Sweeping historical fiction with a grumpy-sunshine romance component. Beautifully written and set in WWII Australia, this novel just felt wildly epic. Something about the atmospheric writing gave it immense emotional impact and somewhat took my breath away. This was my first read from Jenny Ashcroft, but she can definitely pen a good read.

The plot was emotionally hard-hitting and swung the full pendulum from heart-warming to completely heartbreaking. I don't typically cry at my reads, but this one was very close on more than one occasion. The pacing was a bit slow in the beginning and intermittently through the plot. Slow burn is definitely the name of the game in this case.

The characters are well-written and mostly realistic and the capture of racial tensions in WWII Australia was balanced nicely with the rest of the plot. The result was an impactful undertone that didn't overwhelm the narrative, but sent a strong message. I was definitely invested in the characters and got hit hard in the gut on several occasions as a result. However, there were some moments where I did have to suspend belief, as the characters occasionally behaved incredibly stupidly or acted overly oblivious. The plot utilizes the miscommunication trope and sometimes it seemed like this was too heavy-handed and not necessarily believable.

A solid historical romance with an incredible emotional appeal. A semi-unique approach to a WWII era historical fiction, which I appreciated. The setting was well done and I enjoyed the overall arc of the plot. And dang it if I don't want to live on a ranch in the Australian outback now...