A KISS FROM FRANCE
BY SUSAN HUGHES
Genre:
Historical Fiction/Romance
Release Date: 19 July 2015 p/back; 29 July 2015 e-book
Publisher: Silverwood
Books
London, 1917. Lizzie Fenwick is young, ambitious, and in love. At least, she
thinks she's in love with the soldier who answered the note she concealed in a
box of ammunition shells. She spends her days filling shells with TNT, and her
nights dreaming of the mysterious Harry Slater. Eunice Wilson knows the exact moment her marriage to Jack began to fracture. He refused to enlist, and their patriotic neighbours never let her live it down. Now he's been conscripted and she can't help but feel regret for shunning Jack before his departure.
As separate tragedies cause Lizzie to make hard choices and Eunice to cope with loss, the two women are unsure how to adjust when peace finally returns. Little do they know that an earlier war-time betrayal will force Lizzie and Eunice to confront everything they knew about friendship, loyalty, and love.
A Kiss From France is a historical fiction romance novel set in London's East End during World War I. If you like compelling human stories, believable female protagonists, and the suspense and intrigue of war-time London, then you'll love this heartfelt tale of two women who yearn to feel alive in a broken world.
About Susan Hughes
Susan Hughes grew up near a small
mining village in Northumberland, England. When she didn’t have her nose in a
book and, careless of the class and gender expectations of her upbringing, she
was climbing trees, catching water boatmen in a jar from a nearby burn or
go-karting round country lanes with the kids next door before taking herself
off to University.
A career in the City of London
during the frenetic ‘Big Bang’ boom of financial de-regulation was followed my
marriage, children and a desire for a change of gear. A move to the rural West
Country enabled her to raise her sons near the coast and indulge her penchant
for visiting stately piles while finding time to keep up her reading habit.
After she found a handful of WW1
silk postcards among her grandmother’s possessions, the romantic greeting on
one of them inspired her to weave a story around its imagined sender and
recipient. It became her first novel, A Kiss from France. She is now working on
her second book send in inter-war London.
Giveaway
A paperback copy of the book (open internationally)
My Review
From the start, this book conjures up an authentic picture of what life must have been like around the time of WW1. The relationships are well developed with the odd twist and turn for good measure. I especially liked the way that the author manages to convey the everyday life of women and how they stepped up to the mark, only to find themselves redundant when the menfolk returned.
There have been many books on this subject but the aftereffects of war are sensitively dealt with in a very real way. The undiagnosed shellshock that many soldiers suffered from had a long-lasting effect, not only on the men but on their families too. If you love a family saga or just enjoy reading about that period in history then I can recommend this book.
4/5
