The Burning Blue

I found the characters interesting and well developed. The historical setting was accurate, and despite criticism in some reviews, the behavior of the characters is not entirely stereotype. To the contrary, the fictional dialog does not appear either exaggerated or inaccurate. The audio book version was well read, if somewhat quietly. In my opinion this work should have received a much better reception. I would be enthusiastic about similar works by this author.

In spite of the editorial reviewers comments, I really enjoyed this title. I listened on audio book rather than read it, but loved it. Perhaps because I'm an American and viewed many of the responses as that of the stereotypical "stiff upper lip" of the Brits rather than in the manner expressed by the UK reviewer, I found it not so vanilla as he portrays. I found it both thrilling and touching, not a war-hack novel and not a romance, but an effort to portray one young mans' story derived from the anecdotal histories of many veterans. It covered some of the "realities" of a young man caught up in war without being gruesome, it tackled many different emotions from the viewpoint of a young man who never seemed to feel that he had the right to express them, and it traversed both friendships and love over time in a period that spanned the early part of WWII. I found it well written, never dull, and a title I'm happy to recommend to friends. Rare is it for me to search for the hard copy of an audio book, but this is one I'd like to have on my shelf. Thanks.