Under the Same Blue Sky

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Average customer rating 3.5 (2 comments)

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Where did Hazel belong? Did she belong in Dogwood, Pittsburgh, or somewhere else. Hazel Renner's mother left her and left Dogwood, and Hazel's aunt and uncle lovingly raised her in Pittsburgh. The smog of Pittsburgh and the effects of war upon the citizens also had an effect on Hazel. Like her mother, Hazel wanted to leave and find where she really belonged. She first tried teaching in Galway, but things happened there that necessitated her leaving and coming back home. Hazel then tried Dogwood where her she was born to see if that would help her find her roots. UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY will pull you in because of the beautiful descriptions and wonderful characters. ​You will love Hazel and her parents and feel sorry for her and all the problems she encounters. ​Hazel's father was quite intense about his heritage and the war. You could vividly feel his every concern and the emotions of every character because Ms. Schoenewaldt has ​a marvelous ​knack for words and for descriptions of characters and situations.​ UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY was set during the first world war when German-Americans were under attack just as they were in Europe. History and a beautiful story make up UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY. You will enjoy UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY because of the nicely flowing storyline. The only ​complaint I have is that I was really confused at the beginning. The healing power of Hazel was a bit confusing too and not sure why it was in the story. UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY is worth reading because of the wonderful writing style of Ms. Schoenewaldt and her marvelous research of WWI. She has a very descriptive and in-depth writing style.​ ​Sadness and heaviness do prevail in UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY as we read of worries about war, the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, and the aftermath of the effects the war had on its returning soldiers. UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY is a book you will want to read but a book that will pull at your heart strings.​ 4/5 This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher and TLC book tours in return for an honest review.

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Folks, I'm scratching my head over this one. There are definitely some wonderful things about this book, and I enjoyed the experience of reading it, but there were issues that I just can't overlook. I'll start with the positive. This is my second book by Pamela Schoenewaldt (Swimming in the Moon was the first) and, once again, I was drawn in by the language in this book. It is not overly verbose, but the prose is still lovely and completely readable. I was immediately attracted to Hazel as a character. She is a young woman very much at a crossroads in her life. As is typical among young people of that age, she is restless and then she discovers a family secret that leads her to question her life as she knows it. I liked that while Hazel was a proactive character, Shoenewaldt still gave her time to process these things that go on in her life. The real draw for me with this book is how well Schoenewaldt draws America during World War I. I've read a fair amount of WWI fiction, but I think it was all from a European viewpoint. The United States had a unique experience with the war--while we didn't join in until late in the game, the war was fought by citizens on the streets of America. Schoenewaldt captures this expertly and, for that alone, I would recommend this book. But, as I said, there were things that just didn't work. My biggest problem is that it seemed like Schoenewaldt took 3 passes at this before settling on a plot, but the first 2 possible plots are still included, but never finished. The first of these is Hazel's family secret, which is introduced, ignored for a bit, and then brought up briefly before being dropped for the rest of the book. The second story line involves some magic realism. It is not that I don't like magic realism--I actually quite like it when done well--but I do believe that it is something that an author needs to commit to and carry through the entire work. Schoenewaldt does not do this. It happens in only one part of the book and then is dropped again. Throughout the rest of this book, I kept hoping I'd see a return, or at least an explanation, of the magic realism, but it never happened. Because of this, I felt like I was reading 3 distinct stories (or 2 beginnings of stories and one complete story) instead of one cohesive novel. I really think that a but more editing and the removal of "story stumps" would have greatly improved this novel. But, I cannot discount the beautiful language and Schoenewaldt's description of WWI-era America. Even with its flaws, I would still recommend this book.