Letter from Belleau Wood: Reviews
Letter from Belleau Wood
Reviews
Kirkus Review
LETTER FROM BELLEAU WOOD
A touching tale of young love during wartime.
A group of young people grow up in the shadow of World War I in this historical novel. This seventh book in Cheatham’s Covington Chronicles focuses primarily on four characters: a young woman named Trudy; her first love, Jeremy; her brother, Will; and his friend Lance. In a series of interconnected vignettes, the author explores this quartet’s coming of age during a tumultuous time. Trudy and Jeremy are childhood sweethearts “as close as ribbon cane syrup and pancakes,” but distance strains their romance when they both leave their small Mississippi town to attend college….
Cheatham’s novel moves along briskly as she chronicles the tough choices that her protagonists face, as well as their moments of joy. Real historical events such as the Battle of Belleau Wood are incorporated into the story; Gen. John J. Pershing even makes an appearance, taking Jeremy under his wing and sharing pithy wisdom on life and love…. Although the dilemmas faced by Trudy and company are specific to their time in history, the emotions involved are universal…. A touching tale of young love during wartime.
Kirkus reviews are intended to allow book venders and librarians to know the entire story. The sentences in this review that reveal significant portions of the plot have been removed. The entire review is published at Kirkus.com
Strong Themes and Compelling Characters
Letter from Belleau Wood is the seventh book in the Covington Chronicles by Mary Lou Cheatham, a historical novel with strong themes and compelling characters. Trudy Cameron and Jeremy Smitherlin became sweethearts while in elementary school and their connection became stronger after their families experienced hardship. Trudy drew close to Will, Jeremy’s brother. But they separated from each other when they all chose to pursue an education at different colleges…. The story follows their experiences of war and tragedy.
Huge Emotional Doses
This is a beautifully written historical novel that captures the period of the Great War. The story begins with the childhood of the characters and my sympathy was immediately drawn to Trudy who couldn’t help but be worried about her parents’ fighting, frustrated to the point that she “wished papa would die.” The setting, especially in its historical elements, is well-written. The author uses dialogues to bring life into the story and they augment the realism that permeates the writing. The prose is crisp and it allows the elements of the story to stand out. The characters are sophisticated and realistic and I cared for them. The deft handling of themes of family, love, war, and friendship, together with parenting and family dynamics, constitute one of the strong points of this novel. Letter from Belleau Wood is the seventh in the series but I enjoyed it as a standalone story; well-paced and filled with huge emotional doses. Reviewed By Ruffina Oserio for Readers’ Favorite
(Sentences that tell important elements of the plot have been omitted from the above review.)
Strength, Courage, and Hope
Letter from Belleau Wood is an engaging story set during 1917 and 1918 during the time before and after America entered into World War One. If the disastrous war isn’t enough, the worldwide Influenza pandemic of 1918 rages, taking many lives. The American South during this period faced harsh living conditions. Most families struggled with few opportunities. The main characters— Trudy, Jeremy, and Lance—are sympathetic and realistic as they forge ahead making the best of their lives under trying circumstances. They each endure tragedy and from tragedy seize all life has to offer them. This is an encouraging story of strength, courage, and hope. The actual letters written during the period are enchanting.
This, the 7th book in Ms. Cheatham’s Covington Chronicles Series, does not disappoint. Jonni Rich, Author of Deadly Black Pearls
Fantastic Read
This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I enjoyed it very much. I thoroughly enjoyed how the author is so descriptive in her writing style. The author’s portrayal of the character’s feelings and internal struggles, is very relatable.
This story will whisk you back to Mississippi during World War I and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Trudy Cameron and Jeremy Smitherlin grew up in the same neighborhood. They had been friends their entire life. Trudy was raised in a blended family, and Jeremy was navigating life on his own after losing his entire family. Trudy always thought they would marry each other but instead, end up going their separate ways at the start of World War I. Trudy’s brother Will, his college roommate, Lance and Jeremy all enlist into the military and are then, called up to go to France to fight in the war. This story of heartbreak, love, loss, hope, faith and triumph, will have your attention from the very first page.
I really liked this book. Although it is the last book in the Covington Chronicles seven book series, it can be read as a stand alone novel. I highly recommend this book, it is a must read. – Caroline’s Page Turners Blog
Intimate Details
Mary Lou Cheatham personalizes history through her characters, drawing in all the intimate details that affect lives both at home and abroad. She accurately portrays what a young woman goes through when she has an unplanned pregnancy that she must keep secret. Times were different then, but many things stay the same. –Pearl Ada Pridham, former Administrative Assistant and Peer Counselor, Crossroads Pregnancy Centre
Highly engrossing… a full-bodied historical drama.
Two people grapple with lost love and heartache in Cheatham’s expansive seventh installment in the Covington Chronicles set in the first World War era. Growing up, Trudy Cameron has always thought she would marry Jeremy Smitherlin, her childhood friend, but the circumstances separate the young couple. Trudy moves on and falls in love with Lance, her brother’s friend. But fate has other plans for the couple. Cheatham has a solid cast of authentic, imperfect characters, which enhance the emotional quotient of the story line and keep the reader invested in their fate. The narrative moves at a pitch-perfect speed, the plotting is tight, and themes of love, friendship, commitment, grief, and forgiveness weave through the satisfying finale. Cheatham’s scrupulous attention to historical detail is a wonderful complement to the heartbreaking and yet heartening tale of Trudy and the men in her life, making for a gripping, winning tale. This engaging novel will hit the spot for fans of poignant historical romance. –The Prairies Book Review
Love, Fate, and History
*****
Cheatham brilliantly weaves a tale of love, fate, and history in this seventh installment in the Covington Chronicles.
Trudy Cameron and Jeremy Smitherlin have always loved each other, but owing to Jeremy’s discontentment, they grow apart after they join separate colleges. Trudy meets Lance, her brother Will’s roommate, and the couple falls in love. But with World War in full swing, the three young men enlist themselves and leave for France. Trudy is left behind to wait for Lance, unaware of fate’s cruel stroke.
The brutal reality and atrocities of war, though only portrayed through Will, Jeremy, and Lance’s letters to Trudy, are on full view with shocking clarity. Equally poignant is Cheatham’s portrayal of her characters’ inner struggles as they go through heartbreak, loss, hope, and triumph. In Trudy, she has created an outstanding protagonist. Lance is sketched with equal conviction. But it’s the discontented Jeremy who shines all the way through.
Woven into this tale of two people trying to get over their own past hurts are the stunning period details. Expert plotting and perfect pacing are rounded out by lyrical prose. This superb tale impresses with its historical and emotional authenticity.
Historical fiction fans won’t want to miss this vividly recounted saga of heartache and recovery through courage, love, friendship, and faith. litandcoffee
Focus on the Characters
*****
This breezy novel shares the story of Trudy Cameron and her childhood sweetheart, Jeremy Smitherlin, as they grow apart and yet remain friends in the years leading up to World War I. They experience love and loss, the Spanish flu, and the uncertainties of the future as they both struggle to find their places in life.
The story documents Trudy’s experience in an all-women’s college and ways in which that time helped and complicated things for her, while also sharing many details of what the soldiers endured, both in their training camps in the United States and overseas in the trenches. Due to the focus on Trudy and Jeremy, both of whom seem to be from well-to-do families, the narrative can feel narrow in scope, but it creates a compelling story of what some experienced during those years.
There are moments when the sorrows in the story can feel a bit glossed over. When Trudy’s family falls on hard times after her father dies, the narrative moves things along in a matter of paragraphs, and while Jeremy’s past includes losing his mother and enduring the abuses of his father, that also melts away to where the pain is still there, but only in a vague manner.
In many ways, this story reads like a dream from another era, where there are hints of the historical trappings of the early 1900s yet everything flows along without necessarily bringing the time period to life. Similarly, there are story threads that just fade in and out when needed, with the connective pieces missing or relegated to minor details when they do enter the plot. The characters each seem to live in their own little world, caught up in the challenges of the moment in a way that doesn’t reference their own past or the larger history of their world, which can make the story feel timeless and immediate but might lose some of the historical appeal for some readers.
The author excels at sharing the characters’ emotions, showing them through memories, thoughts, and longings without becoming trite, cliché, or overly sentimental. The external details of the characters’ worlds are also nicely provided, to where readers are offered the basic information necessary to picture the settings and what the characters feel about those places, from Jeremy and Trudy’s family farms to the countryside of France. Even in these descriptions, the focus remains on the characters, adding to the feeling that they’re caught up in their own lives to the neglect of what others might be experiencing, but it presents a nicely consistent picture of how they perceive things.–The Book Review Directory
Wladyslaw Theodore Benda, Charcoal Drawings of the Great War Library of Congress
