Author: Jennifer Robson
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Historical Romance
Challenges: War Through the Generations
Synopsis: Charlotte Brown has worked as a nurse during the first world war, now that the war is over she is back working for a councilwoman in Liverpool. In addition she is given the opportunity to write for a newspaper column. At the same time she worries about the man she loves, Edward Neville-Ashford the Earl of Cumberland who has come back from the war a broken man in more ways than one.
Thoughts: This book takes up where Somewhere in France left off telling the story of two of the secondary characters, Charlotte and Edward. However it also tells the story of how Charlotte came into Lilly's (and Edward's) life and also some of the events of Somewhere in France but from Charlotte's perspective.
Charlotte is a very different from Lilly. She has a much greater understanding of the world, both in the flashbacks and in "real time". However she has an idealism that Lilly, perhaps, did not share. I find that although I could understand Lilly, I can actually relate more to Charlotte. She feels more modern. One thing I often find problematic with historical romances (and any historical fiction) is that the characters are given what I call "modern sensibilities". They act and say things in a way that we would now, but that I find difficult seeing people at the time saying and doing (it was one of the reasons I could only watch one episode of "Reign" even though I knew it was a "romp" not intended as a serious historical series it just grated on my nerves). In this book, with Charlotte I think Robson has found a nice middle ground. There were people with more "modern" views on society than what you might associate with the time period but there were hurdles. Charlotte holds the views but she also encounters the hurdles and this is, to my mind, good.In my thoughts on Somewhere in France I wrote that the ending was a bit rushed and unfortunately this story suffered from the same problem. And here we don't have a follow up (at least not yet) to explain the rushed ending. Again there are problems and problems and problems and then, voila, everything is hunky dory. It just feels rushed for me.
Despite its flaws it is a book I would recommend.
I've included this book in the War Through the Generations challenge because although it isn't set during a war the aftermath of a war is very much in evidence and the war is central to the storyline.
Hate when a book feels like it has a rushed ending, like the author runs out of steam. Thanks for linking with the #weekendbookclub
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