You’ve Got Mail but WWII…and they don’t hate each other’s guts. 😂
With Every Letter was a wonderful book. I loved the WWII atmosphere, the history that I’d never heard with flight nurses, and (maybe my top thing) how each character grew through their mistakes.
Lt. Philomela Blake, a flight nurse, has always had trouble getting friends. With her childhood in the Philippines under care of her American father, she’s always been considered too American for the Filipino children, and too foreign for the American children. This has followed her into her adult life. Mellie—as her father calls her—knows how to be an excellent nurse and care for her patients, but she doesn’t know how to connect with people on a personal level.
Lt. Tom MacGilliver has lived with a smile unhappily pasted to his face. The son of a well-known murderer, he’s found it necessary to be as mild and cheerful as possible so that others don’t think he will turn out like his father. He’s a leader of a platoon, but finds it difficult to earn his men’s respect. He resorts to bribes to make sure they fulfill the end of their agreement.
The military begins an operation to boost soldiers’ morale—having officers exchange anonymous letters with the pretty flight nurses. Mellie is glad for the cover of anonymity, as she’s been rejected more than once due to her foreign features. And Tom finds it freeing to be able to be honest about how he feels without worrying his pen pal will accuse him of turning into a murderer.
But as the number of letters they exchange grows, so do their feelings for each other. What begins as a deep friendship starts to blossom into love.
My Review
I really enjoyed both main characters.
Mellie was super easy to love. Her pain at accidentally offending people and not knowing how to interact came across very well. She wasn’t always feeling bad for herself, but also you could definitely feel the friendless pit that dug itself inside her. I loved how she wholeheartedly threw herself into her work to try to do the best she could, and how excellent she really was at her job. She tried to listen to her superiors—but sometimes tried things her own way, too.
Tom was also a great character. He’s one of those guys that you just kind of trust. I love how imbedded his flaws were and how much he had to struggle through them. I also really appreciated seeing his problems with the soldiers not respecting him and how much trouble he was in from having to push his true self inside for all those years. And Sesame!!! I love his dog 😁
One of my favorite things about this book was the fact that both characters made mistakes—in fact, they both made a huge mistake probably halfway through the book. The kind of mistakes that I don’t usually see people making in the middle of the book. And I loved it!
Out of the side characters, I probably liked Larry Fong the best. I just really liked his whole character and how his storyline connected to Tom.
Sarah Sundin wrote the book in such a way that it feels like she really knows how things happened back then. The world she put her characters in felt authentic and vibrant. It was lovely to slip away in the 40s for a while and meet these people. Also, I think there was really only one kiss-y scene, so thanks to the author for not flooding the book with that 😂
Sarah Sundin wrote two more books in this series about a couple flight nurses that were side characters in this book. Definitely considering checking into those! 😁