Lucy by Ellen Feldman

Historical fiction at its best transports one to a different time and place.  There you see the sights, hear the sounds, and feel the emotions of that time and place.  That is what happens when you turn the first page of Lucy by Ellen Feldman.  You listen in as Lucy Mercer tells you how she came to 1733 N Street to be the social secretary to the wife of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  You understand how she and Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to love each other and just how deep and enduring that love was.  In telling their story, you are transported to Washington, D.C. when Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany, you are with the women in the canteen as the troop trains arrive and depart, you are at home in Aiken, S.C. when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and at Warm Springs, Georgia when Franklin dies.  As much as we are who we are, Lucy, Franklin, and Eleanor are just who they are, each person treated with respect and compassion.

I can't wait to read more of Feldman's books.