I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS by Julie L. Cannon

Okay, it is that time of year again, December, when I get out my books that have Christmas in their title and begin to read and set the mood for the "most wonderful time of the year"!  This is story number one on my list this year:

This was a tender love story set during WWII.  It was the time of the Big Band sounds and I liked the way the author wove some of that music into her story.  I could tap my feet and hum the songs as I read.  I also enjoyed the twist to this story where the girl goes off to serve her country during the war and the boy stays behind and waits for his girl.  These characters were very easy to like and you could understand and feel their pain and sorrow, and also the strong love and attraction they each had for each other.  I would have easily given this book a 5 stars, but I just thought it ended way to quickly for me.

The year is 1944 and Maggie Culpepper has lost her mother to disease and feels like God just doesn't care about all her prayers.  She finds great comfort and strength through her childhood friend, William and they discover the love they both have for each other.  William had polio as a boy and cannot serve in the military because he is deemed physically unfit.  Maggie struggles with giving her heart to someone for fear something will happen and her heart will break like it did when her mother died.  So she enlists, says goodbye to William and leaves everyone she cares about behind.  She is going to give herself completely to serving her country and not open her heart up again.

We all probably know how this will turn out, but the deep emotions that William has when he sees the love of his life leave him and tell him to go on and forget about her is very heartfelt.  And when you see Maggie struggle to just live her life without caring for anyone you see the impossibility of it.  Her anger at God is real and she will need to open her heart again and find God's love had never left her and neither had William's.  There is a caretaker in this story named Mr. Byrd ( he works on the Christmas tree farm that William owns) and his story and his Godly advice was very endearing.  Then there is the final scenes in the book and there were tears in my eyes at times as this story comes to its conclusion.  It was just an all around great love story that I thoroughly enjoyed.  So sit back, and be prepared to find yourself humming along to some big band songs that will take you back in time.