Tidings of Peace by Tracie Peterson - 299 pages
Tidings of Peace is a book containing four Christmas-themed novellas of 70-100 pages in length. The first story, "Coming Home" tells the story of a man wounded at Pearl Harbor who visits his late friend's family for the holidays. "Remember Me" recounts one man's survival after being shot down in the Pacific and surviving alone on an island while the counter story is about his fiancee back home, a factory worker for Boeing. "Shadow of His Wings" recounts a B-17 mission over Europe gone wrong for a man and his crew while the companion story of his wife at home tells about her struggle to give birth to their first child. The last story, "Parachutes and Lace" is a story about a Red Cross worker and her Army doctor fiance in Britain and their struggle to marry before he is shipped out to the Continent as the Battle of the Bulge wages.
The stories in the book were hit and miss. I loved the first and the last; both were well written, heartwarming, and fit the tone of the season. Each felt like the situation could really happen. The middle two just did not resonate; they lacked a Christmas theme even though they were set around the holidays and the overseas and at home storylines never meshed in a meaningful way. Because of this they felt like filler to reach a required page length for publishing the books.
