August 1, 2011
Pastor Novak's oldest son, Ray, deferred his ordination while serving in the U.S. Army Air Force. But new regulations and the realization that young Helen Carlisle is not and may never be ready for romance spur him to request active duty. Helen, ever cognizant of her position as one of her town's war widows, longs to move on and build a stable, loving home for her small son but is hampered by her in-laws' rigid expectations and controlling nature. Corresponding with Ray, she gradually divulges the horror of her first marriage, but soon both she and he are challenged, Helen by would-be suitor Vic Llewellyn's hypocrisy and connivance and Ray when his plane is shot down over Germany. In her third WWII-set Christian romance (after A Distant Melody and A Memory between Us, both 2010), Sundin skillfully addresses several difficult issuesdomestic abuse, the overtly racist policies of the U.S. military, and the temptations of worldly ambition and vengeanceand invests her protagonists with the resilience of hope born out of faith.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)