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In a time of peril, can they find the courage to confront their fears and embrace a love that lasts?
My grandma was a young woman during World War II. She tells stories of meeting soldiers and writing to young men away at war. They are fond yet somewhat sad memories for her. When Blue Skies Tomorrow arrived, she demanded she read it. I obliged.
Blue Skies Tomorrow is a historical fiction book about Helen Carlisle, whose husband becomes a casualty of war in the Pacific. As a way of coping, she begins volunteering for the war. Her feelings are concealed as she keeps up the appearance of a grieving widow whose husband’s death makes him a hometown hero.
Helen captures the heart and eye of Lt. Raymond Novak. He holds a stateside job, training B-17 pilots. Novak, however, prefers the pulpit to the cockpit. His job is more a means to his luxury life and an excuse to ignore his deepest fear.
Ray and Helen are called upon to step out in faith. It means putting their reputations and lives on the line. Are they able to confront the challenge? Will love survive until blue skies return?
My grandma loved this book. It was everything she remembered tangled with a daring drama. While the book tackles subjects my grandma might not normally read (rape), the author does not do it for the wow factor. There is no shock, just a character who endures the violence and the feelings from someone she loves. The perpetrator is not a focus.
Grandma initially read believing that the young love between Ray and Helen would be complex and, like so many young men Grandma knew, would be competing with a dead husband. The book was riveting and delivered beyond Grandma’s expectations. There are secrets. It was a time when women were just beginning to enter the workplace, and as a
single mother, Helen’s life is a struggle. There are poor choices made, and guilt is a theme that plays out in the story “true to life,” my grandma says.
Blue Skies Tomorrow, written by Sarah Sundin, is the final book in the Wings of Glory Series. Other books in the series include A Distant Melody and A Memory Between Us. I’m certain that much of her information comes from her great-uncle, who flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England during WWII.
*I received this book in order to facilitate an honest review. The opinions where expressed are my own and were in no way influenced by the sponsor. Others experiences may vary.
