Talitha and Octavia are not looking forward to their summer road trip with their grandmother. They are going to be traveling from California to Florida for a family reunion. Little do they know, but they are going to be also taking a trip back in time.

Their grandmother, Mare Boylen, decides to take the opportunity to share the story of what happened to her during World War II. While driving, Mare introduces Talitha and Octavia to a girl they never would have expected their grandmother to be.

In 19944, Mare was 17 years old and confronted with a challenging home life. Her single mother was constantly building short-term romances with single men, which only led to Mare and her younger sister leaving home. Mare opts to do that by lying about her age and joining the Women's Army Corps (WAC). Readers than join Mare (and the listening Talitha and Octavia) as she goes through training and travels over to Europe.

The book does a great job of capturing a unique perspective on World War II. I had heard about WAC, but I was not really all that familiar with what the Women's Army did. This novel not only does that, but it also provides the African American perspective on events.

The book is written with most of the chapters in the "Then," with periodic chapters telling the story of the roadtrip taking place "Now." I do have to say that I really could have done without the whole "Now" perspective and found myself having trouble paying attention during those chapters. The real draw for the book for me was the historical tale.

I found the book a little slow and draggy in some points so I do think it could have been tightened up for some more brevity, but I think that would have best been done with getting rid of the granddaughters.