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carriedoodledoo's review
4.0
More oral history of WWII, but from the perspective of love. It's like the expanded "How We Met" section from Reminisce Magazine. Lovely stories that challenge today's idea of long courtships, even longer engagements, and brief marriages.
stacykins78's review
3.0
I loved the stories themselves. I didn't necessarily love the way that they were presented or bound together.
emariegrace's review
4.0
This was really really sweet. Lots of adorable stories. And the 40s photographs!
readers_block's review
4.0
If you're looking for great literature, this isn't it.
In my opinion, Larry King should have served as just the editor and let the subjects tell the stories themselves. The way King wrote it they all sound exactly the same and take a lot of what's special out of them.
It was definitely fun to read about what romance was like in the forties and to hear about how these couples met and made it work.
The best part by far was the pictures. I loved that they were included.
In my opinion, Larry King should have served as just the editor and let the subjects tell the stories themselves. The way King wrote it they all sound exactly the same and take a lot of what's special out of them.
It was definitely fun to read about what romance was like in the forties and to hear about how these couples met and made it work.
The best part by far was the pictures. I loved that they were included.
kellyjcm's review
4.0
This collection of letters and narrative made a time period that is quite remote from me much more real. I was amazed by many of the stories, and enjoyed the book immensely.
inhonoredglory's review
4.0
What a wonderful little book! Although the writing could use some polishing, the sheer adventure, humor, and true-to-life-ness of the tales themselves offset any stylistic lacking. The stories are heart-warming, bittersweet, comforting, saddening, frightening, enlightening, and always struck with the down-to-earth declaration that these things did take place - once upon a time. Personal accounts are always the closest way to history's heart, and this book is no exception. For a real experience of life on the home front, at the USO dances, amid longing and love, letters and leaves, this book is great. Through it, I learned little pieces of history that otherwise would drift past my notice - the doubt that women faced when dating soldiers, the fact that their letters go often to more than one man overseas, the fate of Germans and Italians in America during WWII, the danger experienced by those non-military sailors who faced U-Boats in their transport of supplies to the Allies, the horrors of the Germans against Italian townspeople in the waning days of the war. And of course, the sudden love and lasting commitment of many of the romances peppered out of the field of battle. Yes, some stories were not fantastic, may not have been so surprising or inspiring, but they were real, and they happened to real people who each had something heart-felt and honest to say. I learned many things from this book - little things like how people felt, how they lived, and how individual lives were subtly or abruptly affected by so far-reaching an event as the Second World War. The war may have broken the hearts of mothers who saw the last of their sons, it may have shocked its young soldiers, but it also brought together at least two people who owe to it the chance of their meeting and the far-reaching joy of togetherness that they often afterward enjoyed. This book shows that side of the war. Not the bloodshed and the battle, but the love and the longing, which was just as real and deep.
happychic26's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
cac03's review against another edition
3.0
Such unemotional writing for such a beautiful idea. I'm not sure how you can take such sweet stories and make them so bland and black and white. Loved the stories of the couples involved- hated the presentation A beautiful idea- not well executed but still worth a read
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