Dream When You're Feeling Blue

Elizabeth Berg
Audiobook

Reason for Reading: Challenges, WWII Fiction is a favorite genre of mine.

Kitty and Louise are two of the three beautiful Heaney sisters living in Chicago in the 1940's. As the story opens, they are saying goodbye to their boyfriends who are going off to fight in World War II.
They send them off with tears and wishes for them to remain safe and then they return home to resume life and do their part for the war effort. However, the shape that their lives take as the War goes on and they await the return of their men turns out to be nothing like what they had planned.

I went back to read reviews of this book after I finished listening to it and I was shocked to find them mediocre at best. It appears that a lot of Berg's fans didn't enjoy how this story wrapped up. Since this was my first Berg novel, I had nothing to compare to. However, I love reading books set during WWII. It's one of my favorite time periods. My visit to Chicago and the Heaney family with this novel was a delight to read.

I had a difficult time warming up to Kitty and youngest Heaney sister, Tish. At first, I thought Kitty was selfish and materialistic and Tish was very brash and irritating. As the story goes on though, Kitty learns much about true love, sacrifice and family and evolves into a very caring woman. I never did quite manage to care for Tish but she softens up too as she matures. I loved Frank and Margaret, the Heaney parents and Louise, the middle Heaney sister from the beginning.

There were no real shocks for me in this story but I found it touching just the same. I will definitely be looking for other books by Elizabeth Berg. (4/5)