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Author's Synopsis
Sheltering Angel of Belleau Wood, a sequel to Louella Bryant’s novel Sheltering Angel, Based on a True Story of the Titanic, is the WWII story of a mother’s grief in losing her husband to the Titanic disaster and two sons to the battlefields of the Great War.
In 1943 Florence Cumings’ youngest son Thayer (known as Tax) has driven her from New York to her summer house in Maine. He leaves her alone for the week with a box of old letters from her sons Jack and Wells, both soldiers in France in 1918. As Florence begins reading the letters, she is visited by the ghost of her first husband Bradley who lost his life in the Titanic disaster.
When Jack’s widow Margaret, newly remarried to a U. S. Consul, and her daughter Eva arrive for a visit, Margaret asks to leave Eva with Florence for the summer as she helps her husband with his assignment to Guatemala. Ebullient Eva brings lightness to the story as she learns about her father from his letters. In the box Eva finds a diary written by her uncle Wells, a sensitive and musical young man who for pride in his country finds himself in a horrifying and deadly situation. Eva learns distressing details about fighting on the front lines against the German army and realizes life is not all glamour and parties.
When Florence and Eva return to New York, Eva meets and falls in love with a U.S. Marine just before he leaves for training in the Pacific as Japanese troops are threatening to attack. While experiencing WWII deprivations, the two women follow the progress of the war, both hoping Eva’s beau will return safely.
The novel culminates at the end of WWII when Florence takes Eva to France to find the grave of Wells who was killed in the battle of Belleau Wood when he was Eva’s age. As the women stand under a clear blue sky by the small white cross bearing Wells’s name, they realize both joy and sorrow are part of earthly existence.
The story is based on actual letters from Jack sent to his mother Florence between 1918 and the war’s end. As with Sheltering Angel, the sequel depicts a true story of real people. Through the book, readers will realize that war has been part of human history since the beginning of time, but throughout hardship and sacrifice, love and optimism have been our guiding light.
Format(s) for review: Paper or Kindle
Review genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Pages/Word count: 306 / 90,500