Two Novels, Two Women, One War, One Review

I really love WWII novels.  They just pull me in.  I get lost in the struggles of the characters, their life changes, and the bittersweet outcomes.  With every story, I end up learning something new about that period of time.  Both of these novels are set during WWII, and have women as their main characters.  But, they are very different stories.

I read the first book, A War of Her Own, by Sylvia Dickey Smith way back in October.  Yes, October!  I kept putting off writing a review because I didn’t really love the book.  I know; a WWII book and I didn’t love it.  The shock!  I believe that I am probably alone in this feeling; the reviews on Amazon and other blogs are good.  In this story, Bea Meade has a horrible, cheating husband and a new baby.  Now on her own, she must find a way to survive so she gets a job working at a shipyard in Texas. 

The author did a great job describing the setting. I could “see” Bea’s apartment, her husband, her job, and other aspects of her life clearly.  However I had two problems with the novel.  It was depressing.  I know it was war-time and she had to go through some tough times, but all that wonderful description painted a very depressing life.  On top of that I didn’t connect with the characters, even Bea.  So I can’t say that I was hanging in there with her as she pulled herself up out of that depressing life.  She did, but I wasn’t there with her. 

The book is only 280 pages and a pretty quick read.  Even though I didn’t love the book, I was able to finish it.  I am giving this 3 stars. 

 I finished the second book, Forbidden Places, by Penny Vincenzi last week.  I liked this better, but it was a much different book.  The novel is set in WWII England and follows the main character, Grace and her two “friends” Clarissa and Florence. Innocent Grace moved up in life when she married Charles.  She has a great life, but feels distant from her husband, his family (Florence) and his friends (Clarissa).  Eventually the war kicks in and life changes for everyone.  After Charles goes off to war, Grace becomes a stronger and more independent person and gets to know these two women better as their lives become more connected. 

At 500 plus pages, this was a much longer novel than the other one and it took a lot longer to read.  However, this novel just worked for me.  The length gave the author an opportunity to really bring these characters to life.  I loved Grace, even with her faults (although there weren’t many).  I wanted her to be happy.  I was happy for her when she stood up for herself and made her own decisions.  The other two women were also developed very well and they each had their own stories that had to be worked out.  All the characters, even the minor ones, seemed to work really well together and added to the depth of the story.

As with the above review, I seem to have the opposite opinion of other reviewers.  Some said that this was a WWII soap opera.  I can see that, as there were some “detailed romantic scenes”.  I could see these coming though and, since I don’t care for that stuff, I just skipped over them.  I don’t think it detracted from (or added to) the story though.  With a story this long, there were some lulls, and in some cases, problems at the end were dealt with a bit too easily. But I enjoyed the novel and I was glad about all the outcomes. 

I give this novel 4.5 stars and I would definitely consider reading more of Ms. Vincenzi’s work.

I would like to thank Crazy Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to read and review both of these novels. 

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