With Every Letter By Sarah Sundin

With Every Letter by Sarah Sundin

 Book 1 Wings of the Nightingale Trilogy

Lt. Mellie Blake is a nurse serving in the 802nd Medical Squadron, Air Evacuation, Transport. As part of a morale building program, she reluctantly enters into an anonymous
correspondence with Lt. Tom MacGilliver, an officer in the 908th Engineer Aviation Battalion in North Africa. As their letters crisscross the Atlantic, Tom and Mellie develop a unique friendship despite not knowing the other's true identity. When both are transferred to Algeria, the two are poised to meet face to face for the first time. Will they overcome their fears and reveal who they are, or will their future be held hostage to their past? And can they learn to trust God and embrace the gift of love he offers them? Combining excellent research and attention to detail with a flair for romance, Sarah Sundin brings to life the perilous challenges of WWII aviation, nursing, and true love.

Lt. Mellie Blake is a flight nurse in North Africa during WWII.  She grew up traipsing through jungles after her botanist father and has never had a friend-not a real one anyway.  Just cut-out magazine pictures that she posted in a scrapbook and made up stories about them and her.  Once in No. Africa, she is thrust into the middle of a squadron of nurses.  Shy, unaccustomed to small talk, her flight leader orders her to make friends or else she will go back to the States and serve there.

She starts corresponding with an anonymous soldier; Lt. Tom MacGilliver, who also has self-esteem issues.  His farther was executed as a murderer.  And the stigma of being the son of a murderer has followed him all his life, even into the Army since none of his platoon will follow his orders.  He is afraid to discipline them because he might turn out to be like his father.  Anonymous letters fly back and forth between the two as they each have something the other needs in their life.  They find that they have much in common and encourage each other when they share their problems.

Soon they are stationed in nearby areas and Mellie meets Tom and realizes that he is her anonymous friend.  She struggles with fears since it seems that Tom doesn't want to have anything to do with her.   When Tom writes that he wants them to meet in person, Mellie can't because she believes that she is too ugly and that she will lose Tom's friendship.    Each of them are being held back from a wonderful future because of the hold their pasts have on them.

This is a story that everyone will relate to since we all struggle with self-worth and doubt at times.  A finely crafted masterpiece with images so vivid , I could feel the heat of the desert and the acrid stench of blood in the air. 



Written by Michelle Alut

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