Monday, September 4, 2017

CelebrateLit Tour: Review: Wheresoever They May Be by Terri Wangard

Lily Swanson longs to be a mother. Soon Frank should be home for good and they can furnish a nursery. Maybe even find a bigger house.
Joe Gallagher grew up in a small house with plenty of siblings. He loves the solitude of flying, but the war has dragged on for so long. He’s ready to go home.
Susan Talbot has a bad attitude. She’s estranged from her family and she doesn’t attract friends. But war can bring out the best in people and Susan’s surprised to realize she’s happy.
They all do their part in striving for victory in World War II. Sometimes, though, the danger can be hard to identify.

I'm not even sure where to start.... (I'm pretty sure I'm going to regret writing this the instant I finished, but I want everything fresh and firmly fixed in my mind........And doing it all without spoilers is going to kill me!) I can't even use my outline on this book. This book has taken everything I thought I knew about WWII books and crumpled it up, then tossed in the nearest wastebasket. Start with the good.... The characters were awesome. Lily and Frank were the cutest thing. Joe was funny. Susan was a hard egg to crack, but I knew from the first that she was going to become a favorite. And she did. I honestly thought from the beginning that Susan and Joe were going to be an item, but this book's first surprise was the fact that it wasn't a romance. I enjoyed getting to see 4 different views of the war: Homefront, WAC, Navy, and Air Force. It gave such a well rounded and interesting.... moving.... action packed story. The dynamics between characters. Even the great secondary characters like Gibson, Pearl of great price, and Charlotte, were very loved. And of course, there were a ton of characters to dump all your hatred and frustration on. There was character growth, especially for Lily and Susan. Things I didn't like.... well, that's difficult to say while keeping this spoiler free. A typhoon and a plane crash are among the things that I didn't like. In fact, I didn't even cry over this book because my mind didn't register things. I guess I thought it wasn't true and everything would undo itself in the last chapter. Speaking of the last chapter.... I was totally fine with where I saw this going, but when I turned the last page I literally went "What?" out loud. I felt like it was missing a chapter, or at least a few pages. I have a thing about endings, and this one wasn't what I was expecting at all. In fact this crazy book didn't do anything I thought it would. ANYTHING!

Now the hard part is stars. After I got into this whopper (it took me 7 hours!) I didn't want to put it down. In fact, I'd have no problems giving this book 5 stars if it wasn't for that ending... or that one plane crash.... I think I'll give this book 4.5 stars, and hope you'll forgive the craziness of this review. I promise I enjoyed, even loved, this book. (Trust me, I'm rolling my eyes at me too...)

Anyhow, I received this book through Celebrate Lit, and all opinions are my own. (As if ya couldn't tell ;) )

About the Author

Terri Wangard grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, during the Lombardi Glory Years. Her first Girl Scout badge was the Writer. These days she is writing historical fiction, and won the 2013 Writers on the Storm contest and 2013 First Impressions, as well as being a 2012 Genesis finalist. Holder of a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in library science, she lives in Wisconsin. Her research included going for a ride in a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. Classic Boating Magazine, a family business since 1984, keeps her busy as an associate editor.

Guest Post from Terri Wangard

After eight years of thinking, breathing, researching B-17s, I was ready to disembark and concentrate on something else. But what? I had a vague idea of three friends who joined the WAC, the WAVES, and the WASPs, but nothing crystalized. Except for the WAC.
I didn’t want to completely turn away from flying, and I prefer topics that aren’t commonly known. How about a grasshopper pilot? My second character was on board.
I had toyed with the idea of a family generational series. A World War II story paired with a World War I story. But no, too unwieldy.
The WAC could have a sister, though, who stayed on the home front and did factory work. Oh, dear. I couldn’t completely stay away from B-17s. She’s building them.
She also needs a husband. He’ll be in the navy, and not on an aircraft carrier. A destroyer! (This was in the works before Sarah Sundin signed a contract for her just-concluded series about destroyer men. I checked with her: She was writing about the Atlantic war; my guy’s in the Pacific. No problem.) I studied the list of Pacific destroyers and, oooh, the Spence. All kinds of possibilities there.
So there I had it: a sailor, his Rosie-the-Riveter wife, her WAC sister, and a grasshopper pilot. They’re all doing their part to help win the war, but sometimes the enemy isn’t obvious.