Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Krishnaa

This book about the war's effects on a Canadian girl and an English trainee pilot is strong, heart-touching, and vivid. Gillian Chan's two main leads are sweet and sympathetic. Ellen Logan, a Canadian girl whose brothers are both in the war, meets Stephen Dearborn, an English boy staying in the nearby military camp, learning how to fly army warplanes.

They are both ordinary people--not exceptionally pretty, not exceptionally good, and not exceptionally perfect. Ellen is haughty towards Stephen at first, and he thinks of her as a child. However, they both act as foils for one another--Ellen guides Stephen through his tremulous fear of war and loss, while Stephen helps Ellen by trying to convince her father to allow her more freedom.

The book provides a different perspective on the war--Canada is not often included in fighting against the Axis and for the Allies. And here, Chan makes sure that Canada is not just overlooked as a convenient setting, but as a place separate from the US going through the same pain in WWII. The climax of the book, when Stephen runs away, is well done and not an obvious orchestration. There are tidbits of what it was like for the soldiers and the girls that dated them, and of the need for children to grow up much faster than they should have.

The ending is predictable, but unavoidable, and is still saddening in its own right. A good, quick read for those interested in WWII and a complicated, first love type of romance.