On Monday, my sister had her “vintage” birthday party. She and her friends dressed in ‘40s-ish clothes (handy that those are in style again now!), danced to Big Band music, and sipped root beer floats. She reminded me of the young heroine in the Hallmark movie The Lost Valentine, with her green-flowered vintage dress, curled hair, red lipstick, and flowered barrette (crafted at the party) in her hair.
I enjoyed stepping back in time for an afternoon. And it made me realize, thinking about Memorial Day, how much more interested I’ve become this past year in World War II and the brave people who fought and persevered through it. Part of it, I think, is due to what I’ve learned about the Navajo Code Talkers. And part of it is due to Sarah Sundin’s Wings of Glory series.
Though I hadn’t even heard of her a little over a year ago, Sarah Sundin has become one of my new favorite authors. Her Wings of Glory trilogy follows a family of three brothers—B-17 pilots with the 8thAir Force—and their sweethearts through the heartaches and triumphs, loves and losses of the Second World War. Sarah’s stories grip you from first meeting, her attention to historical detail never fails to humble me, and her characterization makes you want to have Walt and Allie, Jack and Ruth, Ray and Helen, all over for dinner.
My sister has commented how difficult it is to make three brothers so incredibly different in voice and personality, but Sarah does it. And while, voracious reader though I may be, I rarely find a book I literally can’t put down, the last book of this series kept me sitting up in the living room late one night after the rest of my family had gone to dreamland. I simply had to find out what happened!
Wings of Glory will both delight you with engaging stories and characters and increase your appreciation for a period in history that really wasn’t so very long ago. So as we remember those who fought and died for our freedom, I’d encourage you to open these pages written by someone who seeks to keep them alive. And watch for the upcoming release of With Every Letter, the first book in Sarah’s new series, Wings of the Nightingale. (Here’s a fun peek into the story behind the cover photo! I didn’t realize how much work could go into a cover.)
