I read this book from Lady Tessa’s great review. It sounded like a book I would love reading, and I wasn’t wrong.
This great story follows Emma. A woman with German parents, who moved from their home country many years before. She is born and raised in America, and when meeting her English husband, leaves behind her family. They do not agree with her marriage to someone outside their church, and she makes her choice.
With her first experience of China, she travels with her husband, where he is working as an import clerk. Intertwined with her experience as a young wife, and then mother, she finds firm friends, and learns the truth of her marriage.
When she flees to find family, she ends up in Brush, where she faces immense discrimination. Her maiden name trusted with the woman she lives with, new residents at the guest house find out. Links with the Ku-Klux-Klan are revealed, and she has to move on once more.
We also see her life in 1939, where Germany are at war with Great Britain. She is a carer for an elderly patient, who had links with Noel Coward. She speaks of him fondly. When Emma reveals her maiden name, she feels she can trust her employer with the truth. Although she uses her married name Taylor, she is constantly worried about her heritage being found out.
I have read other books where anyone born in Germany, during the period of the first and second world war. These fictional characters were sent to camps in the UK just for being born in a different country. This was a real fear. Their treatment was better than Jewish family’s faced, but they were still treated like criminals, even though they lived there for more than twenty years.
I loved that she was a strong character throughout, and even at the break-up of her marriage, chose to leave him, when wives at that time were meant to put up with infidelity. Her journey from China and back to the UK, is definitely a must read, especially if, like me, you love any stories from that time period.
This book is will easily be given a five star review.
Discover this book and many more at http://www.nextchapter.pub/authors/Isobel-blackthorn
Now I’m on the lookout for another Indie Author to review – If you have written a book, or you have read a book you’ve liked let me know in your comments.
Writer Ravenclaw 