Great WWII story -- The Sea Before Us

There are lots of facets of WWII that spark my interest. Not so long ago, I would not have placed reading details of the actual military aspects of war too high on that list. In the past few years, though, that has changed -- and Sarah Sundin is one of the main reasons for that change. Like the others I have read, her The Sea Before Us is a book that I had trouble putting down, no matter where the story was going at the moment.

Sarah does an excellent job of weaving together a story with real people, with real feelings, into the real battles of war. (I use the term "real" a little loosely, because many of her characters and even specifics of battle are fictional, but they are all very real on the page.) She is a master at research and uses the fruits of that research to share exact events from the war or piece them together into something that could have very well happened at that time.

Wyatt and Dorothy both have stories that invite you in to learn more. Hurt, guilt, remorse, fear, love, and faith all play into the directions their lives take. They each help the other grow, even at the times they seem to be working in opposite directions and when the war threatens to tear everything apart.

I highly recommend The Sea Before Us (and for that matter, any of Sarah Sundin's WWII stories) to fans of great inspirational fiction. And you just might learn a little military history along the way. Sarah has two more books planned in the Sunrise at Normandy series, stories that make me anxious to pick up where this one left off.

Thanks to Revell Publishing for providing a copy of the book.  I am happy to share my own thoughts in this review.

About the Book:

Nothing but love could heal the wounds of war

In 1944, American naval officer Lt. Wyatt Paxton arrives in London to prepare for the Allied invasion of France. He works closely with Dorothy Fairfax, a "Wren" in the Women's Royal Naval Service, who pieces together reconnaissance photographs with holiday snapshots of France--including those of her family's summer home--in order to create accurate maps of Normandy. Maps that Wyatt turns into naval bombardment plans for D-day.

 As the two spend concentrated time together in the pressure cooker of war, their deepening friendship threatens to turn into something more. But both of them have too much to lose to give in to love . . .

About the Author:

Sarah Sundin is the author of Through Waters Deep, Anchor in the Storm, and When Tides Turn in the Waves of Freedom series, as well as Wings of the Nightingale and the Wings of Glory series. Her novels have received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal. Her popular Through Waters Deep was a Carol Award finalist and named to Booklist's "101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years." A graduate of UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy, she works on-call as a hospital pharmacist. Sarah lives in California. Visit www.sarahsundin.com for more information.