annieb123
Written on Sep 16, 2018
China Blue is the third of a series of books based around the fictive Dudley family during WWII and the interwar period immediately following. China Blue follows the wartime efforts of Claire Dudley, a gifted linguist who joins the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and accepts a posting with special operations to work in France helping the resistance.
The research and sense of period are very well done. It felt as though the author had definitely expended the effort to do the background research necessary to capture the time period. There was not a lot of dramatic tension building, the plot moves along at a somewhat sedate pace. As such, it was a relaxing and enjoyable read for me. There were some patches of slightly stilted dialogue which yanked me out of the story, but overall it was a fine read. The language is very clean and there's nothing to remotely offend most readers.
This book does manage to capture the dichotomy of the war, stress and deprivation side by side with dancing and flirting now because the future is in no way guaranteed.
I read China Blue as a standalone novel and had no trouble keeping track of the characters.
Possibly worth noting: The entire series is available for download for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
Stats:
Released 7th May, 2015 by Madalyn Morgan, it's 262 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats.
Three and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.