Friday 27 February 2015

With Every Letter - The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: February 2015








The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: February 2015 

Welcome one and all to the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a cozy gathering of book lovers, meeting to discuss their thoughts regarding the tomes they enjoyed most over the previous month.  Pull up a chair, order your cappuccino and join in the fun. 



This month has been a very average reading month and out of the six books I managed to read five were very so-so, although enjoyable enough nothing I’d really recommend, more books to fill in time.

Here follows my best book for the month of February 2015:
  

Picture from Amazon


With Every Letter
(Wings of the Nightingale BKI)
By
Sarah Sundin

Sarah Sundin is the author of A Distant Melody, A Memory Between Us, and Blue Skies Tomorrow. In 2011, A Memory Between Us was a finalist in the Inspirational Reader's Choice Awards, and Sarah received the Writer of the Year Award at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. A graduate of UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy, she works on-call as a hospital pharmacist. During WWII, her grandfather served as a pharmacist's mate (medic) in the Navy and her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England. Sarah lives in California with her husband and three children.

4*
Approx. 432 pages
Book Description from Amazon
Publication Date: 1 Sept. 2012

They know everything about each other--except their real names.

Lt. Mellie Blake is looking forward to beginning her training as a flight nurse. She is not looking forward to writing a letter to a man she's never met--even if it is anonymous and part of a morale-building program. Lt. Tom MacGilliver, an officer stationed in North Africa, welcomes the idea of an anonymous correspondence--he's been trying to escape his infamous name for years.

As their letters crisscross the Atlantic, Tom and Mellie develop a unique friendship despite not knowing the other's true identity. When both are transferred to Algeria, the two are poised to meet face-to-face for the first time. Will they overcome their fears and reveal who they are, or will their future be held hostage by their pasts?

This is the first book in a trilogy following the lives of American flight nurses in WWII.  Our two main characters, Lt. Mellie Blake and Lt. TomMacGilliver are two people who have had a different upbringing to others, both from single parent families.  They both find it difficult to socialise with other people and add the extra tension of wartime to the mix creates a few more problems.  They ‘meet’ each through a scheme that is introduced for anonymous pen pals and let out their innermost thoughts and feelings secure in the knowledge that they will never meet.  

Lots of research has gone in to this book which shows in the flow of writing and enabling the reader to envisage the situation, sights and smells of what it was really like during those awful times.  There are Christian references throughout the book which didn't deter me from reading on.  

This is the first time I’ve read anything by this author and certainly won’t be the last time. This was a delightful read with good clean romance thrown in.

5 comments:

  1. That sounds good. My dad wanted one of us to be an Air Force nurse. I wish I had done.

    Love,
    Janie

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  2. This sounds like a lovely read - and the premise is entirely believable. Thanks for sharing this!

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  3. Thank you so much for the lovely review, Sally! I'm glad you enjoyed Tom & Mellie's story! By the way, With Every Letter is currently free for Kindle and Nook (as of 2/28/15 - please check price before purchase).

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  4. The history angle would appeal to me, more than the romance, although I don't knock the genre because it is never wrong to promote love, I've always been more intrigued by action stuff. Sounds like there is a good balance in this story though :-)

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  5. The premise of the book sounds very interesting. I rather enjoy the idea of writing to someone across the world. Now we have our blogs and no pen pals any more.
    Lovely review.

    cheers, parsnip

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