With Every Letter
by Sarah Sundin
ISBN: 978-0800720810
$10.19 (paperback)
$9.68 (kindle)
About the book:
They know everything about each other-except their real names.
Lt. Mellie Blake is looking forward to her training as a flight nurse. She is not looking forward to writing a letter to a man she's never met-even if it is anonymous and part of a morale-building program. Lt. Tom MacGilliver, an officer stationed in North Africa, welcomes the idea of an anonymous correspondence-he's been trying to escape his infamous name for years.
As their letters crisscross the Atlantic, Tom and Mellie develop a unique friendship despite not knowing the other's true identity. When both are transferred to Algeria, the two are poised to meet face-to-face for the first time. Will they overcome their fears and reveal who they are, or will their future be held hostage by their pasts?
My Thoughts:
I was very interested in review "With Every Letter" for several reasons:
1) The period - World War II, History, and Pen Pals.
2) Strong Female Heroine is the main character of the story
3) In high school I had a pen pal and I still think on my experience with enthusiasm and to this day I wonder how she is, has she had kids, gotten married, gone to college, etc. Kumiko was from Japan and I love to hear stories and get to know people from other countries - it's wonderful to hear about their customs, families, lifestyles, etc.
The idea behind With Every Letter is similar - both the Hero and the Heroine of the book have the same idea. Mellie is lonely and finds it very hard to make friends. When her supervisor comes to her and basically pushes her to sign up after saying she is the only one not participating Mellie relunctantly agrees to write to a soldier. Believing that he won't be interested in her and that he won't write her back she is surprised when the letters start to come.
Tom is a murderer's son with the stigma of who his father is and what he did. He has learned to participate from a distance, to be encouraging and yet separate from others. He is the commanding officer of a group of soldiers and finds it hard to keep a disciplined unit.
What I really liked about With Every Letter is not just the "pen pal" theme but watching each character grow emotionally and spiritually through their letters and the experience of being in the army as the war goes on. The book starts slowly as the background and situation is set up but the scriptural passages are well chosen and Tom's & Mellie's faith shows beautifully in this story and by the end of the book you are fully invested in the tale.
With Every Letter is the First Book in the Wings of the Nightengale series. Be sure to learn more about this series and the other books Sarah Sundin has written on her website @ http://www.sarahsundin.com/. You can also find detailed maps of the countries mentioned in the book so you can keep up and learn about the area's involved in the war and where Tom & Mellie were stationed.
Stay in contact w/ Sarah:
Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 5:00pm in PDT
About the Author:
Sarah Sundin is the author of A Distant Melody, A Memory Between Us, and Blue Skies Tomorrow. In 2011, A Memory Between Us was a finalist in the Inspirational Reader's Choice Awards, and Sarah received the Writer of the Year Award at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. A graduate of UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy, she works on-call as a hospital pharmacist. During WWII, her grandfather served as a pharmacist's mate (medic) in the Navy and her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England. Sarah lives in California with her husband and three children.
I was provided with a copy of With Every Letter to read and review on GivingNSharing by Sarah Sundin and Litfuse. I was not required to write a positive review nor did any money exchange hands.
