Book Review: "Blue Skies Tomorrow" by Sarah Sundin

Summary from BN.com: When her husband becomes a casualty of the war in the Pacific, Helen Carlisle throws herself into volunteering for the war effort to conceal her feelings. But keeping up appearances as the grieving widow of a hometown hero is taking its toll. Soon something is going to give.

Lt. Raymond Novak prefers the pulpit to the cockpit. His stateside job training B-17 pilots allows him the luxury of a personal life--and a convenient excuse to ignore his deepest fear. When the beautiful Helen catches his eye and captures his heart, he is determined to win her hand.

But when Ray and Helen are called upon to step out in faith and put their reputations and their lives on the line, can they meet the challenges that face them? And can their young love survive until blue skies return?

This is the third book in the Wings of Glory series that focuses on the Novak brothers during WWII and the women they fall in love with. Those boys can never get a girl easily it seems as they have to go to combat - both in actual battle and to win over her heart. This story focuses on Ray, the soft spoken brother, and Helen, a young war widow who carries a big secret.

The book focuses on their relationship as well as their experiences separately. Helen is the main focus on the story and it's very difficult to read what she went through. I will admit that I had difficulty liking some of the characters in this book. There are the obvious people who you are not meant to like as well as those you feel sorry for due to their circumstances. But as horrible as this sounds, I just did not like Helen's character. Yes I know that she has a history of being abused in relationships but it frustrated me at how she continued the cycle and didn't want to get help. She had many opportunities to get out of the situation and instead she kept turning them down.

I think that out of all the books in the series, this was probably my least favorite. The other two books had heroines who were stronger and could take of themselves. Helen, on the other hand, feels like she doesn't feel complete unless she has someone to take care of her. Still I enjoyed the historical research done for this book. I really liked Ray's scenes during the war. I also was very interested in the treatment of African Americans during the war and I wish that more had been talked about. Perhaps an entire book or series should be done with those characters. I'm sad that the series is over but I'll be looking forward to reading more from Sundin in the future.

Blue Skies Tomorrow by Sarah Sundin is published by Revell (2011)

This review copy was provided by the publisher

Other books in the Wings of Glory series that I have reviewed:

A Distant Melody (Book 1)
A Memory Between Us (Book 2)