War Widow Fights The Past, American Pilot Fights For The Future
The country is still at war in Blue Skies Tomorrow (ISBN: 978-0-8007-3423-7, $14.99, 448 pages, August 2011) by award-winning author Sarah Sundin. It is 1944 and America longs for the war to be over so 
their boys can come home. This war has taken too many lives and made too many widows, orphans, and broken hearts. However, the homeland continues to pull together and buy bonds to support the troops, and Helen Carlisle has become the town’s war widow heroine. Doing her part with her son, she faithfully appears at community events asking people to support the troops. But deep down she is troubled. How much longer can she do this? Is she living a lie? Was her dead husband a hero? How can she live with the past?
Lt. Ray Novak prefers to follow his calling into ministry rather than the cockpit. But his current position offers him the luxury of a personal life since he is stateside training B-17 pilots. His interest in Helen, the young war widow, grows, but he knows she is hiding a painful past under a frenzy of volunteer work. Ray is called to fly a European combat mission at the peak of the air war. Their romance is tense because Helen is afraid, but Ray cannot help because he is in Europe. As Helen tries to make ends meet and confronts the past, Ray encounters a deadly enemy of his own. Will they find the courage to face their challenges? Will the truth come out? Will hope and redemption ring true for Helen?
The great era of World War II in Blue Skies Tomorrow is brought to life by Sundin in this emotion-packed novel.
Sarah Sundin received the 2011 Writer of the Year Award from the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, and her second novel, A Memory Between Us, is a finalist for an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award. She is the author of A Distant Melody and A Memory Between Us. Her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England during WWII. Sarah lives in California with her husband and three children. For more interesting information about Sarah visit: sarahsundin.com
Sarah’s Tour of a B-17 Bomber: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAakIooyXfY&feature=player_embedded
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, offers practical books that bring the Christian faith to everyday life. They publish resources from a variety of well-known brands and authors, including their partnership with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and Hungry Planet.
My Review:
Sarah Sundin’s book, Blue Skies Tomorrow, is her best book yet! Set in late 1944 Antioch, CA, and Bury St. Edwards Airfield, Suffolk, Sarah rolls out what appears to be an ambivalent romance due to entangled, horrific secrets and dangerous war missions.
Helen Carlisle lost her husband as a casualty of the war in the Pacific. She throws herself into war efforts’ volunteering while trying to conceal her true feelings.
Lt. Raymond Novak is stationed in Antioch, pushing paperwork after being relieved of his pilot training position because he had not served overseas, all the while wanting to be in the ministry. He’s considered a coward because of his fear of serving overseas.
Novak and Carlyle meet and sparks fly, with a passion that needed to be controlled. However, it’s an on-again, off again relationship for reasons unknown to Novak, so he joins the Air Force overseas, thinking she, too, sees him as a coward.
If you love to read about war efforts and strategic missions during WWII, Sarah has it all in her book. It’s fast-paced, with danger from all directions. The flow of the story keeps you turning the pages. Your heart is wrapped up in the personal accounts of the servicemen engaged in battle, with twists that endanger the men just when you think all is going well.
While Novak is gone, Helen has to decide if she’ll wait for him or be romanced by other men; that is, when her former father-in-law allows her to! That home life is another aspect that will keep your heart pumped with multiple feelings!
Sarah outdid herself with the romantic tension, war missions, faith issues, and Helen’s home situation. There are several twists that you don’t see coming and they explode in ways you wouldn’t imagine. Can Helen and Ray overcome the berating and dangerous obstacles, or will another steal Helen’s heart before he gets a chance to? Will his faith in God overcome what he needs to engage in?
This is the third book of Sarah’s Wings of Glory series. The first being A Distant Melody and the second A Memory Between Us. They stand alone, but you will want to read all three! Again, Blue Skies Tomorrow is the best of the three for me!
This book was provided by Donna Hausler, Publicity Assistant at Baker Publishing in exchange for my honest review. No monetary compensation was exchanged.
“Available August 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”
is available for purchase wherever fine books are sold. From the English countryside to the perilous skies over France, A Memory Between Us takes you on a journey through love, forgiveness, and sacrifice.
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