Radar Girls by Sara Ackerman is historical fiction at its best! This book brings to life a little-known piece of World War II history, something I did not know. After Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, women were “enlisted” to help in performing a top-secret job, learning about the radar system to detect enemy sightings to prevent another attack. The women called themselves the WARDs, Women’s Air Raid Defense. The story centers around Daisy Wilder, the heroine of the story, and some of the other women who became family to her. It was fascinating to learn about what these women did to aid in the war effort, protecting the country and the men serving in the Pacific. It brought home the realities of war through the eyes of the women on the home front! I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy historical fiction, the heroics of the women who worked behind the scenes, and a good romance on top of it all.

LOVED this book! We've all read so many books about World War II, but this one had parts and stories that I had never heard of and knew nothing about. The WARDS story is one that needs to be told. Highly recommend!
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for the honest review.

I was not aware of WARDs who served during WWII in Hawai' i. Another story that sorely needed to told. Without the women of the WARD we would would not have done as well in WWII in the Pacific. It is time that this and many other stories about the military and civilian women who served in WWII be told. History is great in documenting the contributions of men, but is severely lacking in documenting the stories of the women who played a critical role in the war effort. Thank you Sara for surfacing and telling this story. This book is fiction, but it highlighted the core facts about these brave and hard working women. Well written and engaging, it kept my interest and I did not want to put it down. The characters were well written and multidimensional. i appreciated the diversity in women in he story. In these days of seeing only the contributions and lives of those the right wing values, it is imperative that the contributions of people of all stripes are shared. ISadly the historical book that inspired Sara Ackeman to write this novel seem to be out of print.

Daisy was out with her employer’s favorite horse, Moon, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Moon was spooked and escaped. Daisy lost her job when she admitted to taking the horse without permission.
After the government assessed the damage to the fleet of ships at Pearl Harbor, they decided to train a group of women to help the war effort . Daisy was recruited into the group. The women were given courses in radar and codes and taught how to guide pilots safely back home when lost. The group was named the Women’s Air Raid Defense and they were considered officers in the US Army.
This historical fiction book follows Daisy and the other women she worked with as they helped the US win the war in the Pacific. The characters are all fictitious but based on real people. Their work was little known to those outside the military in Hawaii. Like many other vital jobs, the women were sworn to secrecy. The author interviewed some of the WARDs as well as their children.

I received this ARC from the publisher and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review

This is the third book on the Second World War that I have read in a row. When I saw I was approved for read an advanced copy and I started to read it, I was almost depressed. It’s so sad to read what people went through during that time. But, now that I have finished it, I’m so glad that I got an opportunity to read it and I’m glad that it was the third one. It’s a great story and has good solid characters. I want to be Daisy’s friend - heck I want to be a girl. What an interesting storyline. It was something that I had never knew about or even thought about. I’m proud of those women and the work they did. I will recommend to anyone. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.
Interesting historical fiction about the Women's Air Raid Defense group put together in Hawaii after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Not a well known historical fact, the contribution of these women was an important part of the war effort. The relationship among the women is well developed and illustrated a bond that is unique. The romance part is integral but not as interesting. Maybe it will all be cleaned up in the final edits but it was all a little rough.
3.5 stars

This historical fiction book set in Hawaii just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor tells personal stories of the women who made up the Women’s Air Raid Defense group. Recruited from childless military wives and other unemployed local women, they were quickly trained to assist US military pilots. The main character was Daisy, who worked on the horse ranch, following in the footsteps of her father. He’d died in an accidental shooting a few years before and that had plunged her mother Lilian into mental illness. We meet other WARD members as they face life’s struggles.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC. It will be published in July 2021.

Here is another tale about a little known contribution by women to the US in WWII. In this case the tale is of the young women who were recruited shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. These young women man the radar stations in Hawaii keeping watch against new attacks and guiding in our own pilots in poor conditions. They are a mixed crew - married, unmarried, poor, wealthy, etc. Some of them have a shared but unpleasant history. Will their mission bring them together ? There is a bit of romance and mystery about a missing horse to add some extra spice to the tale.

This book was a thoroughly enjoyable and un-put-downable look at one of the lesser-known groups of WW2. This book deals with the WARD or the Women's Air Raid Defense group that was set up in Hawaii right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Part action, part women's fiction, part romance, and a tiny bit of mystery are combined to make this a memorable read.

Radar Girls was a highly researched novel ( from what I could find out) and helped me understand more of what was possible for women in those years. Too bad it didn't last all that long, right? Well, we have it all now!

For anyone interested in the historical fiction genre, this will be a superb summer read.

*ARC supplied by the publisher, the author, and NetGalley. Thank you

Hawaii - 1941

On a lovely Sunday morning, Daisy Wilder "borrows" her favorite horse, Moon, from the Montgomery farm where she works. As she leaves him on the beach to swim out to look for lobsters, two planes roar overhead. One is obviously not an American plane, and the battle that takes place overhead has Daisy scared witless. Helpless, she tries to get to Moon, but just as she reaches for him, he breaks loose and bolts down the beach. Meanwhile, the enemy plane is shot down by the American pilot. Terrified, but concerned for Moon, Daisy races to the ranch after checking on her mother at their beachfront shack. There she encounters Mr. Montgomery's son, Walker, who tells her that they have been attacked by Japan. He also notices that Moon is missing, but Daisy doesn't reveal what she knows.

Daisy returns to the ranch and confesses to Mr. Montgomery, and he promptly fires her. Chastened, but now worried about how to support her mother, who has never recovered from the death of Daisy's father, Daisy meets a general who is at the Montgomery farm. He is recruiting women for a special war job, and Daisy, as well as Montgomery's daughter, both sign up. The general also helps Daisy arrange for her mother to move to California to stay with her aunt until the war is over.

The war business that Daisy and a score of other women are hired to do is a new unit called Women's Air Raid Defense (WARD). It will be their job to take radar readings and monitor every object moving in the skies around Hawaii. They will also communicate with other sites and with pilots as their planes enter their vector. Trained to know the different American warplanes as well as enemy ones, the women will be crucial links to the Air Defense Command Center.

Daisy has always been a loner, never feeling that she fit in with schoolmates, and having very few friends. Now, she rides to the base with Peg and Walker Montgomery, and works closely with a crew of men and women she barely knows. But her ability to grasp the technical work of the assignment is admired by some of her co-workers, as well as the military men who are training them all. Soon, Daisy is part of a close-knit group of women and girls who are trying their best to do their part in the war.

Partly a romance, RADAR GIRLS brings to light a little known bit of World War Two history. The responsibilities of this unique group included not only identifying aircraft, but guiding planes into blacked-out runways, or talking those who were lost into the correct airspace. As one real life veteran of this group told her son, "When the flyboys got lost, we brought them home."

Don't miss this terrific snapshot of a little-known group of brave women who did more than their share for their country.

Women’s Air Raid Defense ladies – I have read a lot of WWII books about women flyers, spies, nurses and resistance warriors, but this is my first on this topic and I loved it. It is historical fiction based upon true events with fictional characters but the author gives a wonderful effort of depicting the importance of how and what these ladies truly took on after the bombing of Pearl Harbor to help the war effort. All of the characters were great, Daisy, Fluff, Walker and Nixon and all the others.
It never ceases to amaze me on how so many women stepped up to the plate during WWII, taking on duties that truly showed their diversity and capability to perform when they were called upon to do so. I wonder, would the women of today step up like these ladies did? Daisy had one conversation with Nixon that I thought was just excellent, I was reading, saying, “you go girl”!!
I truly enjoyed this book and give it high 5 stars. The description and previous reviews pegged this one completely, yes, it is inspiring and uplifting.
I want to thank Harlequin Trade Publishing along with NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC. Comes in with the high 5 stars.

Rader Girls was a fabulous novel about women making their place in WWII history. It's WWII historical fiction with a bit of a twist, you've got Daisy, our main character, and the story of her and her sisters-in-arms' war work, but you've got the side narrative of what all is going on in their personal lives too, and the way those two stories intertwine. It was very masterfully done!

Daisy's always been more comfortable around horses than people, but when she loses her job at the stables belonging to the wealthy Montgomery family right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, her life seems to be falling apart. However, she happens to run into an officer looking specifically for women to enlist in a top-secret job for the military - who assigns Walker Montgomery to be her ride to and from the work site.

This novel was full of edge-of-your-seat war talk, the power of friendship (not in a cheesy way), and a bit of romance to boot. All in all, 100% in love with Radar Girls!

Daisy Wilder was recruited into the Women's Air Raid Defense (WARD) military unit in Hawaii which was formed immediately following the brutal attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. A high school dropout, she had worked on a horse farm, lived in a crumbling shack and cared for her mentally ill mother. A valuable horse in her care escaped, and the Montgomery family who owned the stable and horses, blamed her and she lost her job as a result, so the WARD job gave her stability and a feeling of contributing to the war effort. The women recruits received intensive training, and took on more and more duties in identifying and guiding air traffic. It was intensely stressful and unrelenting work but Daisy excelled at it, using her innate math skills to plot trajectories and track air traffic. She also formed fast friendships with most of the other women in the WARD unit. Though fraternizing with the enlisted men and officers was not allowed, relationships inevitably started up. Daisy was falling for a pilot who had been on the periphery of her life in Hawaii for a long time already, and she worried every time he was deployed.

Though the characters and dialogue are invented, the WARD unit did exist and was integral to the war effort in the Pacific Ocean. Their antics, friendships and devotion to the war effort make for a very entertaining and informative reading experience. However, the ending did seem a bit rushed and only loosely outlined, as if the author hadn't quite finished writing that part.

When Pearl Harbor is brutally attacked by Japanese bombers, Daisy rises to the challenge of doing her part for her country and loved ones by joining the Women Air Raid Defense.

Daisy leaves behind her barefoot-on-the-beach days, to train in secret, to replace men needed for active duty.

Everything from the excellently researched history to the vibrant tropical setting is delivered beautifully by Sara Ackerman.

Historical fiction readers will love this remarkable narrative of women’s roles in Radar Girls.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin – Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada) for the read of Sara Ackerman’s, Radar Girls.

It's refreshing to read about strong women protagonists, especially ones based on true experiences. These were brave women who took on soldier's jobs in a war zone. I haven't read much about the war in the Pacific, except for Pearl Harbor itself. It's truly amazing what these women did and thanks to the author for portraying them as she did.

Radar Girls is a really good read. Based in Hawaii during WWII, it’s about a unit of women who guided American pilots in. I read the author’s note with great interest as I had never heard of this faction Of women either. I kept thinking of the movie Pearl Harbor as I read this book because there are similar elements. It was exciting to read, especially toward the end and I feverishly read faster to see what would happen. I love the romance between Walker and Daisy. Every time I read WWII historical fiction I’m reminded of the courage and tenacity an entire generation exuded to save the world. If we can only be so bold.

Yes! This book was so well done! You can tell the author spent her time researching and respected the characters. I was so invested in this book and it touched me deeply!

Second 5 star read of the year for me!

Daisy is living in Hawaii at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The war has now come to them and women are being asked to step up and take on jobs that were typically delegated to the men, including working on the radar systems. Daisy prefers her quiet home on the beach and working with horses to dealing with other people, but she answers the call. Her job isn't just to serve the country, but it affects those she loves the most.

For historical fiction fans, this is definitely a must-read. I love finding WW2 books that look into what happened in the Pacific instead of in Europe, and Radar Girls approaches a subject that isn't very well known. The look into the women's lives who stepped up to serve, especially at a time where they were undervalued, is impressive.

Radar Girls is a character-driven historical fiction, with a unique female protagonist and a strong sense of place.

Daisy lives with her mother in Hawaii when Pearl Harbor is attacked in 1941. She and some other young women are recruited for the Women's Air Raid defense, a top secret job in which they are responsible for guiding pilots into blacked-out airstrips and tracking unidentified planes across Pacific skies. Ackerman has written a well researched historical novel about bright and courageous women who deserve to be better known. Add in the female friendships, the suspense, the animals, the Hawaiian setting, and the romance, and this is a not to be missed book for historical fiction readers. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this ARC.