Orphaned Irish lass Martha is only 15 when she leaves Dublin with a group of other Home Children on a journey across the ocean. Headed to Canada, the plan is to find new homes with farm families. But Martha has a better future awaiting her. A letter explains that she has family in Kingston, Ontario, Canada: her Aunt Emily, her cousin Anna and her aunt’s husband, Owen. Martha is excited --- and nervous. She knows nothing about these people, and now she’s supposed to live with them? If her Ma thought this best, then she won’t question it.

To her relief, Anna meets her at the train, and the two form an instant bond. When they arrive at Martha’s new home, though, the feeling is altogether different. Aunt Emily seems not only cold but openly hostile. Anna assures Martha that she’ll come around. But then World War I breaks out, and Anna joins the nursing corps, leaving Martha to face Emily’s chill alone. Will she ever be able to do enough for her aunt to warm to her?

"Author Milree Latimer has breathed real life into her characters and given them ultra-dimensional depths of emotion, along with all of their flaws and delightful quirks.... OUT OF PLACE is a gem of a novel."

As the years go by and Martha matures, she, too, moves away from her adopted home. It is a time when everyone has a calling --- everyone must step up and do their part. So Martha takes on the role of farmerette. She continues to visit Uncle Owen and Aunt Emily, yet she longs for the day when Anna will be home from overseas. In the meantime, she settles into a somewhat satisfying routine. Then, in a stroke of good fortune, she meets Charlie and falls desperately in love. All too soon, though, he heads off to France, where he fights a war that ravages his psyche, as it does to many young men, and leaves him a shell of his former self.

When Charlie comes home, it is with a broken spirit. We’ve heard that time heals all wounds, but not so much for Charlie, who recedes ever inward and shuts Martha out. When Anna finally returns from France, she meets Charlie and understands exactly what he is going through. Suffering from shell shock herself, she reassures Martha that he needs time and patience. The horrors of the war have taken a devastating toll; they both have seen things no human should see. Yet when World War II breaks out, Anna is eager to enlist again.

The story takes us through both World Wars and beyond. It takes us on one family’s epic journey through life’s joys, heartbreaks and myriad difficulties. We follow Martha as she struggles to fit in, see her gain confidence and ultimately find comfort in her place in life. We watch, too, as Anna pursues her passion for nursing broken soldiers back to health, almost like an empath, ever yearning to be there for the damaged. We see both women become the best they can be through their hardships and their snatches of happiness. Martha grows to understand how her past has always shaped her future and how it has made her the woman she grew to be. Anna, ever the healer, carries on in her role as a sort of angel on Earth. Even Emily makes a remarkable transformation.

Author Milree Latimer has breathed real life into her characters and given them ultra-dimensional depths of emotion, along with all of their flaws and delightful quirks. What’s most wonderful is how in touch with Martha, Anna, Aunt Emily, Uncle Owen and every minor character in this story Latimer truly is. It’s as though she puts the reader’s hand on the beating heart of each of them and allows their sadness, anger, yearning and happiness to be fully felt. OUT OF PLACE is a gem of a novel.