Fair warning: the merits of this book do not lie in its writing, in fact the book is littered with far too many little mistakes that break up the flow of the writing and sometimes impact on the reading process as some sentences lose meaning/sense.
When starting the book I actually thought that the mistakes and the slightly stilted writing might damage my enjoyment of the book.
However the draw of the book was, for me, its cast of characters. By which, I don't simply mean the main two characters but the whole group of WASPs that I came to know and love. Perhaps it was the era and our collective "memory" of that time, or perhaps it was having family who lived through that time and used to regale me with stories of warmth and bonds and coping through love and laughter. But whatever the I truly felt the bonds of the group of supportive ladies Munro created. I quite genuinely wept when they wept at their lowest ebb, felt the losses they felt.
The main love story felt a bit contrived and the situations the two women found themselves in were no different. Some descriptions had me cringing a little, but by hook or by crook i cared about their story, their love, and importantly their ties to their fellow WASPs.
This is not a story that focusses on flawless grammar and literary technique and, yes, I do wish it had done so. But we all deserve a cheesy, imperfect love story once in a while, even women who love other women. And this book had it by the bucketload.