Hi girls! Time for another review! This one is of the book The Lines Between Us by Amy Green. This one was slightly difficult for me and with the time constraint (I’m also teaching forth grade now!) I decided it wasn’t worth my time and brains to read something I wasn’t enjoying. I will probably come back and finish it in the future, but for now I got about 30% in and I think that was a fair chance.
A WWII novel of courage and conviction, based on the true experience of the men who fought fires as conscientious objectors and the women who fought prejudice to serve in the Women’s Army Corps.
Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, Gordon Hooper and his buddy Jack Armitage have stuck to their values as conscientious objectors. Much to their families’ and country’s chagrin, they volunteer as smokejumpers rather than enlisting, parachuting into and extinguishing raging wildfires in Oregon. But the number of winter blazes they’re called to seems suspiciously high, and when an accident leaves Jack badly injured, Gordon realizes the facts don’t add up.
A member of the Women’s Army Corps, Dorie Armitage has long been ashamed of her brother’s pacifism, but she’s shocked by news of his accident. Determined to find out why he was harmed, she arrives at the national forest under the guise of conducting an army report . . . and finds herself forced to work with Gordon. He believes it’s wrong to lie; she’s willing to do whatever it takes for justice to be done. As they search for clues, Gordon and Dorie must wrestle with their convictions about war and peace and decide what to do with the troubling secrets they discover.
THE CHARACTERS
The MC is a Conscious Objector during WWII. Personally, I have nothing against Conscious Objectors. I understand where they stand and I respect their convictions. I also admire their strength in standing up to what they believe God would have them to do. I don’t avoid reading books with conscious objectors in the least, I usually can appreciate the POV they provide into the world. This one was just so hard for me to grasp.
The MC was a fine guy. Gordon. His dedication to his beliefs was, as I said before, admirable. His friend Jack… died too soon. I wish we had been able to develop a closer relationship or a deeper appreciation for him as a character before they took him away to start the plot line. He was the only character I cared about!
I did not like Dorie at all. I didn’t like her while she was courting Gordon, or while she was in the army. I felt that she was way too self righteous and it made it really difficult to connect with her. Jack was the only character I really connected with and she was so mean to him.
The side characters all rubbed me wrong. Especially the ones with Gordon’s POV.
THE PLOT
Since I only lasted about until 33% I didn’t really get a large portion of the plot down. Mostly it was all set up and I didn’t like the set up that’s why I stopped. So I can’t say with a fair amount of plot what I thought of it. I did think it was interesting, but it was also pretty predictable for as far as I got. I think it had a lot of potential if the set up and characters hadn’t turned me away. Maybe it would be better for someone who didn’t mind the characters or specifically enjoys this type of theme in books.
THE CONTENT
Like I said before, I did not get far enough into the book to actually get to any content. There was mild mention of a burn victim, and also Dorie had a reputation for sneaking around and not plowing protocol a lot. That didn’t bother me but I thought I might mention it.
SUMMARY
I didn’t do a star review because I don’t think its fair to leave a star review either bad or good. I didn’t enjoy this book but it was simply a vibe thing.
Thank you to Bethany House and the author for a free copy of this book! A positive review was not required and all opinions are my own.
