I'll Remember You

by Deborah Packer

"A historically accurate and intimate portrait of people scarred by war and intolerance,
and their perseverance."
"A love story and a war story"
Booktrib


Based on a true story, I’ll Remember You is a bittersweet love story set on the home front in 1943 about two strangers who meet and fall in love in the shadow of war and the racism and anti-Semitism of the 1940s.

Fiercely proud, idealistic Bobbie Feinman, a small-town Jewish girl, travels to Miami Beach and finds herself in the middle of the military buildup in 1943 America. Against her better judgment, she falls for a complex young soldier from Brooklyn named Murray, whose childhood was marred by horrific images in a war-torn Poland during WW1..

The young Jewish couple fall in love during World War II. However, they struggle with misunderstanding, doubts, the uncertainty of war and the challenges of a hasty marriage, all of which threaten any hope of intimacy or a future together. As needs go unmet, their anxieties, fears, and communication problems play out against a backdrop of anti-Semitism and racism as the soldier prepares to go to war, convinced he will not be coming home.. There is an epilogue set in 1994.

Genres: Romance, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Ebooks, Relationships, Contemporary

324 pages, ebook

Published July 27, 2021

About the author

Deborah has a Bachelors and Masters in Speech and Drama from the University of Michigan. She worked on Stage, Film and TV as an actress in Toronto and Los Angeles, written and performed sketch comedy at the Comic Strip in NYC and the Comedy Store in LA; Has also written tv sitcom scripts and two screenplays. I'LL REMEMBER YOU, based on a true family saga, is her first novel, currently being developed as a screenplay.

Reviews

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this in A Kindle Giveaway.
What drew me was that it was based on a true story .My father was in WW II.
My parents got married after the war.It was interesting that I never thought of racism , but only what life was like during the war in the 1940's.
The story was a slow start for me, but then picked up.
I will be looking for more work from this author.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a beautiful read!

Reading “I’ll Remember You” was a truly entertaining & moving experience filled with well developed and wonderfully rich characters along with thought provoking historical perspective. I will be thinking of Murray & Bobbie long after turning the last page. Based on a true story.

[Zilpha Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

A little slow and the writing style threw me off, but this was a nice change of pace for me.

[Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Packer did a wonderful job on this book.
Thank you, so much Goodreads Giveaways, and to Packer for this ebook.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'LL REMEMBER YOU is a bittersweet love story. It takes place on the American home front during WWII. When two young women travel to Florida for a getaway, they are surrounded by soldiers everywhere. When Bobbie Feinman, a Jewish girl from a small town, is spotted by Murray, a Jewish soldier from Brooklyn, he immediately falls in love with her and asks her to marry him. Bobbie surprises herself and agrees. Their relationship is challenged by the pressure of the war and the social issues of the day which includes anti-Semitism and racism. Murray is, also, battling childhood experiences from WWI. In spite of all these problems, their marriage survives fifty years.

I never realized how much of WWII preparations took place in Florida. Some where my history lessons skipped that chapter. Alos, I know love at first sight is possible. My father felt the same way when he met my mother. They were married for 64 years before he passed away.

ILL REMEMBER YOU was a sweet read that brought back many memories in my own life.
Thank you, Goodreads, for this terrific read.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll Remember You is a war-time romance novel based on a true story. The year is 1943, during World War II (WWII), when Bobbie and her friend Eunice arrive in Miami, Florida, on holiday. Shortly after settling in, she meets Murray, the soldier she wasn't going to meet and have a serious relationship with while vacationing. They are immediately drawn to each other, and after some dates and numerous awkward miscommunications and conversations, they are wrapped up in their "whirlwind" romance and engaged to be married - all within three weeks. Although this is hurried, I'm also reminded that this was a period of great uncertainty.

The story, of course, goes into much more detail about their courtship, thoughts, situations, preparations for marriage back home, etc., but according to the book, this is a common scenario of the time. The story was well told (although it did drag a "tad" in the middle), and the author did a great job of revealing the characters' personalities, without telling us everything, to keep a sense of suspense about the story's ending. This book, probably like many other real events during this time, lets the reader see the mental state of people during a war and how that affects romantic relationships, for better or worse; so many were concerned their loved would never return from the battlefields. Also revealed were the sense of hope, commitment, dedication, racism, and general concern about the future. By today's standards, it would likely seem rash behavior to meet and marry someone within a few weeks, but it wasn't uncommon during WWII. It reveals a lot about all people during a war. I thought the conclusion of the book was accomplished in a very soft, but effective manner.

I was provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher - Deborah Packer- to give an honest review of this book. #DeborahPacker , #I'llRememberYou , #goodreads

[Kathleen Babb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very nice love story and so in tune to today's trying times. Great insight into the thinking of men and women as their country or loved ones are thrown into the uncertainty of a looming war. Well written and heartwarming story

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Everyone wanted a piece of him, and time was so short.”

Based on a true story, this novel is an eye opening reminder of a different time yet some things stay the same.

[Susan Waters cressi · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful story.

[RiedlerReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

First – Who should read this? If you are interested in…
1. Simple love stories
2. Perspectives of life in America during WWII
3. YA books (even though this isn’t marketed as one)

Facts –
Bobbie, a sheltered twentysomething, leaves her small Michigan town with her friend Eunice for a Miami vacation during WWII. Eunice is on the prowl for a soldier of her own in this beach haven replete with uniformed men, whereas Bobbie, the responsible one, just wants to relax. As hijinks and hassles abound, both girls find romance. Bobbie’s sweet and innocent courtship with Murray, an Air Corps soldier, ends with a surprise engagement and their marriage a mere three weeks after their first meeting!
For Bobbie, the fun of her few days in Miami with Murray becomes eclipsed with worries, stress, and second thoughts. She’s about to marry a man she barely knows…What is she thinking?? Yet, her sisters and mother eagerly plan for the wedding in less than a week and are thrilled. The constant congratulations from family and friends leads Bobbie to keep any uncertainties to herself. Meanwhile, Murray happily fantasizes about his future bride, preferring to focus on Bobbie rather than his impending deployment. An upstanding gentleman and hopeless romantic, Murray has no doubts and always likes to focus on the positives. Told through both of their perspectives (in the third person), readers get to know Bobbie and Murray well – slightly ironic, as the two remain letter-writing acquaintances until their wedding!

****WARNING - I became a bit carried away with my "feels" here, so feel free to stick to the first few sentences...I liked what I wrote so I'm keeping it!****

Feels –
I had trouble coming up with at least three suggestions in my “firsts,” which I realized proved indicative of my “feels” about this book. I enjoyed the story, but it plodded along. The wedding occurs halfway through – up until then most of the book centers on the couple’s whirlwind relationship and Bobbie’s anxiety about saying “yes.” In fact, most of the book deals with Bobbie’s lack of confidence and people-pleasing attitude. Packer even acknowledges this, as Bobbie laments to herself about “that crazy mind of [mine]! Too concerned about what other people think” (p.166). It gets a bit annoying.
Murray, on the other hand, comes off as a delight! His traumatic childhood as a WWI refugee clearly impacts him, particularly in his commitment to stand up for others. Also, Packer uses Murray well as a vehicle to incorporate historical facts organically. I wish readers had more time with Murray instead of with Bobbie’s constant ruminations!
I do feel like the author missed an opportunity to expound upon an aspect of America during WWII that hardly gets written about. I appreciated seeing the hypocrisy in how anti-Semitism and racism flourished in America during a war against prejudice and persecution. This adjustment certainly would have added a deeper layer, which may have been why Packer just touches upon those topics and focuses instead on the drama of the love story.

Final Thoughts –
Nice story, but more like a rambling YA book than an adult novel. Editors could have been more discriminating when deciding what to keep, what to cut, and what to expound upon.

For Friends/Followers/Fanatics – You know who you are…
Anti-Semitism and racism appear early on, so I geared up for those topics to be part of the plot. Yet, it seemed really odd where those references randomly popped up. For example, Packer mentions that “Jews were a relative minority in America, a little more than three percent of the population, and they had no real voice,” but quickly transitions subjects in the next paragraph (p. 71). Concrete examples show up when soldiers bully Murray because of his Jewish last name and Florida hotel signs prohibiting dogs, Blacks, and Jews. Segregation and disrespect within the U.S. Armed Forces are highlighted a few times. Minute mentions that Bobbie and Murray are both Jewish are sprinkled throughout the first half of the book and, honestly, I wouldn’t have registered those details if the initial chapters hadn’t included a few mentions of anti-Semitism. The most compelling parts about Judaism focus on the plight of European Jews, rightly so! Happily, a true celebration of Judaism comes when both families are introduced. From matzo ball soup to Yiddish exclamations, snacks of challah to wedding customs, most of Bobbie’s time post-Miami and pre-wedding shines with love from her Jewish family and friends.

[Shilo Goodson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has an interesting story. Unfortunately for me, the pace feels really slow. Considering how fast their courtship was, I was surprised how long it took for them to actually get married. The story is told in third-person, but it follows both Murray's and Bobbie's stories. We could have perhaps understood the characters a little better if it had been told in first-person from each of their points of view. I never really felt like I got to know either of the main characters.

This was presented as a story about anti-Semitism, and while we get a bit of that, I don't really feel like Murray and Bobbie face that as a couple. It's more like she faces it, and he faces it, but I want to better understand how they faced it together.

This book comes with an epilogue. This happens 50 years after the initial story. Yet, it felt a little anticlimactic. We don't really know what happened in those 50 years.

This book does have some swearing. The violence involves several fistfights where we know a fistfight is about to happen, and then we skip ahead to the fistfight results. When it comes to sexual content, we know what's happening and what has happened, but we don't have any graphic sexual scenes.

I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway, and I am providing a voluntary review.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway! I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while. This is a solid 3 star book. It’s based on a true story and has a lot of historical facts in it. The pacing was just kind of slow for me. I loved the storyline and the characters were interesting. At first I thought this felt like a book I would have been assigned to read in high school. However, the books I was assigned to read in high school were more challenging reads than this book. It felt more like a book written by someone in high school, no offense to the author. There just weren’t many layers to it. The whole time I was reading it I got a feeling it was from a newspaper sold by a kid that was saying “extra,extra read all about it.” I did like the story but the writing style and slow pace were kind of downers for me. I do appreciate the fact that when I finally got an extended period of time to sit down and read that it was a fairly fast read, thanks in part to the simple writing style. I also appreciated the familiarity of a Michigan setting for some parts of the book. Not a bad book, if you’re looking for a quick read give it a shot!

[Tanya Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story of how people got married on impulse because of the war and because of "family pressures" to not get too old. Excellent details on how the couple has to learn to share themselves with each other, made harder by the distance that the war puts on them. Excellent storyline of two people who confront life differently even though they both have faced prejudice in the past for being Jewish.

As always, I wish that the story could have been longer, that more about after the war was shared, not just in the epilogue, but that is what my mind and heart want when I have connected with characters, when I am rooting for them to have a great life. For me, a lot of stories should never end, and this is one of them.

[Ryanne Wolfe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is based on a true story which made it a bit better but there was A LOT of details and unladen facts that weren’t necessarily needed and caused the story to drag a bit. That being said I did enjoy reading it and wanted to find out what happened. But I was disappointed in the abruptness of the ending and lack of info in the epilogue. For a book that was overly detailed on every tiny thing I was surprised that so much info and details was left out of the ending (which is the best part). It was an ok story but I am left hanging with a lot of questions and kind of feel let down after spending so much time waiting to see how it will turn out to kind of get nothing at the end.

[Tashina Kirk · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this in a giveaway but never received it. Goodreads told me to contact Amazon. Amazon said they can’t give much information bc it’s not my account that ordered the book. They did tell me my address was not put in for the book on the order and to contact the giveaway group to fix it as they can’t give other details to me as I’m not the account holder for the order. Goodreads won’t help me in fixing the issue, just keeps telling me to contact Amazon and refuses to read my message explaining why that’s not an option. Would love to read the book but can’t sadly. Hoping a review can fix this and I can finally receive the book to read.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story. Bobbie goes on vacation to Miami FL for a few weeks and comes home with a husband. They face a lot of hardships just because they are Jewish. The story takes place during WWII when we and the rest of the world were fighting for freedom. The biggest reason for the war was the persecution of Jews by the Germans and here we are treating them horribly in our own country. The only difference is we were not killing them. It is amazing that as smart an civilized as the human race is, we cannot seem to get along and treat each other with respect. The book shows that we are all human and we each should have a little more understanding towards each other.

[Donna Rutledge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book about Murray and Bobbie. Bobbie is visiting Miami Beach before WWII really gets started and meets Murray. He's larger than life and has his future to look forward to. Bobbie is on a vacation from her job working with her dad, and meets Murray and he asks her to marry him. Not really knowing him she agrees to wed him.

They have a few days during his leave to marry and get to know each other. They aren't quite in love but they decide to work on their lives together. He won't talk about the future which makes Bobbie feel like he doesn't think he'll survive the war.

The book ends too quickly for me. Their story is just getting started when the book ends.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this as a giveaway-- I would probably give it more of 3.5 stars. I just didn't care for any of the characters. The book never goes further into what Murray went through as a child (which I would have loved to know), or what happened to Bobbie's family in Poland. it also feels like there's too much "bad" being talked about but only for a few pages and then never again. The ending seemed rushed. A blurb about the true story would have also been nice!

[Dara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was part of the Kindle giveaway. I liked how it described the racism and antisemitism that was prevalent in those times. However, I couldn’t understand the characters and their behaviors towards each other when married. I understand how they only got married after 2 weeks but there were huge communication issues and I couldn’t understand what in their backgrounds caused this. It also ended abruptly and I would have like to see the characters develop as Murray entered the war.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Began reading this book back and found it to be a bit slow in pace. Picked it back up months later and was able to zip right through it. Old fashioned story of love & marriage in 1943, during WWII. It's based on a true events, including status as immigrant families, racism, anti-semitism in America. Social norms of then and now (2023) are so very different in regard to how we see our roles as women & men. While the story was sweet, I couldnt help but feel like the main characters constant avoidance to truly communicate was disturbing and a bit annoying. But, overall a good read.

[Phyllis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this in a giveaway. It is based on a true story so I was hoping it would be interesting. I found it very slow reading with many unnecessary details that caused the story to drag a bit. Looking past those unneeded details, I was waiting for a fantastic ending, but the ending was very abrupt and the epilogue based 50 years later seemed to leave one wondering what happened to both Bobbie and Murray during those years. All in all, not what I was expecting

[Beverly Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll Remember You is a based-on true-life love story filled with racism, anti-Semitism, and many of the issues we still grapple with.

this book grabbed my heart. one portion I'll mention is when Bobbie and Eunice struggle on the streets of boiling Miami (trudging on foot in heels and dresses) looking for an Occupancy in order to find rest after a nasty/packed train ride. it sets the tone for the book. you sweat, you smell, you feel.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book thru a GoodReads giveaway return for my review. I'll Remember You by Deborah Packer is an interesting true story of two people who meet and fall in love and set in 1940's. The characters are interesting and made want to know more about them as their story unfolds. I hated to see their story end and wanted more as it was set during an important time in our history.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A WW11 romance story of a middle 20's women and a NYC airman. They have a very brief courtship. Many of the ideas and the ideals of that era are portrayed. I found the story very slow moving. The female is insecure and takes up much of the story wondering if he really loves her. The characters are very typical Jewish people as I remember them during those times.

[Kayla Lister · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn’t get past the wishy washy main character or the numerous times the characters couldn’t communicate with each other. I just wanted to yell at the the entire time. Then to find out they supposedly ended up together at the end? I wish I could say the plus is it was a quick read but it really wasn’t even.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a Goodreads giveaway book. What drew me to the book was two things: 1. It takes place during WWII and 2. It was a true story. I really got emotionally involved with their story. I loved the different perspectives of the main characters and what their experiences were like during this period of time.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway. I enjoyed the storyline, but the writing style, I was not a fan of. I feel like it kind of detracted from the story. I feel like the end was rushed. I felt like I missed out on their life and 50 years later it seemed like they still didn’t know each other. It was fine, but not a book I would tell people they need to read.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank You for the opportunity to read this book.
Based on a WWII story, this books takes you on their journey from the time they meet and then the decision to marry after knowing each other only 3 weeks before he is shipped out. This book also addresses the hatred and discrimination towards the Jewish and Africa Americas during that time.

[Pamela Frady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read !

I won this book from Goodreads and I am glad I did ! This is a wonderful story about love and war and life ! Set in the 1940's it tells the story of Bobbie and Murray. It made me laugh and almost cry. It kept my interest from beginning to end.

[Arlen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old fashioned love story

The empathy with which the author and characters approached the racism of the '30s & '40s was honestly captured as integral to why and how two people fell in love stateside during WWII.
Good storytelling in light prose.