What a startling book! I really liked it on several accounts. Number 1, the fact that the heroine came from Nova Scotia, Canada was a plus for me because I too once lived there. Number 2, I have a vested interest in the fact that Annie ended up in Hawaii and was there during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Hickman Field because my Dad was a boy, living there at the time.
What shocked and stunned me were the details of the aftermath, especially what school children had to do. My Dad and his Dad were rather mum about it all. The details as revealed in this story, brought tears to my eyes and my heart to race, while thinking about what they, and of course all the citizens and residents of the time, went through.
Number 4, Despite this actually being a work of historical fiction, to learn that some of the nurses mentioned, along with Annie, were true to life heroines as well, and each giving their best, thrilled me. Sadly, of greater import and impact was what happened to the Japanese-Americans and other such citizens on the wrong side of the Americans' powers-that-be of the time, in being coerced to incarceration in concentration camps in the USA! The author, Diane Hanks, draws out the feelings of all this very poignantly. I'd say she has done her research well and sticks closely to the true events in order for her readers to be in the moment right along with the characters, causing one to feel the horrors and injustices; at least it did for me.
The book's addenda has some bio on the nurses; and some very good group chat questions that will get at the nerve and essence of the moral issues touched on and that are designed to get a serious reader thinking of them, and what occured during the WWII years in the USA.
A 5-Star rating from me.
~Eunice C., Reviewer/Blogger~
May 2023
Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the complimentary review copy sent by NetGalley and the publisher.
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