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Change is inevitable and often surprising in the small town of Hammer Springs, but for Sam Graves, it’s the unexpected friendships that truly transform his life.

Located near the Gulf coast of Florida, Hammer Springs is a quaint, 1950s town where time seems to hold its breath. Sam, a young man with his own struggles, is simply biding his time until college begins. With his best friend Jimmy away on a Destroyer and his own draft status 4F, Sam works in his grandfather’s tailor shop alongside Jimmy’s little sister, Rebby.

Sam may be physically limited by his missing leg, but his mental life is challenging and confusing. When tragedy strikes, Sam and Rebby’s unlikely friendship is forged and strengthened, and follows them both to their respective colleges.

But just as things seemed to be falling into place for Sam, he has a life-changing encounter that forces him to confront his true feelings for Rebby and the impact it could have on their friendship.

I’ve been in a reading funk, so I branched out of my normal genres to try a straight historical. Set in the US in the 1950s, this story follows a young amputee through life as heads off to college while his friends head off to war.

As this is book four in a series, I expected a little more set up/refresher of the previous books, but it jumped right in (so I was confused a few times by references I didn’t understand). The style and pace of this book reminds me of Theo of Golden–a slower pace without a standard contemporary story structure, it follows Sam through life, but it’s more about watching him live than about watching him strive for/reach a specific goal. (There are some past/present tense issues in the writing and some phrases that aren’t historically accurate.)

If you like the longer character-focused, theme-focused novels, you might enjoy this book.

Rated PG.

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