I have never read any books regarding the LDS faith or any books that are about LDS families and I was skeptical at first, but after the first chapter I was HOOKED with this book. I didn’t want to stop reading and I am so glad that there are sequels to this book!

Very good series of books about an LDS family and their lives during WWII. Enjoyed them a lot.

A book full of selfish, sometimes priggishly sinful, yet unidentifiable-in-a-crowd characters that never quite reach maturity... with the exception of Wally. Which is why this book gets the rating it does.

I've avoided reading this book for years because I was worried it was basically a Mormon romance novel. I finally decided to buckle down and try it out, and ended up pleasantly surprised. The combination of the fictional lives of an LDS family in the 1940s with the historical events that we’re all familiar with from World War II made for a great book. LDS fiction authors, and in particular historical fiction, often fall into the trap of having characters provide huge exposition dumps, usually in conversations that feel entirely unnatural. Hughes avoids this almost entirely. Even when a lot of exposition is necessary, he allows it to happen fairly organically. The romance part of the story was a little sentimental and over-the-top, but I liked the characters enough that I didn’t mind.

Good clean book about life during WWII. Liked the characters

I have never been as interested in World War II history, until now. This book is one of my new favorites and I cannot wait to finish the series. The characters are fleshed out and I cared deeply about what happened to them from the very beginning. The tension is perfect, we know there is danger because of what is happening with Hitler (and because we know at least the framework of what happened, we know at times to be nervous than the characters, which only adds to the tension) and there is normal, everyday tension as well as the children of the family are making life decisions. The book is never intense though, and very interesting. The only parts that weren't as brilliant for me was the beginning of some chapters. Hughes wraps up what happened in the war at that time at the beginning of some of the chapters, rather than putting it into the story somehow. I can see why he did it, but it was still exposition. The book was so wonderful and I loved the themes of God watching out for us and having faith through hard times. And don't let the size intimidate you--I couldn't put the book down and couldn't believe how quickly I flew through this. It is well worth the read.

A little slow in the first half as I got to know the family, but then it picked up towards the end and peaked my interest to read the 2nd novel.

It's been a few years since I have read this series, so I picked it up when I ran out of other things to read. I didn't expect to get so sucked in. I read the first 350 pages in about three days. I then got busy and took four days to read the last 150 pages, but I was still enthralled. I forgot just how much I love these books.

Reading this reminded me of how much I love learning about World War Two. I especially love the LDS aspect of these stories. I'm not usually a big fan of LDS fiction, but Dean Hughes does it well. He's not preachy. He's simply looking at the war stories from the perspective of a Mormon family. It poses interesting questions when Alex ends up fighting the German people when only a few years earlier he was teaching them the Gospel. Hughes covers every front of the war through the children of this one family, including the home front in Salt Lake City.