School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The author of the popular "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" novels presents a story of love and loss during World War II. Valerie Eliot, a 19-year-old Brit, becomes a Land Girl, or a farmer's helper, part of the Women's Land Army, since able-bodied men are serving in the military. Although a town girl, she enjoys learning about the farm and working with the kind farmer. When she meets Mike Rogers, a U.S. pilot stationed nearby, she falls in love quickly, and they become engaged. Peter Woodhouse, a mistreated sheep dog, ends up living with the airmen and even going on flying missions. When Mike's plane is shot down, he, the crew, and the dog are rescued by the Dutch and later a German soldier, Cpl. Karl "Ubi" Dietrich. The narrative's second half largely describes the life of the German soldier after he returns to his country after the war. There is a lot of plot for such a short book, but it moves along in a straightforward and eventual manner. McCall Smith offers a moving depiction of the hardships faced by the Germans following the war, including the suffering caused by the Soviet Union's blockade of Berlin from 1948 to 1949 (and the incredible feat of the Allied powers flying in food and even coal for Berliners for nearly a year). Readers who want to learn more about life in England during World War II should also read Angela Huth's Land Girls. VERDICT Teens will enjoy the love story and gain insight into the horrors of war in this easily read novel. For high school and public library collections.-Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The creator of Mma Precious Ramotswe and chronicler of 44 Scotland St. (A Time of Love and Tartan, 2018, etc.) spins a heartwarming tale of love won and lost and won again during and after World War II.Valerie Eliot, a member of the Women's Land Army assigned to help out at Archie Wilkinson's farm, falls in love with American pilot Mike Rogers, and he with her. They get engaged and she gets pregnant, though not in that order, but then Mike gets shot down over occupied Holland together with his unnamed navigator and their mascot, Peter Woodhouse, a sheepdog. Even as Val is painfully schooling herself to relinquish the flickering hope that her bridegroom is still alive, Mike, his navigator, and Peter Woodhouse are rescued by sympathetic locals and improbably protected by Cpl. Karl "Ubi" Dietrich, an occupying officer unsympathetic to the war who thinks its end is so near that there's no point in killing them or turning them in. The end of the war that Ubi has so accurately forecast sends Mike and Peter Woodhouse back to Val in what would feel like a happy ending if it didn't come at the story's halfway point, but a surprising number of tests and tribulations still await Val, Mike, Ubi, and Peter Woodhouse. Indeed, this is one of the author's most resolutely plotted novels since his rewriting of Emma (2015): although the characters display limited possibilities for development, the postwar world proves quite as challenging, and as generous in the opportunities it offers for love and courage and forgiveness, as the world at war.Not even a writer of McCall Smith's benevolence can provide a happy ending for every character who deserves it here. But he leaves you thinking that they've each had a bite of the apple and that all in all, that's a pretty wonderful gift to have been granted. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* This stand-alone novel departs from the formula of McCall Smith's famous series, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and 44 Scotland Street, in which the settings are constant, and time advances and characters age very slowly. Here, on the other hand, McCall Smith takes on the span of WWII, focusing on Britain but also moving into the Netherlands and Germany, with characters starting their lives during the war and living with their own decisions and the decisions the war forced upon them for decades thereafter. The main character is Val Eliot, a land girl sent to help out on a farm while the men fought in the war. The farm is near an air base, where American reconnaissance officers are stationed and where Val, delivering eggs to the base, meets and falls in love with an American. So far, a pretty standard home-front plot, but the introduction of an abused farm dog named Peter Woodhouse onto the base and into the cockpits of the Mosquitos squad as a mascot extends the plot in ways both comical and poignant. McCall Smith manages to convey war's atrocities while never losing the love story and friendship thread (a German soldier figures into the latter). A good companion book, focusing on Britain's land girls with another knockout story, is Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's The War That Saved My Life (2015).--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2018 Booklist

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Val Eliot is a young "land girl" in England during World War II who rides her bicycle to work on a local farm each day while the able-bodied men are in the service. Val lives with her Aunt Annie and a distant cousin Willy, and the whole community struggles to get by on wartime rations. When the family rescues an abused dog from a nearby farm, their lives begin to change. In a domino effect, the dog, Peter Woodhouse, brings an American airman and a German corporal into Val's simple country life, causing her to reevaluate the definition of "enemy" and "friend." In the style of Jan Karon and Philip Gulley, the author of the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series reveals the extraordinary human spirit found in ordinary lives. -VERDICT McCall Smith brings the trademark philosophy, solid characterization, and sense of place found in his contemporary series to this historical stand-alone. This gentle read possesses enough depth to do justice to a turbulent time period.-Christine Barth, Scott Cty. Lib. Syst., IA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.