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The Invitation by Veronica Henry

May15

Keeping Secrets

The Invitation by Veronica Henry is a powerful dual timeline novel that consumed me from the start.

The main body of the book is set in 1953 in Somerset. We also hear of World War II in snippets as we follow a family in peacetime and in war.

Peacetime took some adjusting to. “War didn’t just end with life going back to normal… There were scars.” People lost loved ones in war and the pain was just too much to bear. “You never really got over losing someone you loved… Had they lived their dreams before they died?” The loss digs down deep. “Something inside her had broken, the day he died.” Life will never be the same again. “Sometimes she thought her grief had grabbed her… pulling her down into a pit of despair.” Waves of grief come rolling in. “Grief was not measurable. One person didn’t suffer more than another after a tragic loss.” The loss of one man rocks his whole family… As I write this, I have just lost my Dad, and this quote sums up our family’s life now.

War saw people pulling together. “Everyone pulled together in times of adversity but there were still rules. Shop girls didn’t belong to posh boys.” The class system still existed and was slow to be eroded. Love blossomed where it fell. Love was no respecter of class. Life was to be grabbed, and the consequences to be faced later.

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Raccoon Key by Donnah M Cole

Apr11

Engaging & Entertaining

Raccoon Key by Donnah M Cole is a powerful dual timeline novel that entertained me from the start.

The action is set in 1873 and 2023 in Raccoon Key. It is an isolated maritime community where life is hard as one battles the natural elements. The two time periods are linked by generational ancestors. People often did the same job as their father and his father before him.

An unexplained death in 1873 is still having ramifications one hundred and fifty years later. The coroner’s report at the time is at odds with present day thinking. An old diary recording the events leading up to the day is found – will this be the key to unlock the mystery?

Legends have sprung up, particularly around crows, and the significance of seeing one.

The American Civil War was over by 1873 but those in the South still faced prejudice and persecution as the Klu Klux Klan had sprung up. “Slavery had ended in ink and speeches… But fear still rode the back roads at night.”

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Secrets Of The Desert Rose by Marilyn Turk

Mar31

The Bonds We Form

Secrets Of The Desert Rose by Marilyn Turk is a powerful Christian dual timeline novel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The novel is set in 2019 America and Algeria, and during World War II in Algeria. The time periods are linked by a great grandmother and her great granddaughter as the latter wants to step into her great grandmother’s wartime footsteps.

We see that friendships formed in the early 1930’s between English Audrey and French Monique have strong bonds. They both share a secret which they keep for many years.

The two women are more like sisters than friends. Audrey spent years searching for love from her cold-hearted parents. It is in Monique’s family that she finds love.

Audrey is the more adventurous of the two. Monique prefers to watch from the sidelines. Monique’s family are wealthy. During the 1930’s there were many parties with a common goal “to find a husband.” This changes with the advent of war. Both women fight two very different wars but both are very brave.

In both time periods we hear of the archaeological digs and the landscape of Algeria. It is vibrant and comes to life under the author’s descriptive pen.

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The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Mar29

Love Is The Beginning & The End

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is such a powerful book about women during World War II. Everything about it is fabulous, which makes it a hard book to review – what to include? What to leave out?

This is a book about women at war and the love that binds them together.

In war, it is men’s stories that we hear. The Nightingale addresses this balance. “It’s a fact that women are useless in war. Your job is to wait for our return” says a male character! It is women who are the glue that hold everything together. “Maman had been the glue that held them together.”

We follow two sisters. The younger one works for the resistance. The older one has her own battles at home where she lives with her young daughter, who has to grow up very quickly during war. The setting is France and both are very much on the frontline.

The younger sister has spent her whole life searching for love. “She was tired of begging people to love her.” The truth is that she has always been loved. It proves to be a love that makes the ultimate sacrifice, which will end up breaking her.

We witness the bravery needed to help allied airmen to safety, evading capture – but the more successful trips, the bigger the target on a sister’s back.

Life inside concentration camps was brutal. Luck and a strong willpower to survive were needed. Bodies were broken but minds remained free. “In the camp, she fought back the only way she knew – by caring for her fellow prisoners, and helping them stay strong.” The women had to be their own support system to hopefully, survive. There are some very hard to read scenes of Nazi brutality.

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