Until We Meet

by Camille Di Maio

New York City, 1943

Can one small act change the course of a life? Margaret's job at the Navy Yard brings her freedoms she never dared imagine, but she wants to do something more personal to help the war effort. Knitting socks for soldiers is a way to occupy her quiet nights and provide comfort to the boys abroad. But when a note she tucks inside one of her socks sparks a relationship with a long-distance pen pal, she finds herself drawn to a man she's never even met.

Can a woman hold on to her independence if she gives away her heart? Gladys has been waiting her whole life for the kinds of opportunities available to her now that so many men are fighting overseas. She's not going to waste a single one. And she's not going to let her two best friends waste them either. Then she meets someone who values her opinions as much as she likes giving them, and suddenly she is questioning everything she once held dear.

Can an unwed mother survive on her own? Dottie is in a dire situation-she's pregnant, her fiance is off fighting the war, and if her parents find out about the baby, they'll send her away and make her give up her child. Knitting helps take her mind off her uncertain future-until the worst happens and she must lean on her friends like never before.

With their worlds changing in unimaginable ways, Margaret, Gladys, and Dottie will learn that the unbreakable bond of friendship between them is what matters most of all.

• ISBN10: 153873804X
• ISBN13: 9781538738047
• Publish Date: 1 March 2022
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Forever
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

All Too Real. Di Maio has made a name for herself taking various historical events and wrapping a fictional story around them that stays true to the real world yet tells her own story - and this book is exactly that. Here, she tackles life in New York and specifically around the Brooklyn Navy Yard as it builds the last of the great battleships - the Missouri - and the newest generation of naval ships - the aircraft carrier. At the same time and across the Atlantic, she also tackles life as a new kind of infantry soldier - the Airborne - as they train in England after the US enters the war, attack Normandy on D-Day, survive Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge and finally the end of the war. In both places, Di Maio does a stunning job of being true and accurate (mostly) to the era, and it is very easy for many Americans to see their own parents / grandparents / (and now great grandparents) largely living exactly these types of situations. Di Maio doesn't hold back from the various tragedies of the era, but she also doesn't hold back in showing people who were even then "outside the norm" though revealing exactly which norms of the era were broken would delve into spoiler territory - read the book for yourself to see them. :) And yet, through all of this, this is still ultimately a women's fiction tale that could alternatively be classified (technically) as a historical romance, and indeed it really works in either genre. Very much recommended.