I’m not quite sure how I came to read three WWII novels one after another, except that one was a sequel of one of the others, but it did enrich the reading of them, I think. This era is one of my favorites.

I won The Unfinished Gift and The Homecoming by Dan Walsh from Mocha With Linda (Thank you, Linda!)

In The Unfinished Gift, seven year old Patrick Collins’ mother has just passed away. His father is a soldier over in England during WWII and the authorities are having trouble finding him. His social worker takes him to his only known relative, his grandfather, Ian Collins, with whom his father  has not spoken in years. Ian is none too happy about his routine being interrupted by a boy, but has little choice but to take him in. He doesn’t interact well with Patrick, though, and Patrick’s life would be pretty bleak if not for the neighbor, Mrs. Fortini, and his social worker, Katherine Townsend, who has taken a special interest in his case even though her supervisor has told her to move on. When Patrick gets something for his grandfather out of the attic, he spies a partially carved wooden soldier, and he is captivated. But the soldier brings back too many painful memories for Ian, and he angrily tells Patrick not to touch it.

I’ll leave the rest of the story for you to discover. It was a very enjoyable read if a little predictable — I tended to be two beats ahead of the plot line with being able to figure out what was going to happen next. I could easily see it being made into a Hallmark movie.

The Homecoming was not at all predictable. Though I liked The Unfinished Gift, I was taken in more by The Homecoming. Patrick’s father, Shawn, has finally come home from the war, but the army cannot yet let him go. They assign him to what many would consider a dream job: traveling with several actors and actresses on a four-month tour to promote the sale of war bonds. Shawn dreads it both because he doesn’t want to be part of the spectacle, but mainly because it means being away from Patrick for months. He searches for someone to help his father take care of Patrick, and finds that Katherine Townsend is in need of a new job. Shawn’s father, Ian, has not told anyone of the dizzy spells and lack of energy he has been experiencing.

Shawn has a lot on his shoulders with the fresh grief over his wife, the separation from Patrick, and then the news of his father’s declining health. He and Katherine agree to keep their relationship professional, and Katherine knows it is too soon for him to think about another relationship, yet she finds herself attracted to him., besides loving Patrick dearly. And Katherine’s visits to church to take Patrick are awakening a different type of longing in her heart.

Both books are quite heart-warming stories about relationships. The WWII details are just enough to anchor the setting and give you a feel for the times without becoming too much of a historical narrative. One minor criticism is that the author does employ the “not realizing what I have until I’ve almost lost it” resolution in each book — twice, actually, in the second one. But overall I loved these stories and characters. Also, I am not sure why the author had the first character who was a Christian as a part of what I would consider to be a works-based denomination (though one is not saved by denomination but by personal repentance and faith in Christ), but the gospel is clear in both books.

A Distant Melody by Sarah Sundin is one that caught my eye when it was mentioned on several blogs a few months ago, and I finally got it.

Allie Miller is engaged to a man she doesn’t love and who doesn’t seem to love her, yet her parents want the match, and Allie hopes she will learn to love Baxter in time. She hopes she will also finally gain her mother’s approval.

Walt Novak is a young Army pilot with “chipmunk cheeks and a nose like an upside-down kite” who freezes when he encounters a woman who is not “taken.” But on his way home for a wedding during furlough, he encounters Allie, and, thinking she is a mother to the children seated next to her, has no problems entering into a conversation. When he realizes she is not a mother, not married, and furthermore headed to the same wedding he is attending, he is delighted that he still finds her easy to talk to.

By the end of their time at the wedding, he wants to know her better, so they promise to write each other. Allie thought their mutual friend told Walt that Allie was engaged, but when he learns that fact, it sets off a series of misunderstandings between them. Yet they continue to be drawn to each other through all the trials of their respective experiences.

Allie has to wrestle with more than her attraction to Walt and the emptiness of her engagement: she realizes that her parents’ church and views are not consistent with what Allie believes God wants her to do with her life, yet stepping out on her own will have dire consequences, some that she never dreamed of.

I loved that the main characters were not beautiful and suave, muscular and handsome, one of my complaints with much fiction. They are ordinary, they’re flawed, yet the reader is drawn to them and roots for them not only in their relationship but in the difficulties they each encounter in life. There is also great historical detail in the setting and realistic views of war time experiences. I am glad to know there is a sequel out.