Lynn Ames is the queen of storytelling.

She takes a setting and brings it alive for the reader. She recreates the mood, the feel – the texture of life in a bygone era for us to relive.

Dix and Frannie are young women in Phoenix, Arizona.

We join them in the 1940s when their biggest concern is getting to be softball players for the Phoenix Ramblers alongside their heroes like Dot Wilkinson. When America is thrust into the war by the attack on Pearl Harbor their lives begin to change and we watch the impact of war on families, softball and the women themselves.

As always, Lynn Ames has done her homework. There is a wide range of historical background as well as the detail of the softball teams, leagues and games. Every detail fits and there is core veracity that gives the sense of docu-drama rather than fiction.

Throughout it, all the growing love story of our heroines carries us along.

As Diz unfolds their history from her reminiscences, we re-live their day-to-day dramas tenderly retold and tearfully evoked more than 60 years later. Both the main characters and the wide-ranging cast of family and teammates are beautifully evoked and penned with loving detail.

This would, without a doubt, make an excellent movie to bring into focus the real story of women’s softball history and the difficulties of being ‘queer’ in the 1940’s, while showcasing the love story of two amazing women.

A lovely read and undoubtedly another great success to add to the Lynn Ames collection.