Letters from Home

This sweeping debut novel, told through letters and alternating points of view, is ambitious and compelling. During the turmoil of WWII, three Chicago roommates discover that matters of the heart cannot be controlled or planned. Betty Cordell hopes to avoid her mother's mistakes by marrying well. Julia Renard rejects a prestigious fashion internship in order to be waiting for her fiancé when he comes home from the war. Liz Stephens begins to question her future as a professor and a politician's wife as she corresponds with a soldier who thinks she's Betty. Deft description and solid research take readers to the trenches in Europe, a field hospital in Dutch New Guinea, and the glittering lights of Chicago society. Though McMorris's flowery prose sometimes teeters on the edge of hokey, this novel will appeal to historical fiction fans hungry for a romance of the "Greatest Generation." (Mar.)