Books for Christian Girls: "The Sea Before Us" by Sarah Sundin

About this book:

“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. Dorothy pieces together reconnaissance photographs with thousands of holiday snapshots of France--including those of her own family's summer home--in order to create accurate maps of Normandy. Maps that Wyatt will turn into naval bombardment plans.
As the two spend concentrated time together in the pressure cooker of war, their deepening friendship threatens to turn to love. Dorothy must resist its pull. Her bereaved father depends on her, and her heart already belongs to another man. Wyatt too has much to lose. The closer he gets to Dorothy, the more he fears his efforts to win the war will destroy everything she has ever loved.
The tense days leading up to the monumental D-Day landing blaze to life under Sarah Sundin's practiced pen with this powerful new series.”

Series: Book #1 “Sunrise at Normandy” series.

Spiritual Content- Scriptures are mentioned, read, remembered, & quoted; Many Prayers; Church going, a sermon, & a hymn; Many Talks about God, Him caring, & forgiveness; ‘H’s are not capital when referring to God; A couple ‘Thank God’s are said; Dorothy isn’t happy with God, and tries praying a few times, but does think often that God will smite who ever she prays for *Spoiler* She goes through many inward debates and finally realizes near the near that God does care for her *End of Spoiler*; Wyatt also witnesses/lives out his faith in front of her; Many mentions of God, Jesus, & forgiveness; Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches, church going, services, hymns, sermons, & ministers; Mentions of faiths; Mentions of Jews; Mentions of Easter; Mentions of miracles; Mentions of sins & sinners; A couple mentions of Godspeed.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blast it all’, three ‘balderdash’s, four ‘bother that man’s, four ‘rats’s, four ‘stupid’s, and five ‘shucks’; A couple mentions of curses (said, not written); A bit of sarcasm; Seeing an accident & death (barely-above-not-detailed); Air raids, Bombs, & Gunfire (up to semi-detailed); Shooting (up to semi-detailed); Fighting & Pain (up to semi-detailed); Throwing up (barely-above-not-detailed); All about many mentions of a war, fighting/battles, attacks, Nazis, bombs/explosions, fires, screams, gunfire, air raids, planning attacks, destroyed buildings, killing, & deaths (barely-above-not-detailed to a few semi-detailed parts); Mentions of seeing bodies & drownings (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of an accident, death, & nearly being killed; Mentions of injuries, stitches, pain, & blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of shooting down planes & damage; Mentions of spies; Mentions of thieves, stealing, & running away; Mentions of alcohol & drinking; Mentions of arrests, jail/prison, & an electric chair; Mentions of embezzlement; Mentions of debts; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of a wife wanting a divorce; Mentions of throwing up; A couple mentions of concentration camps; A couple mentions of cigarettes.

Sexual Content- a cheek kiss, three forehead/head kisses, a not-detailed kiss, six barely-above-not-detailed kisses, three semi-detailed kisses (all three were unpleasant/forced), and three border-line semi-detailed // detailed kisses; Remembering kisses (up to semi-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Dancing, Nearness, & Warmth (up to semi-detailed); Noticing & Staring (barely-above-not-detailed); a ‘harpy and a ‘hot’; Many mentions of kisses, kissing, being kissed, & wanting to kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of adultery, stealing another’s spouse, & a kept woman; Mentions of lovers; Mentions of touches (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of flirting; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of dating, dates, asking someone out, & girlfriends; Mentions of crushes & infatuation; A few mentions of longings; A couple mentions of a couple being alone in a house together (implied sexual things would happen, but they do not go); A couple mentions of scandals; A couple mentions of couples kissing (barely-above-not-detailed); A couple mentions of whistles/cat calls; A mention of reputations; A mention of a Casanova; Love, falling in love, & the emotions.

-Dorothy Fairfax

-Wyatt Paxton
P.O.V. switches between them

Set in 1944 {Prologue set in 1941}
373 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Ratings for EHS & OHS girls are for those interested in WWII}

I’ve been told for quite a while now that I need to read a Sarah Sundin book, since I’ve had a couple of her books on my TBR, but still haven’t read them.

Well, I’ve checked that box!

This start to a brand-new series interest me because of our main girl Dorothy’s job. She takes older pictures from others’ vacations of set places to create a visual map of the area their soldiers will be fighting.

I’ve read so many World War II books and while all of them have had the true realness of that time period, I never personally thought about all the plans and planning that went behind all of the attacks. I found “The Sea Before Us” to be very eye opening in that regard.

I will admit that I got very lost and boggled down at times because of all of the military and group terms and numbers (not to mention all the ranks), but I was able to follow along decently. Those highly interested in those topics would probably find all of that more interesting than I did. ;)

For our characters: I have to say that the Prologue really took me by surprise and I figured out quickly that the next to books in this series will be about Wyatt’s brothers. As for that Texan boy, I really liked his character development shown throughout this entire book. His actions and feelings in a “back-to-square-one” kind of way felt very natural.

For Dorothy. Poor, dear, sweet, Dorothy. My heart literally hurt reading about Dorothy trying to change herself and act different just for a guy. Honey, no, please, you’re worth so much more than that! That cad made my skin crawl and I was ready to give him the boot the moment he was introduced. I really did want to take Dorothy by her shoulders and shake her many times, to be completely honest. It felt it took her forever to see that how she was acting for a guy wasn’t right, but I was happy to see her true self eventually come to the pages and those around her.

While I really enjoyed all the Spiritual Content (Wyatt’s faith and him living it out in front of Dorothy was a favorite part of mine), I do have to say that I was disappointed with all the kissing and romancey thoughts. I’m hoping the author’s other books aren’t so kissy.

One thing I was expecting to happen by the end of the story, didn’t happen. I’m thinking that the later books will have it and I’ll most likely try them out.

See y’all on Wednesday with a new review!