Pam Webber

Thank you to LibraryThing, the author and publisher.

I enjoy historical fiction and I do consider 1970s historical. It wasn't an easy read with Andy being in Vietnam and Nettie, a nurse intern in VA. I do have to admit that I skipped over chunks of Andy's combat in Vietnam. It was too intense for me but I didn't need to read more to understand what he and his comrades were going through.

There's always a part of the book where I "can't put 2+2" together and figure things out and again I was surprised. I loved Nettie and her friends and especially her friendship with Mr. Pepper who was a patient.

Overall, a hard and good read.… (mere)

This historical fiction novel looks at a more recent turbulent time in American history - the 1970s and the Vietnam War. It's the parallel story of a young engaged couple - Andy is a lieutenant in the military and has deployed to Vietnam and assigned a platoon to do long range reconnaissance in the Vietnamese jungles and Nettie is training to be a nurse at a busy hospital. They both face daily trials in their jobs as they worry about each other and whether they will ever be reunited. The chapters alternate between the two main characters and highlight Andy's day to day life of trying to stay alive and keep his platoon safe while Nettie works through hospital politics at home.

Nettie loves her training at the hospital and enjoys helping other people. When she inadvertently walks in on the director of nursing and a hospital employee having a tryst in an unused area of the hospital, the nursing director begins to go out of her way to discredit Nettie and remove her from her training. At she fights against this injustice, she makes friends with an older man who is dying but still has lessons that he wants to teach her about life.

Andy's days are much more precarious. Facing the heat and the bugs and leeches, he spends his time trying to keep his platoon out of danger while they are gathering information for the officers. Even as Andy and Nettie are apart they think of each other often and pray that they will soon be together to start their life as a married couple. Both characters believe in the power of God to get them through their situations and live their lives as good and decent people who care about others.

Because of my age, it is difficult for me to view the Vietnam era as historical fiction even though it does fit the 50 year criteria. This book brought back a lot of memories about what life was like back then and even went into issues such as the protestors and the mistakes that were being made by the military in their quest to win the war. Overall, this was a beautifully written book about two people in love who are facing the daily trails of life with love4 and faith that they'll soon be together again.… (mere)

Pam Weber knows how to write a story.

This is one book you will not want to miss, from page one I was pulled into the story until the last page.

This is not the usual type of book I read. I read the introduction and it seamed like an interesting story so thought I would give it a go. I am so glad I did. This is so much more then what I thought the story was going to be about.

Andy goes of to Vietnam and leaves behind a fiancé who is interning at a hospital to become a nurse. We learn of what happens in each of there lives in the year they were apart. Andy with what he goes through on his missions with the men who become family to him. About the surroundings they have to endure in the jungles. And how they survived on the jungle for there food. The horrible things that happened to the innocent people who lived there. And Nettie, his fiancé what it was like to be a nurse at the hospital she worked when one of her superiors where giving her a hard time. Her meeting a very ill patients she befriends and what his past life was like.

Beautifully written and highly engaging story. 4 1/2 starts… (mere)