Author: Melanie Hudson
Pages: 304
Publisher: One More Chapter
Publication date: August 23rd 2019
Genre: historical fiction, romance
Source: e-book
Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Get it here: Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Amazon UK, Waterstones
Summary: A story of love not a story of a war
A daring WWII pilot who grew up among the clouds, Juliet Caron’s life was one of courage, adventure – and a love torn apart by war. Every nook of her Cornish cottage is alive with memories just waiting to be discovered.
Katherine Henderson has escaped to Cornwall for Christmas, but she soon finds there is more to her holiday cottage than meets the eye. And on the eve of Juliet’s 100th birthday, Katherine is enlisted to make an old lady’s final Christmas wish come true…
Review:
I was so excited to read this, when I first read about it. It sounded like it was right up my alley; a historical fiction, romance novel, I mean, it’s basically got my name written on it. So naturally I had really high expectations of it. And it didn’t really live up to my expectations if I’m being honest.
The story is told in two parts. You have one that focuses on Juliet, who is an ATA pilot during WW2, and one that focuses on Katherine, who lives in our day and age and is struggling to move on from the loss her husband.
Juliet’s story is amazing and so fascinating. After losing her parents she moves in with her friends Lottie and becomes engaged to her brother, Charles, whom she eventually ends up marrying. However, before marrying Charles, she meets Edward, whom she falls madly in love with. Juliet and Edward will reconnect on and off during the war, as they both serve during the war. Meanwhile Juliet and Charles grow further and further apart, and both realize that the marriage is falling apart. As you read on you continually cheer for Juliet and Edward to get together, and I would get so frustrated every time they failed. However, when they did get together in the end, it was so sweet. While I did root for Juliet and Edward to get together, Edward also felt kind of flat. Especially as the novel progresses, I just feel like he lost the same characteristics that he had in the first part of the novel.
I loved Juliet’s part of the story, and I wished that the author had just kept it that, because while I felt for Katherine, I really didn’t care about her part of the story. I didn’t pick up this book to read about a woman in our day and age, who is struggling to move on after losing her husband. I wanted to read about Juliet being a badass during the war and her love to Edward. It really was the biggest drawback for me. I love historical novels, but I am so tired of this “trend” that is happening where part of the novel is set in the modern age and discovering the story by finding a painting or diary or letters or whatever. I don’t want it. Most of the time I just feel like the two stories are only half developed, and that the author should just focus on one of the stories and make it perfect.
freddiereads 