For All Our Tomorrows - Freda Lightfoot

I picked up this book in a charity shop in my home town of South Shields. With a blank cover, no blurb and nothing other than the title to give any sort of insight, would you believe me if I said something just drew me to it? Well it did. I read the first sentence and somehow decided that I'd probably like it. As it turns out, I seem to know myself quite well. I don't think it would be an understatement to say that I've never been more attached to a book. I mean, literally. For the length of about three days, it never left my side.
Set in Fowey, a Cornish village, in the 1940s, this book revolves around a couple of sisters and the upheaval of their lives as a group of US Marines arrive in the town. The story focuses on the two perspectives of the sisters, and how the war, and US arrival, affects them.
Sara, the quiet, sensible sister lives with her husband, Hugh, who makes you want to scream at the book. Possessive, controlling and adulterating, his abusive ways soon turn Sara's attention elsewhere, onto US Mariner, Charles. Their story throughout the book is almost painfully slow-moving, yet touching. At the other end of the spectrum, Sara's flirtatious and mischievous sister Bette falls in love with an American much sooner, but her cosy Cornish life is turned upside down as the story unfolds.
This book revolves completely around its main characters, somehow making you feel personally involved in their well-being. Lightfoot's writing isn't mind-blowing, it isn't amazingly poignant or intensely colourful. Yet, it tells a story, and it tells it extremely well.
The best feature of this book is the believability of the characters, the ebbs and flows of the two sisters' lives, intertwined with the reality of war. One friendly invasion that changes the lives of a few people - which may sound rather insignificant on a grand scale, but once you read this book it will feel like the lives of those closest to you.