligent, strategic..... The list goes on. I found very few negative qualities to balance all that good out. And yeah, I like my heroines to be good guys with straight priorities. But come on... Can't she have a few warts and be stubborn or sometimes silly too?

This is a good installment to this series and one that shows some real growth, in both the world-building and story. While I felt jarred at times by the story flipping and found the main character a bit too perfect, it in no way made me hate this book. I'll definitely keep an eye peeled for book 3!

Note: Book received for free from author in exchange for review.… (plus d'informations)

I enjoyed the character of Gracie very much. She was portrayed as a woman who isn't afraid to defy her parents, her fiancée, and society to do what she thought was right. I also felt she was very well rounded. She's not the perfect paragon of perfection; early on, she can be self-centered and at times, whiny. But for me, that just made her all the more approachable and real as a character.

I also really enjoyed the look at England during the early years of WWII, with the bombing and daily fear that this day may be your last.
The author does a fantastic job at making this daily fear of death very immediate for the readers and a part of the overall story. It was also interesting to see how the sacrifice of the population, of time and loved ones, impacted their emotional and mental security and health. It speaks to how our modern society is affected the same problems, the fear that a loved one will never come home or if they do, they won't be the same as when they left.

There was one big problem to the story that is a bit hard for me to put into words. Parts of the book seemed to be a bit shallow, never really touching very deep on any one part of the story but skimming the surface of many problems. Some of the characters never really got any significant characterization. Certain people seemed to give in and accept others actions a lot easier than I would have predicted (thinking Gracie's father here). I don't know... It's really hard for me to explain. Maybe it's the length of the book (183 pages in print), but there just seemed like there was too much trying to be crammed into the book and not a lot of time analyzing what was there.

Overall, this book was enjoyable. I enjoyed the main character and her cajones. I enjoyed the setting and time that was taken to explore the situation of the common man in England during the Blitz and early WWII. There are some issues with very light storytelling and skimming the surface of problems. Yet, I still enjoyed the story for what it was: a young girl finding herself in a war-torn setting and doing what she thinks is right despite what others tell her.

Note: Book given to me by author in exchange for honest review.… (plus d'informations)