"The Lines Between Us," by Amy Lynn Green

 "The Lines Between Us," by Amy Lynn Green

"A WWII novel of courage and conviction, based on the true experience of the men who fought fires as conscientious objectors and the women who fought prejudice to serve in the Women's Army Corps.

Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, Gordon Hooper and his buddy Jack Armitage have stuck to their values as conscientious objectors. Much to their families' and country's chagrin, they volunteer as smokejumpers rather than enlisting, parachuting into and extinguishing raging wildfires in Oregon. But the number of winter blazes they're called to seems suspiciously high, and when an accident leaves Jack badly injured, Gordon realizes the facts don't add up.

A member of the Women's Army Corps, Dorie Armitage has long been ashamed of her brother's pacifism, but she's shocked by news of his accident. Determined to find out why he was harmed, she arrives at the national forest under the guise of conducting an army report . . . and finds herself forced to work with Gordon. He believes it's wrong to lie; she's willing to do whatever it takes for justice to be done. As they search for clues, Gordon and Dorie must wrestle with their convictions about war and peace and decide what to do with the troubling secrets they discover."

This book was pretty interesting, story aside.  I learned a lot about conscientious objectors, about smokejumpers, and even about the WOC.  The author's research really paid off and she wove true historical information into a very well written book.

Dorie was a bit over the top for me, but you couldn't help but like her.  What Gordon, Jack and his fellow conscientious objectors went through fighting fires they deserved praise for what they did.  The story was fast paced and it kept you interested throughout.

The mystery about Jack's accident does keep things interesting.  However, DO NOT read the author's notes until after you have read the book!!  I made the mistake of reading the author's notes around three quarters of the way through and I figured out the "mystery!"

Stars out of 5 : 4.5 It lost half a star, because the story seemed to drag at certain points.  The author's notes are really worth reading at the end, they contain a lot of information.  WWII stories are not my usual genre of books I read, so this made a lovely change for me.

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. 

Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".