I loved Nancy E. Turner's first two books, so I was eagerly looking forward to this one, especially since it was largely set in East Texas where I grew up, and takes place during World War II.
I found quite a few things that bothered me. Her style was very different this time. It just didn't hang together--didn't flow well. She jumped around from Frosty's being in high school to episodes that happened to her as a child. I don't mean flashbacks, or that she was recalling an incident. Instead the narratives were just jumpy and disorienting.
And there were other irregularities. I guess it's picky, but it always irks me when a character used the word "y'all" when speaking to an individual. I've lived my entire life in Texas, and never once have I heard a real Texan use it that way. It's a contraction of "you all" and thus we only use it when speaking to more than one person.
As Frosty traveled, the author got some Texas towns out of sequence. In California, she said that she and Garnelle split the $25 monthly rent and each had nearly $100 left for food and savings; yet at one point she talked about being between paychecks and resenting having to share her meager lunch with Gordon, who was a Native-American soldier.
Inconsistencies like this may be a result of poor editing, but they took away from my reading enjoyment.
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