Blue Skies Tomorrow is the third of Sarah Sundin‘s Wings of Glory series about three brothers during WWII, and Sarah has managed to hit it out of the ball park once again. A Distant Melody, the first in the series, was one of my top ten favorite books of 2010 and its sequel, A Memory Between Us, is one of my favorites of 2011 so far.
Each book focuses on one Novak brother: in this book, Ray is the peacemaker of the family, and his aversion to having to kill someone has kept him Stateside as a flight instructor. But he wrestles with whether he wants to avoid combat for those reasons or cowardice. A series of events lead him to the desire to prove himself in actual combat.
Helen Carlisle is a war widow actively involved in several volunteer projects with her church and the war effort. Though she puts up a brave front, a dreadful secret she tries to keep hidden threatens to undo her and her blossoming interest in Ray.
The main characters here as in the previous novels are realistically flawed yet sympathetic and very likeable. I was conflicted between wanting to rush to finish the book and see what happened and wanting to slow down and make it last longer so the story wouldn’t be over so quickly. I’ve so enjoyed getting to know the Novaks and I’m a little sad to see the series end!
(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)
Stray Thoughts 
This series has some appeal to me, given the historical time frame! Glad you mentioned it again.
I’m curious about this time period too. It’s good to have this series on the radar for my budding historical interests!
I finished this one last night. I am with you on the wanting to finish and wanting to savor it. Great book. Thanks for the review. I will be posting my review on 8/24.
Barbara – thank you so much for the lovely review! I’m so glad that you enjoyed the whole series!
I may have to pick up the first book in this series. WWII is of great interest to me, and I’m actually studying the twentieth century with some students this year.
I’ve just put the first two of these on hold at my library. They don’t have the third yet. I may have to request it if the first two are as good as you say! 😉 Thanks for mentioning these just when I was looking for a new series to start. My mom, who is with me right now until October, will enjoy these too I think.
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