Adriana Reads

Despite the 3 star rating, I really, really liked this story. But I'm not giving it a higher rating because I felt it could have been so much better. There were essentially four central characters in Letters from Home. Liz, Julia, and Betty, three housemates, and Morgan, the GI they all meet the night before he ships out to Europe. Ms. McAllister gave all three equal time, but I felt the story would have worked better if she had focused on Morgan and the girl he exchanged correspondence with, thereby relegating the other two girls into the background. But probably my biggest beef with this novel is the fact that the last 25% of it felt rushed. Ms. McAllister spent 75% of the book detailing the events between July 1944 and February 1945, but raced through to October 1945 in the remaining 25%. As a result, the rushed ending felt somewhat anticlimactic. It was still an enjoyable story, but I would much rather have read a story that took its time letting events unfold, especially since there were four characters whose stories were being told.