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Sunrise At Normandy Book 1
Sarah Sundin
Revell Pub
Feb 6, 2018/ ISBN 9780800727970
Fiction / Historical / Mystery / Military
Reviewed
by Elise Cooper
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The Sea Before
Us by Sarah Sundin brings into focus
British cultural and historical tidbits, a mystery involving
an embezzler, a World War II setting, and a love triangle. It
is a reminder of how America’s finest prepared for the
D-Day invasion to defeat the Nazis.
The year is 1944 and the Allied forces are preparing for the
invasion of Normandy. Lieutenant Wyatt Paxton is a US Naval
officer advising on how to use naval power during the assault.
He works closely with Dorothy Fairfax, a "Wren" in
the Women's Royal Naval Service. Her duties include piecing
together reconnaissance photographs of France that include those
of her own family's summer home. These accurate maps of Normandy,
are used by Wyatt to create naval bombardment plans. As their
friendship blossoms, he uses his other skills as an accountant
to help her figure out which employee has been embezzling from
her father’s company. The tensions increase as they both
must deal with enemies on the home front and abroad.
Having visited Normandy, Sundin was struck with “the impressive
sight than we learned in the history books. When I looked at
Point du Hoc, where the US Rangers scaled the cliff, I thought
that someday I wanted to write about it. I was blown away by
what the men did there. After I started to do my research I
found out that the US Navy was very involved. I was awed by
the role the US destroyers had in Operation Neptune. These ships
charged within eight hundred yards of the shore, heedless of
mines and artillery, to protect those on the shore. They knocked
out strongpoints and toppled gun batteries off cliffs that were
pinning down the allied forces. I also wanted to inform readers
about the ‘Little Blitz.’ It was overshadowed by
the German Blitz during 1940-41. In 1944 the Luftwaffe retaliated
for the heavy Allied bombing of German cities, killing 1,500
Londoners. But it actually backfired because they lost 300 bombers,
crippling the German Air Force on the eve of the Normandy invasion.”
The characters are very well-developed. They share the feeling
of being all alone and having a fractioned family. She has lost
her mother and brothers in the war and senses that her father
resents her. In the meantime, Wyatt ran from his troubles, being
blamed by his brother Adler for his fiancé’s death,
even though it was an accident, then stealing two thousand dollars
from his brother Clay. Having admitted his mistakes, he is repenting
by saving his salary to pay his brother back.
At the beginning of the story, Dorothy comes across as insecure,
trying to be someone she is not, even going to a point of hiding
the freckles on her face. She is doing this for what she perceives
is the love of her life, Lieutenant Commander Lawrence Eaton,
a self-centered playboy. She looks on Wyatt as a brother and
sees Eaton as a heartthrob. This romance plays out within the
background of WWII and emphasizes the different cultures between
the Texan Wyatt and the English Dorothy and Eaton.
Sundin explained, “In hiding her freckles with make-up
she is hiding who she is. I put in the story how Wyatt thought
they belonged with her red hair and Lawrence thought it dreadful.
Wyatt accepted them, and Eaton wanted them covered up and hidden.
It is typical of some guys who tell women ‘you would be
cute, if...’ Dorothy also tried to be more sophisticated,
molding herself into someone she is not to impress Eaton. She
basically compromises herself to impress him.”
This new series, ‘Sunrise at Normandy,’ is about
three brothers: Wyatt in the Navy, Adler in the Air Force, and
Clay a Delta Ranger. Readers will be looking forward to the
follow-up books because this first in the series is a home-run
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