“Letters From Home”
Author: Kristina McMorris
I recently came across the title “Letters From Home” by Kristina McMorris. I hopped over to Amazon’s website to complete my “research” which basically consists of reading any jacket or editorial comments in order to make sure that the book itself will interest me. To be honest, the story-line didn’t completely draw me in but, I liked the fact that this is McMorris’ first novel and that the idea for “Letters From Home” blossomed because of stories about her grandparents World War II courtship. That small aside made me recollect stories from my own grandparents and was the clincher that made me request this book.
The premise for “Letters From Home” is this: three roommates living in Chicago discover that they cannot control love’s destiny regardless of how hard they try. Betty Cordell hopes to avoid the mistakes her mother made by marrying into an affluent family. She has decided that she can force herself to be happy…or at least she can attempt to fake it. Julia Renard, a young woman with an amazing talent for fashion design, throws away a coveted fashion internship so that she can be there when her fiancé finally returns from the war. She has decided that his wants, needs, and desires are more important than her own. Mm Hmm… And finally, Liz Stephens begins to question her well-laid out plans for her future as she exchanges letters with a soldier who thinks that she is actually her roommate Betty. Oh what a tangled web we weave…
Overall, I found “Letters From Home” to be a fun read although, because of the era it was set in it, at times, it was also sobering. The book itself was well-written; McMorris writes with a strong style and even though this story is based sixty years in the past I found I was still able to relate to the characters. “Letters From Home” made me smile, it made me laugh and one passage even made me cry which is a difficult thing for a book to do.
My only complaint is that the ending felt somewhat anticlimactic. There were three women in this story and each of their lives was closely followed. However, when the book’s end arrived, it seemed that there was only one “complete” ending. Maybe that was the author’s intent. Maybe she has plans to write additional books which will focus solely on the supporting characters that we met in “Letters From Home.” I certainly hope so…
All in all a great read.