On "Their Finest": A Book Review

Title: Their Finest
Author: Lissa Evans
Genre: Fiction  

About the book…
WWII is underway and everyone must do their part, whether it involve things they are willing to do or things that go well outside their accustomed norms. This book follows the lives of a budding script and copywriter, an aging actor, a seamstress, and a shy solider between the period of April 1940 and August 1941 and how the making of a movie about Dunkirk brings them all together.

What I think… 

I only liked this book when I got to the last half, which I almost didn't make it to. There's a lot of scene setting throughout the book that came across as being more of a distraction than as well integrated or as being a means of adding to or developing the story in many cases. While the characters were interesting I felt like the different plot lines were not as suited for a book of shorter length and became tedious to keep track of. It was only when these plots started to come together in the second part of the book that the story became much better and easier to get through.

On the plus side, research was clearly done in the writing of this book. I also appreciated that this was not one of those novels that tries to romanticize the war to the extent that it all sounds like one big lark.

To sum it all up…
Not my first choice for a recommendation of a book that takes place during WWII.