Letters From Home (Kennebec Large Print Superior Collection)

by Kristina Mcmorris

Two people. An unforgettable moment. One extraordinary love story.

In Chicago, Illinois, two people are about to lock eyes across a crowded dance floor. The following moment will spark the love story of a lifetime…

The year is 1944 and America has just entered the war. Young men and women are being drafted in to fight with their allies on Europe’s distant shores. Throughout America, sweethearts are saying their last goodbyes.

Liz Stephens is already betrothed to budding US politician Dalton Harris, but when she meets GI Morgan McClain, she feels an instant and intense connection. But then he dances with her flirtatious best friend Betty and Liz is left feeling like just another soldier’s fancy.

Betty is mesmerized by Morgan and begs Liz to write letters for her to post to him overseas. Liz reluctantly agrees, in the end anxious to retain a connection to him. As the last searing days of World War II loom, a correspondence begins that will alter the course of their lives forever.

• ISBN13: 9781847562418
• Publish Date: 12 May 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: AVON, a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[elysium]

3.5 stars

Betty has a singing gig at a USO dance and her roommates Liz and Julia has promised to come there. During the night Liz ends up dancing with Morgan, who leaves to war the next day. They instantly feels connection but when Liz sees him dancing with Betty later on, she thinks she must have been wrong and leaves home. Betty promised to write to Morgan overseas but she isn’t a writer and needs Liz to help her but Liz ends up writing the whole letter herself. When Morgan answers, Liz starts to writing letters to him without telling Betty about it.

I haven’t read much World War II related books so I was interested to read this and I was happy that I did.

The book is told from Liz, Julia, Betty and Morgan’s point of view. It was intresting to read about them all and they were in different points in life. Liz is engaged to a childhood friend, Julia’s fiancée is at war and she is falling in love with his brother and Betty enlisted as a WAC and gets shipped off to field hospital.

I’m not usually fan of books that has lot of letter writing but it worked here. And it was great to see how they got to know each other so well and falling in love through letters. And how much comfort letters gave to men at war and far away from families.We see all the characters to change during the book, and not only for the wartime experiance.

I really liked this and was curious when I read that the author's grandparent's love story inspired the book.

[Ing Cruz]

My Synopsis:
Liz Stephens is at a crossroad in her life. She has been in a relationship with her childhood friend, Dalton Harris. For the most part, Liz is content in this relationship. During a chance meeting at a USO dance, Liz meets Morgan McClain an enlisted soldier who will be shipped off to war the next morning. In that brief moment in time, Liz feels such a strong connection with Morgan that will shake her up and make her question her relationship and all that she knows. A misunderstanding leads her to believe that Morgan's affection lies elsewhere.

Morgan and his brother Charlie are shipping off to war the next morning. Morgan has been looking out for Charlie his whole life. Charlie wanted to enlist and go off to war. Morgan also enlists and finds a way for them to be in the same unit so he could keep an eye out for his younger brother. On their last night before they are shipped off, Morgan meets and feels a huge connection with Liz. Before he could get her last name and find out more about her, Liz departs to clean up after a drunk soldier spills a drink down the side of her dress. Morgan loses sight of her while helping a damsel in distress.

Betty Cordell is trying to find her way in this world. She is beautiful and has the curves in all the right places. She's not as book smart as her roommates, but she's a fighter. Betty is singing at this dance and has captivated many of the soldiers there that night. She is rescued by Morgan when a drunk soldier doesn't take no for an answer. Betty is searching for Mr. Right and thinks she might have found it in Morgan.

Julia Renard has a decision to make. She's been offered a prestigious internship at Vogue. She would love to jump at this chance but she loves her fiance Christian more. Julia decides her time would be better spent at home as a wife when Christian returns from the war. Julia is confident in her decision and continues to plan her wedding. An encounter with Christian's older brother Ian will leave her questioning her path.

Each friend will take her own path leading her on a journey that will change her life.

My Thoughts:
Where to start? Let me start by telling you how I discovered this book. I was stalking the Rhapsody Book Club site and saw this book in their coming soon section. I saw the cover and fell in love with it. Yes, it doesn't have any eye candy (my normally visually appealing senses can appreciate non eye candy covers every once in awhile it happens..lol) but the combination of the letters and flower evoked an emotion in me. What emotion I couldn't tell you, but I knew I needed to find out more about this book. I read the synopsis and was sold. I checked out Kristina's website and totally fell in love. It's like stepping back into days gone by. I found out Kristina was a new author and this was a debut book. Stalked Kristina and told her I wanted to pimp her book and get her on my blog. I took a chance with an author I've never read before and a genre (Women's Fiction) that I'm picky about and rarely read, but something in my gut told me that I was going to like this book. Let me tell you, that I love it when my gut is right! :)

Kristina has written a captivating novel that will take you on a journey from the home front of America during WWII to the middle of the battlefields fought across the seas! With her poetic writing and descriptive words you will feel as if you've stepped right into the 1940's during an era that was dominated by an ugly war! Kristina wonderfully wove three different stories into one book seamlessly. The journey that each lady, Elizabeth, Betty, and Julia takes was written in a way that I was equally interested and eager to find out their fates.

The letters that are exchanged between Liz and Morgan, two people who spent just a moment together one night, conveyed their journey beautifully from strangers to soul mates. Julia's decision to give up her dreams to be a wonderful wife to her fiance fighting in the war will leave you heartbroken. Betty's road to discovering her place in the world and meeting the one man she think could be the one in the Pacific will keep you turning the pages. The moments with Morgan, his baby bro Charlie and their fellow soldiers will provide laughter, tears, hope and the realities of war.

This book worked in every way for me. The characters were all developed and layered nicely to give me the reader a sense of who they are at the beginning and who they become by the end of the book. Not one moment while reading this book did I feel bored. I was engrossed from the beginning until the final pages. My only complaint which really isn't a complaint is the fact that I wanted more after the last page. I didn't want the book to end. I did not want to leave these characters behind.

So if you can't tell...I loved this book. No sexing and I still loved it! :) I would highly recommend this book. If you love stories during the 1940's with three romances with different outcomes, beautiful letters, friendship, war and laughter, this is the book for you.