Showing posts with label WWII. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WWII. Show all posts

Friday, December 16, 2016

In Times Like These with Gail Kittleson

In Times Like These (The Cedar Valley Girls #1)

In Times Like These

Buy: 

About the book:
Pearl Harbor attacked! The United States is at war. But Addie fights her own battles on the Iowa home front. Her controlling husband Harold vents his rage on her when his father's stroke prevents him from joining the military. He degrades Addie, ridicules her productive victory garden, and even labels her childlessness as God's punishment. When he manipulates his way into a military unit bound for Normandy, Addie learns that her best friend Kate's pilot husband has died on a mission, leaving her stranded in London in desperate straits. Will Addie be able to help Kate, and find courage to trust God with her future?

My review:
Many characters made the start slightly puzzling, but once I sorted out who belonged to whom, the pages almost turned themselves. Great period piece exploring family dynamics and interpersonal relationships as well as the growth of self-esteem and the importance of friendship.

In Times Like These is a lesson of intergenerational frustration on one front, and love and healing on another. Addie grows up oddly innocent and sheltered in a terribly dysfunctional family, while her husband, Harold, likewise grows up watching his father verbally and emotionally abuse his mother, though not to the extent his own righteousness led him to act out on the wife he settled for and the life he felt was dealt to him. Instead of doing his best, Harold felt victimized when things didn’t go his way, and took out his selfishness on those around him. Addie, with her poor self-image, learned through the help of her neighbors and friends, to stand up for herself.

This story proves the importance of self-revelation based on an intimate faith in God, not the interpretations of Scripture and faith practices of others where “right,” “wrong,” and “justifiable” are usually in the eye of the beholder.


Loved it and would read it again. Great for discussion groups and those who like well-researched WWII era on the US side and female character growth.