The historical detail of this book is what held my attention the greatest. Though the plot flowed smoothly and the characters were well written and likable, I enjoyed all of the little additional bits of information that were added to make the story more realistic. Though the plot was quite different, I found myself somewhat identifying this book with the movie Australia. The vernacular of the Australians took a little getting used to, but kept things light and easy. I read this book very quickly and had a hard time putting it down. I take that as a sign of a pretty darned good book. This is a book that I wouldn't mind reading over and over again.