From 1943 to 1945, Lila Jerome has kept a scrapbook of the war years and of what happened to her during that tumultuous time. In the present day, her scrapbook has been found by her two daughters, and vividly brings the 1940s to life through magazine clippings, pictures, newspaper articles, and trinkets, as well as a hidden star motif within the pages that keeps readers captivated with a possible hidden meaning.

THE WAR BRIDE'S SCRAPBOOK is a beautiful graphic novel, recounting World War II through the eyes of Lila Jerome, an everyday American woman, giving the book an authentic feel. It's a different side of the war than what is usually told about this time period. The pictures literally do speak a thousand words, some in color and some in black and white. The captions included with each photo give readers a snippet of what is going on in Lila's life and is a nice way to keep the story moving.

The characters are extremely well developed and feel like people in real life. They fit right into the life of the 1940s, and the meticulous attention to details and how the book is organized keeps things interesting without being overwhelming. But once the war is over, Lila's scrapbooking tapers off, and readers are left with only what Lila's daughters know, or think they know, about the rest of their mother's life. One can only hope that maybe there will be another scrapbook chronicling her life in the 1950s!

Aside from some pictures of smoking, I found THE WAR BRIDE'S SCRAPBOOK by Caroline Preston to be a wholesome book that can be viewed by anyone of any age for any variety of interest be it cars, WWII memorabilia, fashion, etc. I often used THE WAR BRIDE'S SCRAPBOOK by Caroline Preston to show some cars to my one- year-old son! For readers of historical fiction, unique graphic novels, or nostalgia for "the good old days" during the 1940s, and for those who want to experience WWII from an American woman's perspective, I highly recommend THE WAR BRIDE'S SCRAPBOOK.