About This Book
A gripping and compelling dual timeline novel about three women who joined the Navy during WWI to become yeomanettes and the impact their choices have on one of their descendants in 1968.
Spring 1918: America has entered World War I, but Viv Weston has problems closer to home. She is in hiding after she attacked her abusive father. With nowhere to go, she enlists in the Navy and moves in with two other young women, Marjory and Blanche, and the three girls become fast friends. An early class of "yeomanettes," the friends battle sexism and Navy regulations.
As the US military pours into France and the war heats up, Viv, trying to keep off the radar, is approved for a transfer overseas; Marjory accepts a marriage proposal; and Blanche, who has become pregnant by a soldier, agrees to a false marriage in order to keep her child. But all their plans for the future are thrown into chaos when a deadly fire breaks out.
1968: When Peggy Whitby, a young divorcee reeling from a tragedy, unexpectedly inherits her great-aunt Blanche's beach cottage outside Norfolk, Virginia, she begins to receive cryptic postcards addressed to Blanche from a Viv Weston, all dated from 1918, the year her aunt and two other girls lived together in the cottage during WWI. The mystery deepens when Viv's dog tag washes up on a nearby beach.
In search of the meaning behind these letters and the mysterious dog tag, Peggy digs into Blanche's life and her time as a yeomanette. It's only when she discovers a box filled with old unmailed letters and a christening gown that Peggy begins to realize Blanche wasn't completely honest with her. Desperate to find the truth, Peggy sets out on a mission to find Viv, but will she be able to handle the truth once it's revealed?
