Until We Find Home

     BOOK REVIEW:   For American Claire Stewart, joining the French Resistance sounded as romantic as the storylines she hopes will one day grace the novels she wants to write. But when she finds herself stranded on English shores with five French Jewish children she smuggled across the channel before Nazis stormed Paris, reality feels more akin to fear.
     With nowhere to go, Claire throws herself on the mercy of an estranged aunt, begging Lady Miranda Langford to take the children into her magnificent estate. Heavily weighted with grief of her own, Miranda reluctantly agrees. . . .if Claire will stay to help. Though desperate to return to France and the man she loves, Claire has few options. But her tumultuous upbringing---spent in the refuge of novels with fictional friends---has ill prepared her for the daily dramas of raising children, or for the way David Campbell, a fellow American boarder, challenges her notions of love. Nor could she foresee how the threat of war will invade their quiet haven, threatening all who have come to call Bluebell Wood home, the people who have become her family.
     Set in England's lush and storied Lake District in the early days of World War II, and featuring cameos from beloved literary icons Beatrix Potter and C. S. Lewis, Until We Find Home is an unforgettable portrait of life on the British home front, challenging us to remember that bravery and family come in many forms.

     MY REVIEW:   Cathy Gohlke is a favorite author of mine. She hasn't written many books, only about 6 or 7, but the three that I read---Promise Me This, Band of Sisters and Secrets She Kept---I absolutely loved. Her books have a rarely-found depth and meaning with a drawing story and amazing characters and plot. She is one of those authors whose name alone will make me grab her books without reading the back.
     But this book was really disappointing. It was really boring, until the last few chapters, and not really worth reading again. Her main character, Claire, was a selfish, shallow, pouting girl who couldn't function because life wasn't handing her the roses she thought she deserved. Her male character was good, being the logical head in the household, but not enough to combat Claire's character. Lady Miranda wasn't as bad, but not really good either. Unlike Cathy's other books, this one is a shallow romance, an uninteresting one at that.
     I did however, like the children's characters, though they were dampened by the others. Jews and Germans and Frenchmen were not liked among the English. These five children were French Jews, and not only that, but Miranda then took in 6ish German Jews. Needless to say, the children had to learn they were not enemies. I especially like Gaston, the eight or ten year old French lad. I will say, Cathy did a really good job incorporating their native language in a way we can understand. Mainly exclamations, please and thank you, yes and no. And I love the French language, and always enjoy reading it in a book. But Gaston's character was exceptionally well-done. Nearly as good is Josef, the German lad who is Gaston's age. There was one lass who didn't seem to be mentioned in the story. She was named in the end and I hadn't remembered about her.
     I could see there was a goal aimed for in this book, which, if accheived, would have been amazing. But I found it fell short.

   I received a copy of this book from TYNDALE PUBLISHERS. All opinions are my own.