About this book:
“Ginny Mathis was finished with nursing school and had no intention of staying rooted in the Outer Banks—then war broke out. With her father away, she feels duty-bound to stay and help her mother and younger sister. While working as a clerk for the Oregon Inlet ferry, naval officers ask Ginny and others to be watchful for German U-boats reportedly spotted in the area. So to help occupy her teenage sister, Ginny enlists the Girl Scout troop she leads to help watch for suspicious activity along the coast.
Timothy Elliott is no stranger to death. As a British reporter working with the M-6, he’s numb to the losses of war after two years of fighting the Germans. Maybe that’s why he volunteered for this mission—to connect with an ex-German naval officer who stole the Furor’s battle plan for the Atlantic war. When the boat giving him passage to New York is bombed near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Tim is thrown from the boat and wakes up in the care of a group of young girls.
Ginny follows her sneaky sister on a clandestine mission and discovers the shipwreck victim. Ginny knows she must take charge, but is this man the enemy, or does he hold secrets that could turn the tide of the Battle of the Atlantic in the allies’ favor?”
Series: Part of the series “Heroines of WWII”, but is not connected to any other book.
Spiritual Content- Scriptures are mentioned, quoted, & remembered; Prayers (including one where Ginny wonders if God is hearing her); ’H’s are capital when referring to God; Tim learned about God’s grace and love from his grandfather & his father passed away before Tim could share about Christ with him; Tim hopes for God’s justice and punishment on a German man who committed evil acts; One of the girls comments on it feeling pointless to pray, but Ginny tries to encourage her to pray and watch for an answer from the Lord; Ginny and Tim skip going to church one Sunday morning to investigate; Mentions of God, Jesus, & trusting Him; Mentions of prayers & praying, & praising/thanking God; Mentions of churches, church going, Sunday school, & a pastor; Mentions of blessings & being blessed; A few mentions of Christians & being one; A couple mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; A couple mentions of Tim’s father preaching “fire and brimstone” to him as a child;
*Note: Religious exclamations: “For Pete’s Sake”, “Dear heavens”, “heavens”, and “thank heavens” are said up to four times each; Tim says that holding Ginny close is “the closest thing to heaven on earth”; Tim hopes that hell comes to a German man’s mind after being in an ocean on fire due to oil; A girl comments that her mom says movies are “sinful and straight from the devil” (which makes Belle comment that her mother must not have seen some of the popular male actors then); A few mentions of evil (referring to the Germany’s government); A few mentions of Brownies/fairies; A mention of making a deal with the devil; A mention of being lucky; A mention of the girls idolizing Ginny.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dumb’, a ‘stinkin’’, a ‘Geez Louise’, a form of ‘idiot’, two ‘stupid’s, and seven ‘blood’s; Eye rolling; A couple lies; Being on a drowning ship, Explosions/torpedoes, Being held at gunpoint, Being grabbed and tied-up, Injuries, Pain, & Blood/bleeding (semi-detailed); Seeing someone shot, in pain, & bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Witnessing others screaming and implied dying when ships are destroyed by enemy torpedoes (up to semi-detailed); Helping doctor others who are injured by stitching injuries and relocating a shoulder (semi-detailed); Ginny & Tim go to a morgue and look at every person in order to find someone (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Tim tells Ginny about wanting to kill a German man for what he had done, but how he couldn’t do it; Some blackmailing (Tim to Ginny for her help, but he apologizes the next time he sees her for saying it); Set during World War II, this book is all about & has many frequent mentions of battles/events (including Pearl Harbor), bombs/explosions, possible invasions, ships going down and people drowning, deaths, concern for family members fighting overseas, & grief; Many mentions of World War I, deaths, people witnessing traumatic events, & nightmares of it (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of dead bodies & possibly finding one (including of a child, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a morgue; Mentions of fights, injuries, pain, a gunshot wound, blood/bleeding, & passing out (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of treason, traitors, & executions; Mentions of threats (including to kill, harm, and arrest) & blackmail; Mentions of prisons/jails & arrests; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of gossip & rumors; A few mentions of other wars; A few mentions of a near drowning (Ginny when she was young); A few mentions of stealing, stolen items, & thieves; A few mentions of a mother leaving her young daughter (*Spoiler* At the end, it’s revealed the husband threatened the woman with killing her and their daughter if she took the child *End of Spoiler*); A few mentions of Tim’s father leaving him and his sister with his grandparents and their strained relationship (including calling him a disgrace); A few mentions of hatred; A few mentions of a bully; A couple mentions of a man being ordered to shoot his own men rather than the men being captured by their enemies; A couple mentions of possible hostage situations; A couple mentions of breaking and entering; A mention of Hitler’s death camps; A mention of hunting; A mention of the smell of dead animals;
*Note: *Spoilers about PTSD/mental health and the stigma around it* Ginny and Belle’s mother has symptoms of PTSD (called “shell shock”) after her time in helping during WWI as a young girl; Belle’s father has her keep her mother’s condition a secret from Ginny because he thinks any treatment that Ginny would want to do will make it worse; The mother has “spells” at night with nightmares and being trapped in memories of seeing deaths (barely-above-not-detailed); Ginny knows that her mother has fought “bouts of depression and anxiety” for most of Ginny’s life and her father told her not to speak about it outside the family (which she didn’t understand then, but learned about the “horrible stigma of mental illness” in nursing school); Ginny doesn’t understand why her family has kept her mother’s “spells” from her as she doesn’t think it’s a mental illness like they apparently do; Ginny thinks about how others treat those with psychiatric issues as “less than” and “generationally flawed”; A few mentions of institutions and someone being “crazy” *End of Spoilers*; Ginny & Belle have some sister bickering/spats, but always have each other’s back at the end of the day; A girl comments on her mother giving her “the third degree” whenever she leaves the house (another girl comments it’s because her mother is worried for her); A few implications of some people shunning a man with dark skin; Ginny leads her sister’s Girl Scout troop and there are many mentions of it (and Brownies and Girl Guides), the cookies, and their mottos/pledges; Mentions of pop culture with actors/actresses, movies, & radio shows (Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, William Powell, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Vivien Leigh, ‘Thin Man’, ‘The Philadelphia Story’, ‘Shop around the Corner’, ‘Gone with the Wind’, & ‘Little Orphan Annie’); A few mentions of historical characters relating to the area (Orville and Wilbur Wright & Blackbeard the pirate); A couple mentions of singers (Glenn Miller, Bing Crosby); A mention of Joe Louis; A mention of a mother dying in childbirth (Tim’s mother who was delivering his sister).
Sexual Content- A hand/fingers kiss, three head/forehead kisses, five cheek kisses, two nose kisses, an ear kiss, two barely-above-not-detailed kisses, three border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kisses, three semi-detailed kisses (including mentions of swollen lips), and a border-line semi-detailed // detailed kisses; A man forces a kiss on Ginny (while she tries to get away, he continues to kiss her and draws blood; semi-detailed); Remembering kisses (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to kiss, touch, & embrace (up to semi-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Warmth, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Blushes & Flirting; Noticing & Staring (including curves, up to semi-detailed); Tim stops a kiss with Ginny because he cares too much for her to “fall into the same old patterns” he had with girls before he committed himself to Christ and wants to take their relationship slow; When Ginny undoes her hair, Tim gives her a “wolfish grin”; Tim and Ginny fall asleep in the same bed (in a hospital) and he refers to it as “the closest thing to heaven on earth” with having her so close; Ginny’s younger sister Belle (age thirteen) comments on wanting to “keep an eye on the guardsmen” rather than the beach and while Ginny notes she that she herself starting noticing boys at that age, the idea of her sister interested in the young men would be a recipe for disaster due to all the men that will be pouring into their community; It’s implied that Tim thinks that a girl was not protected by her father from a family member, but Ginny corrects that it wasn’t like that; Mentions of kisses & kissing; Mentions of boyfriends/girlfriends, dates, & dating; Mentions of reputations; A few mentions of girls practicing kissing by kissing their pillows; A few mentions of a man being sweet on Ginny; A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of a girl mooning after a boy; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Ginny comments on being a nurse and seeing her “fair share of…anatomy” (said with a blush); Ginny says that hearing stories about Girl Guides in England helping during WWI give her hope for being more than just being told the best hope for a girl is “a good husband and home”.
-Virginia “Ginny” Mathis
-Timothy “Tim” Elliott
P.O.V. switches between them, Belle, & another person (once)
Set in 1942
258 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
This book was a mixed bag! I liked the historical setting, learning about WWII events I had never heard of, the prayers, and the island setting as well, but ultimately there were some things like the main characters and their romance that lowered my rating and make me hesitate recommending this book to even older teen girls, personally.
With some historical fiction books, you don’t have to be super interested in the time period or historical events to enjoy the book; some other historical fiction books, you do have to be interested in that because of the setting and different historical events are a major part of the story. This book was definitely the latter. There were some parts that the apparent significance of whatever was happening felt a little lost on me—like either I was missing an important detail or something was implied, but not really explained—so I did have to use a bit of brain power for some conversations and also do quite a bit of research on details. Because of this, I think those that are really interested in WWII or willing to research are the ones that would be the most interested in this book. The beginning half of the book was mostly like this, but then ending was very rushed—and perhaps a bit unbelievable as well.
I didn’t love the main couple, personally. They fell very quick for each other and it got too kissy for my preference—especially when they had just met! Tim was a bit…brash, maybe would be the right word for it? He came on a little too strong for my tastes and it was more like insta-love because of it. The female main character, Ginny, is also assaulted with a forced kiss by a villain (which was disturbing to read in my opinion) and truly wasn’t necessary for the plot. Overall, this book wasn’t one I greatly enjoyed, unfortunately, due to the reasons listed above.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
