For Love and Country

January 27, 2020
Waters’s fast-paced and insightful debut follows the life-changing experiences of a woman serving in the Navy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After seeing a Navy ad in a movie newsreel for women volunteers, Lottie Palmer, a Detroit auto manufacturer heiress, abandons her fiancé on their wedding day, when “flowers were the one thing they weren’t rationing,” to join the Navy women’s reserve. Using skills she honed at her father’s factory, Lottie trains as a mechanic in San Diego, under the command of Capt. Luke Woodward, who “seemed to go out of his way to find something wrong with whatever she was doing.” Woodward is again Lottie’s commander when she is assigned to Pearl Harbor, undaunted by the surprise attack on the base a few years earlier. There, Luke reveals that he was hard on her so that no one would suspect his attraction to her, and Lottie realizes she is drawn to him as well. After Luke ships out aboard a carrier, having placed Lottie as second-in-command of their shop, she ably leads the men until hearing Luke is missing in action. Waters explores Lottie’s desire for self-determination through a convincing portrait of the era’s strict rules about social class and gender. Readers who can’t get enough of WWII fiction featuring strong women characters will definitely want to take a look.

February 15, 2020
As the U.S. enters WWII, Lottie Palmer?of the Detroit Palmers?decides she wants to do something that matters. She informs her fianc� the day before their wedding, packs a bag, and joins the U.S. Navy WAVES. Lottie's mechanical skills are confirmed during basic training, in which she and roommate Maggie have so little in common that they can't have a civil conversation. Soon, Lottie is assigned to an airplane mechanic division in Pearl Harbor, where she is the only female and best mechanic on a team repairing aircraft for deployment. As they are repeatedly stationed together and experience the war at close range, Lottie and Maggie grow from nemeses to friends. After the battle at Iwo Jima, the base is filled with wounded soldiers, including Lottie's erstwhile fianc�, forcing her to deal with her feelings for a superior officer. When Lottie defies orders to undertake a daring rescue, her military career ends, and the rest of her life begins. Well-researched and engaging, Waters' debut is a good fit for fans of Therese Anne Fowler, Marie Benedict, and others who enjoy historical fiction centering women's experiences.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)