A very well researched book on a really cool historical place (Springfield Armory National Historic Site (www.nps.gov/spar). It was one of the first armorys of the United States, used during WWI and WWII for war production and is now a National Park site.

The book was interesting thanks to the multiple perspectives included. Luckily, everything was tied up at the end! I enjoyed this book and read it quickly.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I received a copy of The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions are mine alone. I must begin by saying that I am a big fan of Lynda Cohen Loigman. This is the second book I have read that she has written. I enjoyed that a strong family presence was created in both her previous book and this one.

The Wartime Sisters was about two sisters, Ruth and Millie, who grew up in Brooklyn with their mother and father in a religious Jewish neighborhood. Ruth was the older sister and she was always quite bright, responsible and practical. Millie was Ruth's younger sister. From the day she was born, Ruth and everyone else recognized Millie's apparent beauty. It was extremely obvious that their mother favored Millie over Ruth. As the girls got older a rift began to develop between them. Ruth became aware that she was ignored when Millie was with her. Everyone's attention went to Millie. Even when boys came to court Ruth, as soon as they saw Millie, Ruth had no chance. Finally, Ruth met Arthur and he seemed to have eyes for just her. They were soon married and shortly after had twin girls. At about that time Millie met Lenny. Lenny was a few years older than Millie. He had dropped out of school and was working several jobs but none that seemed permanent or promising. Millie was taken in by his good looks and outgoing personality. Millie's family was not fond of him. In fact, Millie's mom started to call him The Bum. Then, one night Ruth and Millie's parents were killed in a tragic car accident. The two sisters were forced to confront their loss together. All arrangements were left to Ruth. Millie was not capable to share in the responsibility of making arrangements for their parent's funeral. She totally fell apart. Following their parent's funeral, Ruth and Arthur moved to Springfield, Massachusetts to the Armory where Arthur was offered a position as a scientist. Ruth was pleased to put space between her and Millie. She was tired of living in Millie's shadow. Ruth wanted the chance to start over somewhere where no one knew her or Millie. The sisters hardly talked or saw each other. Eventually, Millie married Lenny and they had a baby boy named Michael. Millie's life with Lenny was not anything that resembled a safe or comfortable life. Lenny was unable to hold down a job. He was drinking a lot and sometimes he did not even come home for periods of time. Lenny began working for his brother around this time. Things got even worse for Millie. She reached out to Ruth, when she thought Lenny had either died or disappeared for good, to see if she could come and live with her and Arthur and the twins at the Armory. The two estranged sisters, each with long suppressed secrets were reunited again at the Springfield Armory at the beginning of World War II.

Lynda Cohen Loigman, author of The Wartime Sisters used her book to portray the lives of strong women during World War II, as they formed strong bonds with each other, endured, and helped each other survive under the circumstances. I didn't know a lot about the Springfield Armory before reading The Wartime Sisters but look forward to reading more about it. It felt good to read about how women helped in the war effort. Their efforts were not always recognized or praised. I applaud Lynda Cohen Loigman for another powerful novel. I highly recommend The Wartime Sisters.

This is an excellent novel for women, about women (2 sisters) who grew up in Brooklyn NY who end up working at the Armory in Springfield, making ammunition for the war efforts. One is a well-to-do Army Officer's wife and the other is an impoverished single mother. There are certain jealousies and secrets that are between them, and these secrets drive them further apart as the novel progresses.

The characters are believable and well thought-out, and I very much enjoyed the author's emotional descriptions as well as her descriptions of setting and place. There was enough suspense and a well-timed gradual unveiling of the secrets, so that it kept me wanting to keep reading.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher, for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I love historical fiction and this book was wonderful. With a WWII setting, there were elements of familial relationships and secrets. This story was very well written and captured me from the first page. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Wartime Sisters
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Ruth and her younger sister Millie had a history of sibling rivalry since the day Millie was born. Ruth was the studious one, good with numbers. Millie was the pretty one, who was favored by her mother. Ruth always resented Millie, both for her mother’s attention and also when her own boyfriends seem to navigate to Millie once they met her. The story really picks up after the parents’ death in a car crash. Ruth is married to Arthur, an army officer and has moved with him and her twin daughters to the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts. It’s 1942, after America entered WWII. Although the sisters have not seen each other for 5 years since their parents’ death, correspondence between them reveals that Millie’s “bum” husband Lenny has enlisted in the army, went missing and is presumed dead. Ruth invites Millie and her two year old son, Michael to live with her.
Do the sisters finally find peace? It turns out that both have secrets to hide. Not until these secrets are revealed, that Ruth and Millie can go on with their lives. There is also a cast of supporting characters, Lillian and Arietta who are involved in the sister’s lives.
According to the author’s note, The Springfield Armory was an important piece in America’s war effort and some of the characters are loosely based on real people.
For me, this story was just OK, not great, no more than three stars.
Thanks NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the advanced copy.

A wonderful story of two sisters during the 1940's wartime. This book transports you back to stories your grandparents lived and perhaps told you about, if you're lucky! I wish I'd asked my grandparents and my great grandmother more about their lives back then. I remember my great grandmother talking about those days often, especially during her last few years on earth. It was a rough and hard scrabble life for most people. This book does the war effort and sisterhood (not only blood sisters, also sisters of the heart), not to mention sisters of hard work, so much justice. The brave young women who worked during wartime paved the way for women in the workplace now. We owe them much respect. You get pulled right into the character's lives immediately. There's not a boring part of this book! I truly enjoyed it and highly recommend it!
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. ☺☺ Thank you, Netgalley for the wonderful opportunity to read and review this book!
To the author, I won't forget this book, ever! I loved it!

A different take on your typical WWII era story, where it mainly focuses on the relationships, and the war is the background. Following the story of a pair of Jewish sisters and their conflicts growing up into adulthood. This switches perspectives between the sisters and a couple friends, so you never get bored, but get left on a cliffhanger from time-to-time! I recommend this book, but just want to warn that there is some minor language and some violence.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read the e-galley of The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman - a historical fiction novel about two sisters who live stateside during WWII. The book opens with a a look into how differently Ruth and Millie were raised and treated and how that affected their relationship with each other - culminating into an estrangement that neither sister knew how to overcome until they were forced to realize that old resentments and secrets were no match for sisterly love. The main characters, Ruth and Millie, are easy to get attached to as were their story lines. The Wartime Sisters provides an interesting look into the home front war effort and the Springfield , MA Armory. I give this book 3.5 stars.

I absolutely loved this book! I had high hopes bc I had previously read "The Two-Family House" by Lynda Cohen Loigman and I was not disappointed.

The Wartime Sisters is a beautifully written historical drama that follows sisters Ruth and Millie during WWII--in Brooklyn, NY and Springfield, Massachusetts. The sisters are as different as night and day, and as a result they don't understand each other's decisions. They keep secrets from each other and are eventually forced to confront their secrets and the affect the secrets had on their lives and relationships.

The book alternates between 1937 and 1943, and gives each sister's perspective about the events that happen between them. Both Ruth and Millie were well-drawn, likable, understandable characters. (The book also has chapters dedicated to the perspectives of two other, less central characters and, while it was interesting, I didn't think it was needed for the novel to succeed.) I felt bad for each one and was truly invested in their relationship and what happened to them and their families. I loved the pieces of history (the Springfield Armory, specifically) that were masterfully woven in. Overall this is a gem of a book and I

Many thanks to The #NetGalley team at St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read an e-galley of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

If you are a fan of WWII fiction or books about sisters or just love a well written well researched historical fiction novel, this is the book for you. Not only was this novel well written but it was real re-searched and based on work that was going on in the US during WWII. I knew that a lot of women went to work during the war but had never heard of the Springfield Armory or been aware of the number of workers that were employed there.

Ruth is three years older than Millie. When they are growing up in Brooklyn in the 1930s, Ruth is seen as dependable and trustworthy and boring. Millie is seen as cute and needy for attention so everyone pays attention to her - she even gets preferential treatment from their mother. The different way that the girls are treated causes a big rift between them on Ruth's part. In later years, when Ruth is married to an Army scientist and has twin daughters and Ruth's husband has disappeared and left her with a small son, they end up living in the same house and working at the Armory in Springfield. As the sisters struggle to maintain a relationship, secrets are revealed that may drive them even further apart. Will the rift between them cause them to remain estranged or will they find the way to truly become sisters??

I loved both of the sisters - they were so well written that it was impossible to take sides and assign blame for their estrangement because both of them had valid reasons for the way they acted toward each other. I loved the location of the Armory and learning more about the women that worked in American to support the men away at war. i highly recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Bit of a mixed bag on this one. I'd say solid 3.5 stars - I liked it better than 3, but not enough for 4. The story line itself was decent enough, and the writing was done well. I liked the wartime setting and I thought the author did a great job of exploring the dynamics of all the various relationships - siblings, parents, spouses, friends. I think my biggest issue came down to the characters. I just didn't get any sort of feeling of sympathy or interest from any of them. About the only ones that sparked me were Lillian and Arietta, and although they played large roles in the story, they came along so far into it that I was already just "meh" about the whole thing. I wanted to feel some sort of sympathy for both Ruth and Millie - they struggled with virtually all their relationships throughout their lives, and I felt like that should earn them my sympathy and respect, but I just never connected with either of them. So while I enjoyed the writing and the story, the characters didn't do anything for me. Still a good book, and one I would recommend on the off-chance it was just me.

This is my first book by this author and I absolutely loved it.
In The Wartime Sisters we meet Ruth and Millie from Brooklyn, one sister is blonde, pretty and popular and the other is intelligent and also plain. Growing up each sister felt over shadowed by the other, which leads to resentment as adults. Flashing forward 5 years, one sister is a war widow and mother of a young son and they move in with the other sister, now an officer's wife and mother of twins.
Several interesting minor characters are introduced throughout the story, each one revealing more about a sister through their own history.
The arrival of a person from the past, reveals truths, and ultimately brings the storylines together to a very satisfying conclusion.

This is a well written, very engaging story with full and dynamic characters. Ariatta and Lillian may very well be my favorite characters from the story, though they were minor they were crucial to the story.

I was prepared not to like this book nor be able to finish it because I don't much read period based stories. Since I'd truly enjoyed "The Two-Family House: A Novel" I gave it a chance. I was so very wrong....I liked it just as much!! The characters were complex, emotional, misguided, believable and likable. The pace and switch between viewpoints made it an easy read. I was never bored, I could not predict what would come next and I finished the book with a satisfied smile.

The novel is about about the tricky jealous relationship of 2 sisters and how perceptions as well as other external factors can complicate that fraying thread even more.

Ms Cohen Loigman thank you for allowing me to read this wonderfully developed novel. I'll look forward to your next period piece.

The Two Family House was one of my favorite books of the last few years so when I heard about The Wartime Sisters, I knew I had to read it. Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing a copy through NetGalley.

I love when historical fiction teaches me something. I knew nothing of the Springfield Armory during WWII and this book taught me so much in an interesting and engaging way. The main characters, sisters Ruth and Millie, are both complex, well developed characters and I rooted for them both. By the time the war hits, they are partially estranged and each is guarding a secret that threatens to end their relationship completely. When Millie comes to live with Ruth in Springfield, their relationship changes and they each must decide how and when to reveal her secret.

I enjoyed this book. The writing is lovely and the subject matter is thoroughly researched (I wasn't surprised to learn on the author's website that this story was culled from her mother's background). It felt just that personal. The chapters from Lillian and Arietta, two other Springfield residents, were readable and interesting, but I would have preferred to stay with the sisters and delve deeper into how their flawed relationship and how they came to where they are today.

For fans of WWII fiction, put the Wartime Sisters on your list immediately. I remain a super fan of this author and will read anything she writes as soon as it's available.

A wonderful story about three women during WWII. I loved how the author told us each of their stories while intertwining it into the story taking place during WWII. I enjoyed this novel!

The Wartime Sisters by
Lynda Cohen Loigman


This story with a WWII backdrop will appeal to many book clubs, as a lifetime of sibling rivalry takes two sisters along different paths to a satisfying resolution.

I would also recommend this book for anyone interested in how women played an important role in the munitions factories during WWII, specifically at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts during the war years.

Ruth and Millie are two very different siblings guarding secrets and lifelong hurts. As they mature and their lives once again intersect, they are afforded many opportunities to resolve their conflicts. But, just as in real life, many of these chances are just too painful to face.

The novel is told in alternating chapters for each sister between childhood and adulthood, with the addition of chapters for a couple of influential friends. I found some confusion in a few chapters in the transition between the first and second paragraphs of the chapter. Are we still in childhood or adulthood? It wasn’t always clear until further reading. Also, and this may be particular to this reader, but I had some confusion with the character names of Millie and Lillian, both being “illi” names.

Also, other than introducing some Yiddish words, phrases and holiday traditions, I didn’t see that the girls being Jewish played any role in the narrative. Their religion was never a hindrance nor a help to either of them throughout the story.

All in all, the story moved along smoothly with the author’s good eye to descriptions of food, clothing, fashion and personalities of the period. It was a most enjoyable read.

There is an unexplainable bond between sisters which remains through pettiness, rivalry, jealously, quarrels, and even enmity. This novel supports this theory.
Two sisters grow up physically close but miles apart in every other way. In their adult life they are thrown together by circumstances during World War ll. As they begin to help each other through difficulties, a fragile sense of togetherness emerges- but it be maintained? Both need honesty and humility to bring healing.
The story is set mainly in the Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts. This location has a great deal of history from the war days.
It is a wonderful story!

Loved this story of estranged sisters told against the backdrop of World War II.and the Springfield Armory. One sister a war widow and one an officer's wife I loved the TV show, "Army Wives" and found this somewhat similiar, different time period, of course, but I could picture in my mind "life at the armory" Such great story lines running throughout the book.and unfolding of the secrets that each sister had was very well written. Thank you to St Martin's Press, the author, and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this advance copy.

I loved this book. It was extremely well written. The characters were well developed and relatable. I loved the plot of the novel and how historically accurate it was. I highly recommend!

This certainly is not the typical WWII historical fiction. This story does not focus on Europe or in a concentration camp. It is, however, just as powerful!

I loved this story of two sisters that are worlds apart but are the same. Ruth and Millie just can't seem to get their relationship with each other together. One is pretty and one is smart. One always had the attention of family and friends, while the other was always in the background. How will they ever mend the broken bond? Was it ever really broken in the first place?

Many thanks to netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this advanced readers copy.