Special Sunday Post
Chicago, 1944. Liz Stephens has little interest in attending a USO club dance with her friends Betty and Julia. She doesn’t need a flirtation with a lonely serviceman when she’s set to marry her childhood sweetheart. Yet something happens the moment Liz glimpses Morgan McClain. They share only a brief conversation – cut short by the soldier’s evident interest in Betty – but Liz can’t forget him. Thus, when Betty asks her to ghostwrite a letter to Morgan, stationed overseas, Liz reluctantly agrees.
Thousands of miles away, Morgan struggles to adjust to the brutality of war. His letters from “Betty” are a comfort, their soul-baring correspondence a revelation to them both. While Liz is torn by her feelings for a man who doesn’t know her true identity, Betty and Julia each become immersed in their own romantic entanglements. And as the war draws to a close, all three will face heart-wrenching choices, painful losses, and the bittersweet joy of new beginnings.
My Review:
Author Kristina McMorris found me through Facebook and as a fellow WWII author, we instantly connected — we’re a rare breed of sorts, fascinated over little things like copies of 1940s magazines or spending the weekends at WWII museums and such. To top it off, Kristina and I live in the same county!
The idea for “Letters from Home” came from the author’s grandparent’s own courtship during World War II, which intriqued me further. (You know I love a good “story behind the story.“) So when “Letters from Home” released, I was anxious to get my hands on a copy.
I was not disappointed.
Rich details and lively dialogue fill every page and leave the reader yearning for more. Most readers will tell you they read historical fiction to escape to another time period. McMorris’s “Letters from Home” is one of the few historicals I’ve read where I truly felt like I was there and a part of the setting.
McMorris weaves the story of three young women and three unique perspectives of the war and home front while focusing on the main romance between Liz and Morgan—and let me tell you, what a stirring romance it is. Each correspondence was beautifully crafted and showed a deep respect for the craft that letter writing was at the time.
How I wish we still had the same appreciation for hand-written missives.
The book concludes as beautifully as it began, though it was bittersweet for Julie and Betty. I’m hoping against all hope that the author plans to continue these character’s stories in the future.
I highly recommend this book for any history buff. Just be forewarned it is hard to set down—I had to put off some housework at times because I couldn’t tear myself away.
Visit the author’s web site here to find some more spectacular information about “Letters from Home” and the research and inspiration behind it.
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