About the Book

For fans of WWII fiction comes a powerful novel by Jennifer L. Wright about two young women coming of age during the Trinity nuclear bomb test in 1945.

Sixteen-year-old Olive Alexander has lived on a ranch in the Jornada del Muerto region of southern New Mexico her entire life. But when World War II begins, the government seizes her family’s land for the construction of a new, top secret Army post.

While her mother remains behind, Olive is forced to live in nearby Alamogordo with her grandmother and find a place in a new school. When Jo Hawthorne crosses her path, Olive sees a chance for friendship—until she learns that Jo’s father is the Army sergeant who now occupies her beloved ranch. Already angry about her new reality, Olive pushes Jo away. But as she struggles to make sense of her grandmother’s lapses into the past and increasingly unsettling hints about what’s happening at the ranch, she slowly warms to Jo’s winsome faith and steady attempts at friendship . . . until one devastating day when the sky explodes around them and their lives are torn apart.

Seven years later, Jo returns to Alamogordo, still angry and wounded by the betrayals of that fateful day. Determined to put the past behind her once and for all, Jo hunts for answers and begins to realize the truth may be far more complicated than she believed, leading her on a desperate search to find her friend before it’s too late.

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In My Opinion

When I first started reading Escape from Amsterdam by Lauralee Bliss, I liked that the book differed from so many other World War II books in that the hero and heroine meet prior to the German occupation of Amsterdam. Readers get a peek into what normal life is for Helen as she anticipates starting college and meets an interesting man who moves her.

But when it took over half of the book to get to what is on the back cover copy of the book, I was ready to quit the story. Thankfully, I hung in there and things picked back up once the action with the children started happening.

Bliss succeeds at pulling on readers’ heartstrings with the sweet children and the couple who agree to shelter them along with Helen and Erik. I just wished it hadn’t taken so long to get there.

Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.