When We Had Wings by Ariel Lawhon, Kritina McMorris, and Susan Meissner

I had to order this one from Amazon since it wasn't in any of our library options, and I was hopeful it would be worth it, since Ariel Lawhon's Frozen River was such a good book.  We are reading it in our Stonebridge/Monterey book club, hence my desire to read it. The Amazon reviews were pretty good.

But...it's historical fiction with predictable characters, challenges, and romance. It was a hard one to read and enjoy, though, because it's set in the Philippines during World War II, and mostly in prison camps. The starvation and cruelty dominated the stories... And yet it was interesting to learn about these brave nurses who spent most of the war incarcerated. Their challenges were HARD, and they bore up well under them.

The cruelty of the Japanese overseers was tough to read about. Very much like the Germans in another book we read in this group, The Wartime Book Club... This book also reminded me of The Women, and the nurses there who endured very tough conditions in Viet Nam. Hard to read about, maybe good to learn about.

These three nurses were an interesting mix; two Americans and one Filipina. It was interesting to read about the difference in treatment of the Americans vs. the Filipina. I liked that many of these episodes in the story are based on real-life events that happened and are documented, even though these particular nurses and their boyfriends are fictional. Their relationships moves the story forward.

You would never call this great writing. But it was interesting, to a point. I will be able to talk about it at book club, but it's not a book I would ever highly recommend or read again...