Bess and Frima by Alice Rosenthal ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

Aug 2018; She Writes Press; 9781631524394
ebook, print (304 pages); historical fiction

Bess and Frima are best friends who have just graduated from high school and know that there must be more excitement in the world than in their Jewish neighborhood in NYC in 1940. Frima, her mother and grandmother run a small hotel in the Catskills. Bess lives with very unaccepting parents and has decided to work in the Catskills for the summer at a larger hotel. Her brother, Jack, is also going to work for Bess's family. Both young girls are looking for love and romance to happen during their summer. Frima, who seeks safety in love, finds it with the “boy next door,” who is also Bess’s brother. Meanwhile, rebellious Bess renames herself Beth and plunges into a new life with Vinny, an Italian American, former Catholic, left-wing labor leader from San Francisco. Her actions are totally unacceptable to her family—which is fine with Beth. Will their young loves have happy endings?

This was a coming of age story about two young friends who fall in love as WWII starts to affect life in the US. The results of the war bring them challenges that they never expected and makes them grow up faster and in different ways than they'd planned.

There's not a lot of action in this book but it's a wonderful view of what life was like for young girls in the 1940s. It was a fun book to read with interesting and well-written characters.

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Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter.

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