Just Sayin' by Dandi Daley Mackall, 2017

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Just Sayin' tells the story of an almost-blended family that almost falls apart before it even begins. 11 year-old Cassie Callahan is staying with her grandmother while her mom, Jennifer, recovers from a difficult breakup from her fiance, Trent. Cassie, along with Trent's kids, Nick and Julie, are trying to figure out why their parents' relationship ended so abruptly and searching for a way to bring them back together. Meanwhile, the kids get caught up in a game show that encourages the "art" of insults, and learn along the way that our words have much more power than they think.

In a way that only Dandi can accomplish, this story weaves together, in a contemporary way, an old-time game show, letter writing, outstanding vocabulary, and reminders from God's word that taming our tongue is both difficult and important!

(178 pages)

Man, Dandi Daley Mackall is versatile. I originally grew to love her Starlight Animal Shelter horse series a long time ago, and then I rediscovered her when I started receiving books for review from her publishing company Tyndale and they sent me Larger-Than-Life Lara (a book told in "school assignment" format by a girl whose overweight classmate was bullied) and With Love, Wherever You Are (a retelling of her grandparents' romance while both were serving in Europe during WWII). Now we get something quite different yet again with Just Sayin,' which is told entirely through letters and texts exchanged between the characters.

It's a very interesting narration gimmick, and one that works really well here. I had a little trouble suspending disbelief for the duration of the book (because let's be honest, no one–let alone children–regularly writes such detailed, vulnerable letters to friends, family members, and new acquaintances). I managed, though, and I'm glad I did because Just Sayin' really is a very good read.

The story of the split between Nick's dad and Cassie's mom so soon before their marriage is an interesting one, if a little simplified at times. With just 180 pages to work with, Mackall didn't really have space to flesh the nuances of the situation out as well as she could have otherwise. I was rooting for them to join together as a family once more, of course, but I cared a lot more about Cassie, Nick, and Nick's little sister Julie than I did about the parents. I was particularly mad at Cassie's mom–because I don't care what sort of emotional drama you're going through, up and abandoning your daughter at your mom's house indefinitely is not okay.

But forget the parents, it's really all about the kids. Cassie's and Nick's letters are so warm and funny, and I love the way they try out all sorts of nasty insults on each other. They're big fans of insults, and they're almost professional-level good at dishing them out. Cassie begins to have a sort of "crisis of faith" during the book, in which she starts reading the Bible at her pastor's urging and realizes that some insults are unkind and un-Christlike. This is an interesting side story, though I also struggle with the idea that a kid her age would be mature enough to come up with these sorts of complex biblical analyses (let alone be convicted enough to consider implementing them!).

Really, my main issue with Just Sayin' is that the characters act pretty unrealistically both for their age and for the format of their correspondence. But it's such a fun and heartwarming book–and the kids' letters are just so laugh-out-loud hilarious!–that I can't help but love it anyway.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

With Love, Wherever You Are by Dandi Daley Mackall, 2017

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Everyone knows that war romances never last. . . .Helen Eberhart always had to fight for what she wanted. Survival in a family of thirteen gave her the grit to push through nurse’s training and support herself. But after the attack on Pearl Harbor, she can’t stand catering to the pampered patients on Chicago’s North Shore. Enlisting as an Army nurse, Helen is transferred to a military hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. There she comes face-to-face with the waves of broken bodies of the wounded soldiers, many no older than her beloved brothers.

Frank Daley wasn’t trying to be a hero. He’d only enlisted to finish medical school, confident that the war would be over before his deferment ran out. Life just worked out for him that way. But Lieutenant Frank R. Daley, MD, is sent straight from his graduation to boot camp in Battle Creek as his last stop before a battlefield hospital in Europe. And none of his training prepares him for the chance encounter with the spirited nurse who steals his heart.

After a whirlwind romance and courthouse wedding, Helen and Frank are sent to the front lines of Europe with only letters to connect them for months at a time. Surrounded by danger and desperately wounded patients, they soon find that only the war seems real—and their marriage more and more like a distant dream. If they make it through the war, will their marriage survive?
(466 pages)

I've been a long-time casual fan of Dandi Daley Mackall's books for years now, ever since I got hooked on the Starlight Animal Rescue series when I was younger. Mackall always writes children's books filled with equal parts thrills and heart, my favorite combination. When I saw the option to review this book, though, I knew straight away that it was a different beast. This is no 200-word animal rescue book for kids; rather, it's a 450+ page adult novel about a married couple serving as medical personnel in different parts of Europe during WWII.

The first thing I have to say is that this is a fascinating book. It provides an intimate, and often startling, perspective on WWII by focusing explicitly on the lives of Helen and Frank, army nurse and doctor, who are both serving in Europe during the height of the war. The scenes they each see throughout the course of the war and even after it are terrible, yes, but also educational–they show us the depths of human evil, the horrors of human-on-human violence, and the unalterable fact that we need to never engage in such a terrible world war ever again.

Maybe it's because I'm the daughter of two physicians myself, but I've always seen doctors and nurses as some of the greatest heroes during wars. They're the ones who go out to the front lines, risk their lives, do anything it takes . . . to save lives. When everyone around them is focused on destroying the enemy and throwing their men in front of bullets, medical personnel are the ones who stay focused on keeping soldiers alive. I especially appreciate that Helen chooses to help treat German soldiers in the French hospital, despite the flack she gets for it from the other nurses; her determination to help every patient and save every life she can, no matter the stigma, is truly admirable in a time when so many people were focused on mistreating anyone they didn't perceive as being "worth" common decency.

As for the story's central romance, well, I personally didn't care for it that much. Since I figured out who the real Helen and Frank were (hint: their last name is Daley, which is Mackall's maiden name), I was pretty sure I knew how it would turn out. I still don't really agree with the super-fast way they jumped into marriage, which strikes me as very stupid, but the characters themselves do acknowledge the insanity of their decision and spend most of the book building up their marriage bond through daily correspondence. Since they're a newlywed couple who are forcibly separated most of the time, when they rendezvous every few months there are some definite innuendos about what they do together alone–they're not even approaching explicit, though, so I was fine with them. Mainly, though, I just thought their emotions were really strong and rather volatile, and I couldn't get over the fact that they felt so intimate with each other when they'd barely even spent a few weeks together in person before getting married. I guess it was just a different world back then, one where a whirlwind romance like that actually has a chance at success. Plus, memories of their horrible experiences during the war probably helped them bond in later years.

Anyway, Dandi Daley Mackall definitely has the writing skills to try her hand at any genre she chooses. I'm so glad I gave With Love a try, and I look forward to seeing what else she'll be doing in the upcoming future!

Disclaimer: This is an Amazon affiliate link, and I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Larger-Than-Life Lara by Dandi Daley Mackall, 2016

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This isn't about me. This story, I mean. So already you got a reason to hang it up. At least that's what Mrs. Smith, our English teacher, says.
But the story is about ten-year-old Laney Grafton and the new girl in her class--Lara Phelps, whom everyone bullies from the minute she shows up. Laney is just relieved to have someone else as a target of bullying. But instead of acting the way a bullied kid normally acts, this new girl returns kindness for a meanness that intensifies . . . until nobody remains unchanged, not even the reader.

In a unique and multi-layered story, with equal parts humor and angst, Laney communicates the art of storytelling as it happens, with chapter headings, such as: Character, Setting, Conflict, Rising Action, Climax. And she weaves an unforgettable tale of a new girl who transforms an entire class and, in the process, reveals the best and worst in all of us.

(176 pages)

I've been a long-time casual fan of Dandi Daley Mackall's books ever since I picked up a copy of her the first Winnie the Horse-Gentler book at a yard sale a few years ago. I was getting rather sick of horse books at the time because I was realizing they all had the same rather vapid and predictable plot lines, but the book reinvigorated my passion for horse novels. I also later loved Mackall's Starlight Animal Rescue series, which is connected to the Winnie books, and loved them even more. Mackall has a gift for blending realistic characters, hard facts about life, and inspirational messages all together and offering them to her readers in slim, engaging novels. That's why I leaped at the opportunity to review Larger-Than-Life Lara: it looked like a very different book than the other ones I'd read by Mackall, but I was pretty sure she'd still be able to pull off a great story.

And she did. I really enjoyed reading Lara, it felt kind of like a grittier version of The Hundred Dresses. Actually, now that I think about it, I would be surprised if Mackall got the inspiration to write Lara from Dresses. Since I always loved Dresses growing up, that is a very good impression for me to come away with.

The narration in Lara comes from Laney, who has to be on of the best narrators I've read in a while. She's writing the "true" story down the way her teacher taught her to, using all the tricks they learned in school. Every chapter is titled with exactly what it introduces (Villain, Setting, Dialogue, etc.), and Laney prefaces her plot devices or narration decisions with funny, candid explanations like this one:

Mrs. Smith says stories have a beginning, middle, and end. They should get told in a chronological order, which is a fancy way of saying making stuff happen like it did in real life, without jumping back and forth in time like some kind of time traveler. I tried to do that, which is why you can find words like first and next and then, if you go back looking for them in this story.

But I can't figure out how else to tell this one conflict without time traveling backwards. So Mrs. Smith, if you're reading this, I just apologize for this.

Isn't that just so cute? I don't know what it is, but I just really love this sort of fourth-wall-breaking narration style.

Anyway, moving on. Laney is a really great character, not just a fun narrator, and I definitely felt for her. The situation at her home is not so great (think three older brothers, no mother, and an alcoholic/likely abusive father), and she is constantly covering for her family at school and hiding her school life from her family. It's not good, at all, and I felt terrible watching her hold everything in. The focus in the end of the book, though, isn't really on her home life; it's on Lara and the way she was being treated at school. Now I haven't had much experience with bullying, but I thought it was absolutely horrible the way everyone treated Lara from day one. The minute she walked in the classroom door, people were calling her ugly names and making fun of her. That's despicable! If she's really that overweight, that's her parents' fault–or the fault of some disorder, maybe, I don't know–but it's definitely not her fault. She's ten years old, people! I don't know, fifth graders are just so barbaric sometimes.

As for Lara as a character, I never really felt like I got to know her that well. She seems sweet, and extraordinarily brave, but almost rather one-dimensional: we never really see Laney have a heart-to-heart with Lara and find out what makes her tick. There were honestly a lot of characters and plotlines whose stories I would have loved to see expanded, which is why I wish the book were a little longer. Barring an updated and heftier re-release of the novel, I'm hoping for a sequel sometime down the road. I think there's a lot of material in Larger-Than-Life Lara that Mackall could use to develop a whole series, actually. It could be, I don't know, "The Paris, Missouri series." Or something catchier. I'm not really a title developer. But anyway, I definitely enjoyed Larger-Than-Life Lara and I'm glad I had the chance to read it. If you've read it, comment below and let me know what you thought!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.