THE POSTMISTRESS by Sarah Blake, 2010.

I found this to be a rather ho-hum novel. I enjoyed the writer's depictions of the bombings of London during 1940-41 and her descriptions of small town life on Cape Cod, Massachusetts during the pre-World War II era, but I found a lot of her writing to be just so-so, and the characters not all that compelling.The plot centers around three women: the postmistress of Franklin, Mass., Iris; Emma Fitch, the young and fragile wife of that small town's doctor, and Frankie Bard, a woman reporter in Europe who is trying to make Americans aware of what is happening overseas.These three had definite issues in their lives that they struggled to deal with, including pregnancy, midlife, workplace acceptance, loss, and emotional heartache. Parts of this were very good: the accident that befalls Emma's husband, the awfulness of the trainloads of refugees out of Germany and France, the horrific bombings at night in London, sirens blaring. But the story as a whole just didn't leave me feeling much for any of it. In the end, I don't think this book was worthy of all the hype it received.