I've read and loved a lot of WWII fiction, but this one was a bit of a miss for me. I did not feel invested in the characters or storyline. I think others could love it though. Sadly it was a DNF for me.

I love historical fiction and this book was a good one.  Does the title The Wartime Sisters refer to the relationship between the sisters or to the time period?  Both of course. Lynda Loigman grabs the reader's attention at the very beginning and holds it until the end.  I highly recommend this book!

I really enjoyed this book. I have two sisters and they are very close - I am not as close with either of them. I could relate to the dynamics. I love reading WWII historical fiction, as well as nonfiction. I can't imagine living then - although my parents and grandparents lived through it - on this side of the world. I look forward to reading more books from this author.

I love this historical book! I loved how it took me back to a time when women really were powerful, brave and just down right inspiring!!

I love how Lynda Loigman shows you relationships in her novels. She knows how to create a family dynamic that you feel a part of. With Wartime Sisters she draws you into a family and a time i want to learn more about.

I really love Historical Fiction and this book fit my historical fiction need.

I learned about Jewish traditions I didn't know existed. I like how Lynda incorporates those traditions in her books.

Lynda researched this book well and I feel like I can count on her for accuracy!

Pick up this book if you like family dynamic. Pick up this book if you love historical fiction.

Set in Springfield Armory during World War II sisters Ruth and Millie will confront secrets, family dynamics, and each other in this well written wartime saga.

This was a great read. I was mesmerized from the beginning. Lynda Cohen Loigman is a great storyteller. The female characters were Armstrong woman ,at a very important time in our history and this book reflects that. It is not only the story of two sisters. It is about the sisterhood of woman during wartime. Thank you NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Lynda Cohen Loigman for the ARC.

This novel was an interesting exploration of the relationship between two sisters. Although World War 2 served as a backdrop to the story, the "war" referenced in the title appears to relate more to the sisters' interactions with each other. The experiences seemed real, including the differing expectations put on the sister by their parents who only wanted the best for each -- even if those expectations illuminated bias within the home, and put unique pressures on each girl that the other did not see. There were a number of other characters in the story, each of whom also received attention through presentation of detailed backstories. This pieces really helped complete the narrative the author was trying to develop, although it would also have been interesting to read about Grace's backstory -- why are some people so insecure and petty? what were her reasons? Quite the journey and a thoughtful read.

This book is about the relationship between sisters and all of the dynamics that entails including jealousy, resentment, and feelings of shortcomings when comparing ourselves to each other. I often felt like a "Ruth" compared to my "Millie" sister, but reading Millie's chapters allowed me to reconsider my relationship with my own sister and gave me a new sense of appreciation for what my sister has been through on her journey. I will be recommending this one to my Millie in hopes she can understand me better through Ruth.

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

So far, this is one of my favorite books of 2019. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. There was so much about this book that I just adored and I found the sisters to be extremely relatable. In a lot of ways, they reminded me of my sister and I. She'd absolutely be Millie while I'm very much Ruth. The sisters were estranged and barely communicated but when grief and trauma brought them back together they had to find a way to communicate and reveal their secrets or risk being torn apart forever.

I was completely hooked on this book and devoured it. I read it twice just because I had to go back through it for details or foreshadowing I may have missed the first time. This is a GREAT book and absolutely worth reading if you enjoy familial tales against a backdrop of war and angst.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Such a beautiful story about family and two sisters who both feel they don’t belong for very different reasons. I think anyone with siblings can relate to this story in some way. Maybe your sibling was smarter, better looking, had more friends, or were the apple of your parents eye….or maybe that was your role in the family. I think these roles even take place with friendships and coworkers. No one is immune to feelings that they are competing and sadly they usually aren’t warranted.
Sisters Ruth and Millie were never close as children. Ruth was envious of Millie right from the beginning with all the attention she got as a baby. This continued on as they both got older when Millie’s looks and body started to develop. No matter what Ruth did, Millie always seemed to get the attention from her parents and the boys, even the ones that were supposed to be there for Ruth. Ruth is told she needs to do well in school and go to college so she can support herself and Millie is told with her beauty she’ll surely marry into a rich family and be set for life.
When a tragedy occurs in the family, Millie and Ruth go their separate ways. Ruth is married and living on base in Springfield Ma. With her husband and twin daughters and Millie is left behind in Brooklyn with an abusive husband and young son. Life for Millie is nothing like the one her mother promised her and she has no real skills to help support herself and her son, and no one to help her. After a year of not hearing from her husband, Millie reaches out to her sister to ask if she can come stay with her. She tells Ruth her husband has died fighting the war and Ruth invites her in with open arms. The relationship is very strained as both women battle with resentment and secrets they are both hiding from one other.
Ruth helps Millie get a job on base and this allows Ruth the opportunity to make some friends and learn a trade. Things with the sisters seem to be getting better, but the secrets that aren’t being discussed are threatening to come to surface sooner than either woman is ready for. How can these women move forward when they’re constantly looking back? They will have no choice when the past comes walking through the door and demands to be noticed. The sisters will have to come together to battle the past together, and learn to heal and forgive.
Although this is a historical fiction story, it reads more like fiction. I enjoyed that the story was more about the relationships then heavy on historical information. I really liked the characters and the focus on family and friendships.

Ruth and Millie are sisters, but not close—rather, they are very much estranged. Ruth resented Millie almost from her birth. Ruth was the smart, older, dowdy sister, who spent years listening to and processing talk of Millie’s beauty, which Ruth held against Millie. This resentment of her sister grew as years passed, and their mother’s routine comments about Millie and her beauty and how Millie was destined to marry well because of it did not help. However, Ruth most resented the way men came on to Millie because of her beauty. As time passed, Millie married and became a war widow, raising her young son alone. Thus, Millie agrees to move from her home in Brooklyn to her sister’s in Massachusetts. Ruth is now an officer’s wife, living a good life. When she arrives, Millie ends up at a mundane job in a factory. Interspersed in this compelling story of the two sisters are the stories of two other women. One is the commanding officer’s wife, also doing well for herself, and a cafeteria cook, who sings to entertain others. Both of these stories are an interesting interlude to the story of the two sisters and are each with its own merit. How the two sisters, Ruth and Millie, manage to get together after all those years and try to heal old wounds unfolds in a fascinating story.

I enjoyed the story very much-but I also have had sister issues, which had led to estrangement, so I was well primed for it. I felt sorry for Ruth, enduring as much as she did, and could easily understand her anger and resentment. Then came Millie, herself with her angst and her own feelings of rejection and resentment. After that, I felt sorry for both of them. However, I did not feel sorry for their parents, because I felt that a lot of the issues were their doing, from the way the girls were treated during their growing up years. As I said, the stories of the two other women, interspersed within this tale, helped provide some needed relief and were, themselves, a fascinating read. The book provided a pretty good picture of life during WWII, and how it affected these individuals. We do not often read about some of the war’s effects, or about sisterly conflicts, though both are very real. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

What I liked about the book: TWS is a quick and easy read. I liked the part of the stories that explained what life was like at the armory. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, and I love reading fictional accounts of life on the homefront, especially WWII. The writing is concise, and there is a myriad of other characters that add texture to the story.
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What I didn't like: From the blurb on the cover, this seems like a historical fiction novel, but after reading TWS, I almost feel like this story could have been set against any time period. This is more of a women's fiction novel than a historical fiction novel. This is a story mainly about two estranged sisters' sibling rivalry growing up. At times, the story felt repetitive and I found myself lacking any sort of emotional investment in the characters. I love when the author draws you into a story so much that you put yourself into the characters' shoes. In many ways, I need that to connect to the story. Although I have a sister who I am close with, I found myself not really caring what happened in the story. Some of the other characters in the story seemed unnecessary, and I found the different point of views more distracting than anything. Admittedly, I have been on a thriller kick lately, so maybe I would have enjoyed this book more if I had read it at a different time

I read The Two-Family House and loved it. The Wartime Sisters is just as good. Millie and Ruth are two sisters that have never gotten along and neither has had a happy life. At the beginning of the war they are brought back together. The book goes from past to present to past again as their lives are explained. The plot was well written. It held my interest to the very end and kept me guessing all the way. The characters became like neighbors and I enjoyed them all. This is definitely a book that will stay with you for a while. I really enjoyed reading it. I received this ebook free from NetGalley for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Ruth and Millie are about as different as sisters can be. Ruth is the steady, studious older sister that others have described as a “cold fish”. Millie, three years younger, is beautiful, flighty, and emotional. Things have always been tense between the two. When Ruth was old enough to start dating, no boy ever gave her a second look after seeing her sister. The sisters became estranged after their parents died in a car accident. However, when Ruth receives word that Millie's husband has died in World War II, she extends an invitation for Millie and her 2-year-old son Michael to live with Ruth and her family at the armory in Springfield, Massachusetts. Each separately wishes they can use this chance to heal the rift between them, but they are trapped in their usual patterns, unwilling to share the secrets between them.

It is clear that Lynda Cohen Loigman did her research to make the setting as accurate as possible. However, despite referencing World War II in the title, the war itself does not play much part in the story. In addition to Ruth and Millie, we also see a few chapters from the points of view of their friends Lillian and Arietta. I like how this book showcases strong women. The main characters were fleshed out, but some of the side characters were flat. The story was good but nothing that will keep me thinking about it for months afterward.

Thank you to the author Lynda Cohen Loigman the publisher and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for my candid review.

I love to read world war two stories, especially like this one, where they tell a story of how every day people contributed to and were impacted by the war. The story line is good---it tells about the war efforts from the perspective of workers at an armory factory that produces guns for the war effort. It reflects the single-minded efforts of Americans in supporting the war effort, including women and civilians. It is the story of two sisters, one beautiful and popular and one who is plain and smart. And of course, the jealousy that they each have for the other.

The story was okay. The bitterness between the sisters seemed to overtake what was a more interesting story. But it was an interesting insight into yet another facet of World War II.

I was a huge fan of Lynda Cohen Loigman's first novel, The Two-Family House, so I could not wait to get my hands on her sophomore book. This is another novel that takes place during WWII, but I was a big fan of the way she portrayed the war. I've seen some criticism of the novel for not really talking about the war enough. But I don't think she ever claimed this to be a war novel. I actually found that to be a welcomed change. While I understand that during those years, the war was on the forefront, life still went on. This novel explores the lives of two sisters who dealt with their own tragedies and secrets that weren't a part of the war. I had no problem with war not being the main focus. I found these two sisters intriguing and was often frustrated with each of them, but still loved them. I actually identified more with the older sister and had sympathy for her. If you enjoy a book that really develops characters, but still moves forward, please check out this book as well as her first. I will continue to seek out her novels whenever she writes them!

* I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

The Wartime Sisters: A Novel
By Lynda Cohen Loigman St. Martin’s Press 304 pp.
Reviewed by Philip K. Jason
January 18, 2019
Women bond — and sometimes break apart — in WWII-era New England.


The title of Lynda Cohen Loigman’s new novel, The Wartime Sisters, has two dimensions. The more obvious is the horribly strained relationship between two sisters, Ruth and Millie Kaplan. The other is the wider sisterhood of women who toiled in preparing the U.S. to enter WWII and during the war years that followed. These are women who had factory jobs or positions, clerical and otherwise, that supported the manufacture of weapons.

The Brooklyn-born Kaplans, first Ruth and, later, Millie (the younger by three years), relocate to Springfield, Massachusetts, to rebuild their lives after shaky, if conventional, beginnings.

They seem to have been the victims of unrealistic expectations and misguided parenting. Ruth’s controlling nature, an echo of their mother’s, leaves Millie feeling demeaned and marginalized. More open and spontaneous, Millie’s attractiveness to people, especially to boys and then men, is a constant threat and humiliation to Ruth.

The narrative is structured to oscillate among three kinds of scenes: Scenes that give an overview of their early years; scenes set in Springfield that reveal the sisters as young adults making their separate ways in the world; and scenes reverting back to more detailed Brooklyn episodes that explore the seeds of conflict and unwise decision-making that continue to have consequences in their new environment.

Loigman further complicates the bond between the sisters through the jobs they have in Springfield. Ruth does paperwork, and Millie puts triggers together on the assembly line. From Ruth’s perspective, Millie is trouble — a person who always needs looking after. Ruth had enough of that unwanted responsibility as a girl; she doesn’t want it now as a married woman raising children — especially when her husband is called away from his position at the Armory to dangerous duty in Europe.

But back in Brooklyn, Millie was rather desperate. She was alone in the wake of their parents’ death in an accident, and her ill-fated marriage left her a victim of abuse. Maybe Springfield will supply an answer, whether it be via Ruth or in some other way.

The war between the sisters is carefully orchestrated and is the central action that holds readers glued to the story. However, the portrait of the Springfield Armory community is also a major achievement. Persuasively imagined over a framework of impressive research, the sights, sounds, and patriotic flourishes of its residents during 1942 and 1943 leave readers with a sense of pride.

However, all is not well in this capital of wartime industry. Questions of social and economic justice loom.

The larger meaning of “sisters” derives from the group effort of the women laboring through the war build-up. Their symbolic representatives are two natural leaders. One is Lillian, whose husband holds a major post at the Armory. Though she had known suffering in her youth, she is now an active contributor whose tonic boosterism rallies the women to unexpected friendships and levels of performance. She is a good organizer and a prudent giver.

Arietta, of Italian heritage, has substantial training and skill as a singer. However, she pays her bills by being a cook at the Armory. She cleverly enhances the workers’ menus and offers an optimistic response to most of the hardships and worries of the other women. Like Lillian, she is of comfort to Millie when Ruth is unwilling or unable to address Millie’s needs.

Lillian and Arietta are both motherly and sisterly. Grace, on the other hand, is a tyrant. A woman of influence, she threatens workers who, in the standards set by her own prejudiced mind, don’t belong. Out of sheer hostility, she accuses Arietta, who can manifest a flamboyant style, of having poisoned food to undermine the war effort.

It’s likely that Ruth and Millie don’t belong in Grace’s world because they are Jewish. The author maintains a thread of interest about the sisters’ Jewish identity throughout the novel. Though primarily gastronomical and holiday-oriented, details about their Jewish consciousness add another dimension to their personalities and outlooks.

Though “melodramatic” is often used in a pejorative sense, it’s a term that works well to characterize The Wartime Sisters. The novel has a theatrical feel, often choosing dialogue as its primary storytelling tool. The narrative certainly will stir readers’ imaginations and emotions. Moreover, Lynda Cohen Loigman’s portrait of the Springfield Armory complex as a physical and sociological environment is superb.

Philip K. Jason is professor emeritus of English at the United States Naval Academy. A former editor of Poet Lore magazine, he is the author or editor of 20 books, including Acts and Shadows: The Vietnam War in American Literary Culture and Don’t Wave Goodbye: The Children’s Flight from Nazi Persecution to American Freedom. His reviews appear in a wide variety of regional and national publications.

Although marketed as WWII fiction, readers looking to satisfy their craving for a historically rich storyline should think twice. The composition of the The Wartime Sisters is much more women’s fiction than anything else. Sibling rivalry the focus of the shot, while the war itself remains a mere blur in the background.

Through her lens, Lynda Cohen Loigman captures the dynamics that often haunt sisters—namely the resentment, jealousy and feelings of inadequacy that have the tendency to creep in when comparisons are made.

From the moment of her little sister Millie’s arrival, Ruth is blinded by jealousy. Considered the uber-smart and dowdy of the two Jewish girls, Ruth spends their childhood holding other people’s appraisals of Millie's beauty against her. As the years pass, Ruth’s resentment only grows, perpetuated by her mother’s insistence that Millie will one day marry well. More than anything else though, it’s the unprovoked attention Millie garners from men that creates the biggest rift. Ruth allows her own insecurities to dictate her approach with Millie.