Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Review: On Distant Shores

On Distant Shores (Wings of the Nightingale - Book 2) by Sarah Sundin

Publication Date: 08/01/2013
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Imprint: Revell Books
Genre: Historical Inspirational Fiction
Pages: 432
ISBN-10: 0800720822
ISBN-13: 978-0800720827

(Received for an honest review from Revell Books)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, ChristianBook, IndieBound

Sarah Sundin on the WEB: Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Pinterest

Books in the series:

With Every Letter (2012), On Distant Shores (2013)

Coverart: Click the image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.




Excerpt from On Distant Shores, courtesy of Amazon's Look Inside feature.

Synopsis:


Caught between the war raging around them and the battles within, two souls long for peace—and a love that remains true.

Lt. Georgiana Taylor has everything she could want. A boyfriend back home, a loving family, and a challenging job as a flight nurse. But in July 1943, Georgie's cozy life gets more complicated when she meets pharmacist Sgt. John Hutchinson.
Hutch resents the lack of respect he gets as a noncommissioned serviceman and hates how the war keeps him from his fiancée. While Georgie and Hutch share a love of the starry night skies over Sicily, their lives back home are falling apart. Can they weather the hurt and betrayal? Or will the pressures of war destroy the fragile connection they've made?
With her signature attention to detail and her talent for bringing characters together, Sarah Sundin weaves an exciting tale of emotion, action, and romance that will leave you wanting more.

Thoughts:

Inspirational author Sarah Sundin brings readers the second book in her Wings of the Nightingale series, On Distant Shores. The series features a World War II setting and the lives of the flight nurses who served their country and their God during those turbulent times. Sundin's attention to detail seems effortless and her characterizations are realistic and believable. Her research is evident in every page of this romantic book, with a message. Fans of Sundin's work will not be disappointed and new readers will fall in love with the passionate characters and dramatic setting. 

There were several things that I really enjoyed about this novel. Sarah Sundin always does her homework. She knows the ins and outs of World War II like the back of her hand. She is able to use her historical knowledge and background to give her books a very authentic and credible feel. 

On Distant Shores focuses on the life of a flight nurse and a mobile pharmacist during the war. Both jobs were extremely important on the war front and Sundin does a fantastic job of showing the urgency and life and death situations that her characters were facing. It was so realistic at times readers will be able to imagine the sound of the bombs and smell of smoke in the air. Sundin is a master at making the reader feel like they are right in the middle of the action and in this case the war. 

Georgie and Hutch were both excellent characters. What I think I liked most about Georgie was the personal growth she goes through in this story. Georgie has taken on the job of flight nurse during WWII. This was a hazardous job that meant taking your life in your hands on a daily basis. Though Georgie was scared and realized she had bitten off more than she could chew, she persevered and trusted in God to protect her. She began to realize that she wasn't very good at making decisions and that she had relied on other people in her life to tell her what to do. A lot of Georgie's growth dealt with the fact that she needed to trust herself and her own heart in deciding the course of her life. Sundin did a wonderful job showing Georgie's struggle and how she became aware of her issues and solved them. She was a character that readers will be able to identify with and understand.

The romance between Hutch and Georigie was very pure and wholesome, yet it had a real urgency about it, just like the situation they found themselves in the war. Hutch was very passionate about everything in his life from his work as a pharmacist to his relationship with Georgie. He had this zest for life that could not be dampened by the war. But there was a certain amount of pressure that continued to build between these two characters that was palpable. I liked the fact that Sundin was able to show their growing love for each other in romantic way without spoiling it with too much intimate detail. It left a little to the imagination which is often a novel concept in today's writing. 

Sundin is always able to get her overall Christian inspirational message across in a way that doesn't beret the reader. She is subtle but doesn't shy away from the fact that her characters were relying on God to see them through. I liked the fact that she referenced Abraham and Issac and was able to show the reader a little something about the Bible that they may not have considered before. Sundin does an excellent job of getting her point across to the reader. This is a book that will appeal to romance readers of all kinds, with it's romantic appeal as well as it's underlying message.

Available August 2013 at your favorite bookseller, from Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group.

I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!




About the Author:


Sarah Sundin is the author of With Every Letter and the Wings of Glory series. In 2011, A Memory Between Us was a finalist in the Inspirational Reader's Choice Awards, and Sarah received the Writer of the Year Award at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. A graduate of UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy, she works on-call as a hospital pharmacist. During WWII, her grandfather served as a pharmacist's mate (medic) in the Navy and her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England. Sarah lives in California, with her husband and three children. Visit www.sarahsundin.com for more information.


Giveaway Details:

Since I am unable to offer a giveaway for this title I found a really great giveaway for you to enter. Sarah Sundin is giving away a copy of both books in the series and a $200.00 Visa Cash Card to use toward a couples weekend get away. All you have to do is visit Sarah's Facebook page before September 2nd and hit "LIKE". The winners announcement will take place during Sarah's Facebook author chat party on September 3rd. Attend the party for other chances to win, a book chat, trivia and a look at the next book in this wonderful series! 


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