I found this book to be totally captivating on many levels. First of all, the author made the characters so believable that you couldn't wait to turn the page and find out what was going on in their lives. Secondly, for me the storyline and characters sounded like they stepped right out of my family history. The similarities include: my father growing up in a German Lutheran community, my parents eloping, and my father and uncles going off to fight in World War II. The Characters
An Enemy Like Me is seen through the characters that make up the book. There are three main characters that bring the book to life.
Jacob Miller
Jacob Miller is a second generation German American. He was brought up by his mother, a widowed immigrant. Although they were poor they had each other and she instilled into Jacob a strong sense of patriotism for America.
Jacob meets Bonnie Phillips and they work to make ends meet after the depression. They are starting to get comfortable and buying their first home to bring home their son William. Then the unthinkable happens, the country they love is drawn into the war in the Pacific and in Europe. Jacob is torn, he is very patriotic and feels he must help the war effort and yet he has a new young family that he loves and does not want to leave. Add to that part of the war is being fought against people from his parents homeland and he is even more torn.
Bonnie Phillips
Bonnie's family were once very wealthy and that is the background she brings to her marriage with Jacob. During the depression her family loses much of their wealth. Bonnie falls deeply in love with Jacob and they elope and begin their live together. What they don't have in money they make up for in their love and desire to carve their place in America. Although Bonnie is also a strong patriot she does not want Jacob to leave. She can't imagine life without him.
William Miller
William is Jacob and Bonnie's son, who is 4 years old when Jacob feels the call to join the fight. The story is told through alternating chapters of Bonnie, Jacob and William. William's chapters are also told in the present time where we find him on Veteran's Day 2016 visiting his father's grave and reminiscing about his memories of the war. We see how those years when Jacob was gone made a difference in William's life.
This book brings to life the joys and perils of German Americans during WWII. It made me think of my own family and how their time during WWII shaped their lives.
The Book on Amazon
About the Author
I always find it interesting to learn more about the author on books that I enjoy. Here is a bit about Teri M Brown taken from her media kit. Take a few minutes to also look at her website where she recommends other books of historical fiction.
Born in Athens, Greece as an Air Force brat, Teri M Brown graduated from UNC Greensboro. She began her writing career helping small businesses with content creation and published five nonfiction self-help books dealing with real estate and finance, receiving "First Runner Up" in the Eric Hoffman Book Awards for 301 Simple Things You Can Do To Sell Your Home Now, finalist in the USA Best Books Awards for How To Open and Operate a Financially Successful Redesign, Redecorate, and Real Estate Staging Business and for 301 Simple Things You Can Do To Sell Your Home Now, and Honorable Mention in Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Award for Private Mortgage Investing. In 2017, after winning the First Annual Anita Bloom Ornoff Award for Inspirational Short Story, she began writing fiction in earnest, and published Sunflowers Beneath the Snow in January 2022. Her second novel, An Enemy Like Me, launches in January 2023. Teri is a wife, mother, grandmother, and author who loves word games, reading, bumming on the beach, taking photos, singing in the shower, hunting for bargains, ballroom dancing, playing bridge, and mentoring others. Learn more at www.terimbrown.com.
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