2.5 Stars ( )

This story was both heartbreaking and beautiful. You get to know the characters as they were pre war, filled with hope, determination, and love. You get to see how war and international standings can try to get in the way of something wonderful. You get the chance to experience the hardships faced on the field, and the very real consequences for losing the fight one thought was right at the start. The moments where their hearts soared with the anticipation of something more between them bring a smile to your face, while the times they were apart, unable to know what the other was going through, or even IF they were going through it, tear your heart apart.

We stand by Hayden's side as he does what he thinks is best to fight back against the atrocities, and fall to our knees as mate after mate is shot from the sky. When his time comes, your heart will be in your mouth wondering how anyone would be able to survive...and even if they do, how they could ever be the same. My heart was in my hand by book's end as I held my breath to see just how it would all come to pass...after all, the way the story transpires, so much of Chidori's life is a mystery past girlhood, and things, nay people change...and ARE changed by things.

I want to go on, expelling all the intense drama, trauma, and beauty within these pages, but I don't want to spoil any of the shine for you. I'll close with this...if you're looking for book that will tear at your heartstrings, deliver a story with historical as well as present day impact, remind you that while we may all be different, at heart, we are one, and love surely is blind, but in the best ways possible...this is just the book for you.



**ARC provided for review; opinions are my own ( )

Canada, intolerance, pow-camps, ya-only-means-no-gratuitous-erotica, war-is-hell, family, historical-novel, historical-research*****

Two young people living in Western Canada fall in love at the worst time in history for them. The girl is Nisei and the boy is not. She and her family are outcasts and sent to internment camp just like the indignities down in the US. He was already wanting to join up with a Flying Corps and does so. The book goes back and forth from fall of 1941 to their parallel incarcerations. It's a very moving book and I loved it.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Harper 360/One More Chapter via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )

This is a page-turner World War II love story between a Japanese girl whose family ends up interned and banished from their West Coast island home, and a boy who becomes a pilot, then prisoner of war. It is meticulously researched, and reveals much history about both threads of those stories. The action and war scenes are the most captivating; the love story is sweet and intense. It definitely immerses readers in another time and place. ( )

“Be kind. Be yourself. And never let anyone tell you who you should or shouldn’t love.”
Graham delves into the lives and loves of friends residing in Canada around World War II and the roles that their race and class played in their stories. Japanese internment during this time was an injustice that spread into Canada and affected the life of Chidori and her family, while her love went off to fight the war. The horrors and triumphs of their lives during this time come together eventually as Graham weaves this story of friendship and love while leaving a historical and humane nod to the inequities of the time.
*I received an arc from the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review ( )