American Sky | Nim’s Review
Title: American Sky
Author: Carolyn Dasher
Genre: Historical WWII Fiction, Women’s Historical Fiction
Publish Date: July 1, 2025
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Pages: 443
Source: Book selected from Amazon First Reads - a perk of my Amazon Prime subscription.
Publisher blurb: Three generations of indomitable women navigate life on their terms in an epic and inspiring historical novel about love and war, family secrets, and mothers and daughters finding the freedom to fly.
It’s 1943. The war rages. The newly launched WASP program is recruiting. And barnstormer fan Georgeanne “George” Ector’s dream is to take to the skies. Grit is what she inherited from her mother, an Oklahoma farm girl at the turn of the century who preferred taking apart an engine to stitching linens for a hope chest. She taught her daughter well. George isn’t the only woman about to follow her calling.
Vivian Shaw, so similar to George they’re like sisters, also longs for a career flying the fastest planes in the American arsenal. For a time, George and Vivian triumph. But at war’s end, the adventurous women are grounded by the expectations of others: to get married, have children, and raise a family. Vivian has other plans. So, eventually, do George’s daughters, Ruth and Ivy, who embark on very different paths of their own.
Three generations of women staring down a vast horizon of possibilities are determined to navigate whatever comes their way—from the hardships of war and home to love and loss, and to the fallout of a long-held secret that could change their lives forever.
Nim’s Thoughts
Each month I look forward to selecting a through Amazon First Reads. It’s free thanks to our Amazon Prime subscription. Some months we get to select two books, or a book and a short story. It’s been a great source for finding new interesting authors. American Sky was offered in June, a month before it’s publication date. Historical fiction is a genre I love just as much as Cozy Mystery. Set it in World War II and it’s an immediate yes from me, especially if the main character is a woman, or in this case several generations of women: Adele, her daughter George (Georgeanne), and George’s dauthers Ruth and Ivy. From the end of the Depression to the jungle fields of Vietnam, we read about the lives of the woman followed their hearts. Followed them into careers that went against societal norms and each woman striving to do something different than her mother before her.
This book is beautifully written and I found myself thoroughly invested in each woman’s life. I cried, okay literally sobbed throughout this tale and I’m amazed that it’s the author’s first published work. It’s an incredible start to what I hope will be a long list of novels from Carolyn Dasher. Each character is so well developed, there’s not one that I couldn’t connect with in some way. I don’t want to say to much about then end of the plot because there’s no way to do it without spoiling it for future readers. I had an inkling it would go that way and perhaps that’s because I’ve read so many WWII tales or that it struck a chord with my own life.
The story is well constructed and thought out. While it does bounce back and forth a bit between time periods, it felt easy to follow and flowed very well. This was a surprise because as I mentioned, this is the first published work by the author. I went in with an open mind, hoping that it wouldn’t be mediocre or feel like a novel written by AI. I’m so glad I gave this novel a chance.
Thank you Prime Reading, Lake Union Publishing for this ARC and thank you Carolyn Dasher for this story. It’s an instant favorite and I look forward to rereading it next year.
