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blevins's review
2.0
This book should have been so much better! Based on the setting and subject I thought I'd really love it--I didn't. Nearly a one star for me which is a rare thing on here as I usually stop reading books I don't like after about 50-75 pages because there are so many books to get to that I would like more.
Anyway, this is set at the tail end of WW2 and involves a group of people getting drawn into the world of pin-up photography. I love those classic pin-ups so thought that subject combined with all the photography talk and WW2 elements would be a great book--so disappointed. The book is way too predictable, the writing is not the greatest and it is too chaste. I expected it to be a little more raunchy but Amick takes every bit of sex appeal and naughtiness out of the pin-up angle which was a terrible mistake. The book should have had some amount of luridness to it but it has very little or none at all as it is completely sexless.
Anyway, this is set at the tail end of WW2 and involves a group of people getting drawn into the world of pin-up photography. I love those classic pin-ups so thought that subject combined with all the photography talk and WW2 elements would be a great book--so disappointed. The book is way too predictable, the writing is not the greatest and it is too chaste. I expected it to be a little more raunchy but Amick takes every bit of sex appeal and naughtiness out of the pin-up angle which was a terrible mistake. The book should have had some amount of luridness to it but it has very little or none at all as it is completely sexless.
lisaarnsdorf's review
4.0
What a fun, fast-paced story! The pin-up industry is so interesting and this is a nice story about it. Set in Chicago with a nice tie-in to Ann Arbor. The author even thanks one of my fave high school teachers! I definitely recommend this book, and will look for other Amick novels.
janetlun's review
I really enjoyed Amick's first novel, "The Lake, the River & the Other Lake", so I picked this up, too. The setting couldn't be more different -- from the Upper Peninsula in 2001 to Chicago as WWII is ending -- but they both have the same virtues. While plot is definitely happening, the book is character driven, and rich with a sense of place. Though his settings are middleclass Midwestern, he always has an edge. In this book, it's clear that being a woman in the 40s isn't easy, and the early stirrings of the HUAC are disturbing.
wictory's review
3.0
Reading this book was like watching a movie from the 1940s, with lots of screwball moments and a good love story developing throughout. And the pinup photo shoot scenes would be hilarious.
The characters were perfectly portrayed, Sal with her mix of spunk and business sense and Wink's easy-going nature and corny jokes. I thought the dialogue was dead on, never sounding forced, never unrealistic, even with the hearty helping of 1940s slang. The romance and humor was balanced by the lousy treatment of women in the workplace and the challenges of housing and employment for returning GIs. It put the reader in a snapshot of the time and place, exactly as a novel should.
Overall, it was light and funny and captivating without being consuming. A very nice break from required reading.
The characters were perfectly portrayed, Sal with her mix of spunk and business sense and Wink's easy-going nature and corny jokes. I thought the dialogue was dead on, never sounding forced, never unrealistic, even with the hearty helping of 1940s slang. The romance and humor was balanced by the lousy treatment of women in the workplace and the challenges of housing and employment for returning GIs. It put the reader in a snapshot of the time and place, exactly as a novel should.
Overall, it was light and funny and captivating without being consuming. A very nice break from required reading.
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