The Cherry Harvest - Lucy Sanna

A memorable coming-of-age story and love story, laced with suspense, which explores a hidden side of the home front during World War II, when German POWs were put to work in a Wisconsin farm community . . . with dark and unexpected consequences.

The war has taken a toll on the Christiansen family. With food rationed and money scarce, Charlotte struggles to keep her family well fed. Her teenage daughter, Kate, raises rabbits to earn money for college and dreams of becoming a writer. Her husband, Thomas, struggles to keep the farm going while their son, and most of the other local men, are fighting in Europe.

When their upcoming cherry harvest is threatened, strong-willed Charlotte helps persuade local authorities to allow German war prisoners from a nearby camp to pick the fruit.

But when Thomas befriends one of the prisoners, a teacher named Karl, and invites him to tutor Kate, the implications of Charlotte’s decision become apparent—especially when she finds herself unexpectedly drawn to Karl. So busy are they with the prisoners that Charlotte and Thomas fail to see that Kate is becoming a young woman, with dreams and temptations of her own—including a secret romance with the son of a wealthy, war-profiteering senator. And when their beloved Ben returns home, bitter and injured, bearing an intense hatred of Germans, Charlotte’s secrets threaten to explode their world. 

My thoughts:

I read another book like this with POWs working the fields, and that one ended badly for them so I started this one with a bad feeling.....

Someone needs to pick the cherries. The Christiansen family needs money, food, workers, so yes I got it, either they all starve or get those POWs to help.

Charlotte the mother does not want them there, but at the same time she needs them there. She was rather judgmental and cold at times.

Kate the daughter wants to go to uni, she loves reading and writing, farmlife, not so much. She will have her own adventure.

Thomas, the father, is more in the background, he never wanted to become a farmer, but now here he is.

Charlotte's story was sad. Thomas was bitter, and Kate's story, well that was, it was like it was just thrown there for fun.

Conclusion:
At the end I knew I had enjoyed the book. It was a good book, but then I started to think, I have no good things to say, no bad things. It actually left me pretty cold. So is that good or bad?

Cover
Meh

Paperback, 352 pages
Published April 19th 2016 by William Morrow Paperbacks (first published June 2nd 2015)
Historical fiction
Library