By Kelly Bridgewater
She was so sure she knew her family’s
story . . . Now she wonders if she was wrong about all of it.
1969. When Mattie Taylor’s twin
brother was killed in Vietnam, she lost her best friend and the only person who
really understood her. Now, news that her mother is dying sends Mattie back
home, despite blaming her father for Mark’s death. Mama’s last wish is that
Mattie would read some old letters stored in a trunk, from people Mattie
doesn’t even know. Mama insists they hold the answers Mattie is looking for.
1942. Ava Delaney is picking up the
pieces of her life following her husband’s death at Pearl Harbor. Living with
her mother-in-law on a secluded farm in Tennessee is far different than the
life Ava imagined when she married only a few short months ago. Desperate to
get out of the house, Ava seeks work at a nearby military base, where she soon
discovers the American government is housing Germans who they have classified
as enemy aliens. As Ava works to process legal documents for the military, she
crosses paths with Gunther Schneider, a German who is helping care for wounded
soldiers. Ava questions why a man as gentle and kind as Gunther should be
forced to live in the internment camp, and as they become friends, her sense of
the injustice grows . . . as do her feelings for him. Faced with the
possibility of losing Gunther, Ava must choose whether loving someone deemed
the enemy is a risk worth taking, even if it means being ostracized by all
those around her.
In the midst of pain and loss two women must come face-to-face with their own
assumptions about what they thought they knew about themselves and others. What
they discover will lead to a far greater appreciation of their own legacies and
the love of those dearest to them.
My Thoughts:
All We Thought We Knew
by Michelle Shocklee combines the world of World War II and the Vietnam war.
This is definitely a unique and different perspective. I have not read many
stories about the Vietnam war. My uncles do not like to talk about it, so I
know they do not want to share the horrors that they had to endure. I know this
was the Hippie era where there were many protests across America and college
campus. But other than that, I really did not know much about this time period.
I would have liked to see more of a justification for Mattie not wanting her
brother and friend, Nash, to join the Marines to go fight in Vietnam. It was
covered, but slightly. I wanted a little more depth to this aspect of the
novel. This is a timeslip novel, so there is two time periods that depend on
each other in order to solve the mystery by the end of the story. A little bit
of romance in both periods. A horse farm as the setting and a camp in other.
Shocklee does a wonderful job at bringing the settings to my imagination.
Overall, All We Thought We Knew by Michelle Shocklee ventures into the
Vietnam War Era and ties a thread to the World War II era. From heroic
characters to characters with doubts, Shocklee invites readers into a world of
questioning why readers believe what they believe. It is okay to dive deeper to
cement pre-conceived ideas.
I received a complimentary copy of All We
Thought We Knew by Michelle Shocklee from Tyndale Publishing, but the opinions stated
are all my own.
My Rating: 3.5 out of
5 stars
Purchase All We Thought We Knew
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