this book felt so real. the writing was on point and so clever. the plot was as tight as could be and there didn't seem a detail lost or overdone. i wanted to know everything she gave me abut her characters and was thinking over and over it as i was reading nd long after.
i often think of what children at that time might have felt or thought. i always try to figure- well home is home right? its always. and you'd always want to go back. but after so long and being kept safe in another family do these children have mixed feelings? i remember one of my favourite books and then movies is goodnight Mr Tom. and we all know how that one goes. so this book for me was a perfect extended exploration of that.
we have a little girl who is sent for safety into another country. another world. upon arrival she fits, likes she one of their own. so what happens when war is over? when she has to...go back home?
and i am completely in love with this book. i enjoyed every part of it and was immersed in their world and invested in every one of these chapters and the characters stories they told old.
the book gives us 1940s London an Millie and Reginald make the difficult decision to send their young daughter of 11 to live with a family in America.
the American family of the Gregory's or should we say Mr and Mrs G take her in and scoop her in to their fold completely. alongside their two sons William and Gerald she now makes them five. this of course is hard for Beatrix who knows she still has family back home but now she has family there in America? but years go by. and the memories she has of back home appear younger and begin to blur. knowing she must go back fills her with confusion and questions, as well as guilt over not feel so needy to be back as she thinks she should be.
i loved how Laura writes about the time the family grow together in America. its so descriptive and you are right there with them, you can feel their blossoming relationships and togetherness.
the book felt so real then when we get to see what happens when Bea goes home. and we follow her then through those times and characters back in America. the chapters gives us each characters points of view. so we still get to know them, we become more and more familiar and like we do now care for these people.
this book lingered in my very reading bones once id finished. and i wanted to read more but also didn't want it to leave me once it was going to be over. i also wondered at one point if i was going to be ok with how it would end. because it shared some raw and exposing moments emotionally. and i didn't know if id be ok now without some sort of happy ending? or at least some way to it. i didn't want these characters to not be ok.
this book was one of the faves of the moment. im so glad and feel lucky i got to read it. books are incredible and this one goes right up to the top of explaining why. because of this. because of books like this.

This is the story of navigating life with two families, as one young woman discovers, located on opposite sides of the Atlantic and different in more ways than can be imagined.

After Beatrix's family is forced to send the young girl to America for her safety during the World War 2, have no idea how great this will be on their daughter. For Beatrix herself, returning to Britain after the war and her time spent with the affluent Gregory family in America, requires an adjustment that she will never quite get over.

A beautifully written historical novel which touches upon questions of Identity, family and love, this book is well worth a reader's time. It gets 3.5 stars.