Welcome back to another Guernsey Book novel by Anne Allen. I read this one accidentally when I was meant to read A Family Divided. And I’m glad I did. I really enjoyed this book right from the get go and was really intrigued by the combination of historically accurate information that was woven into the story in way that made it feel seamless.
We start off with our main character Jeanne returning to Guernsey for the first time in 15 years and she’s experiencing a panic attack due to the reminder of the death of her parents, which she witnessed. I can’t say I’ve experienced this myself but I can empathise with her because it can be quite difficult to return to somewhere that was tarnished with difficult memories. Unfortunately some guy decides to be a bit of a dick and accuses her of being drunk when she stumbles due to her panic attack. Luckily, she has some family friends on the island that she is staying with who support her upon her return. Even though she doesn’t seem to want to lean on them too much it’s good that she’s got them there for her when she needs them. Some people have a support system and choose not to use them, while others desperately need them but don’t have them. Out of both of these options, I’d definitely rather have the system and not need it so that when I need it I know it’s there for me.
She manages to get herself settled in her grandmothers cottage (she passed on and that’s why she’s returned) while she prepares the place to sell, since she has no intention of staying in a place with so many bad memories. While staying here she discovers a number of recipes going back to her French restaurateur ancestors which inspires her to write a cooking/ romance novel based on her families history on Guernsey Island during the war.
While researching for her novel and managing the renovation of the cottage she learns some dark secrets about her families past, including a love affair with a German soldier, while also working on hypnosis to regain memories of the night she witnessed her parents murder. I personally found this fascinating to read about because I have a little bit of a love affair with history and love learning about something I didn’t know about previously. During this time she dates her crush from high school until she starts to feel a little uncomfortable and stalked. At which point she ends things and accidentally ends up dating the guy who accused her of being drunk when she first arrived. And I can’t blame her for this given the relationship she got out of not long before coming back to Guernsey. Given that experience I’m all for date around casually, and when you feel ready commit. Don’t commit just because for once a guy is ready to commit! What if he’s crazy and you end up in an even worse position than you were in before? So it made me happy when she recognised what SHE wanted and followed her gut feeling, her head and her heart. Which luckily all agreed on the one thing, to dump the high school crush and move on to the nice guy you’ve been having lunch with.
One thing leads to another, and he ends up looking after her and protecting her from the people who killed her parents. The people who killed her parents even tried to kill her but luckily her love interest saves her and brings her to safety. I really feel for her when this happens, because not only is she terrified of being in a boat after her parents death. But the same people who killed her parents also try to kill her on a boat. And by a stroke of luck she’s able to call her new boyfriend to come and save her. After he saves her it doesn’t take much to sort out the mystery of her parents killers and bring them to justice.
And then as with any romance novel she wins the guy, her career kicks off and her family life takes a massive turn for the better. Although the following books don’t follow the same character’s; some of the characters we met in this book will also feature in the rest of the series. I’ve mentioned this in the “Family Divided” book, but I really enjoyed reading both these books and definitely plan to come back to this series to finish reading it. If you enjoy romance novels with a bit of history woven in you will probably like it one.
Thankyou for reading this weeks post, and I will see you next with for “The Wedding Season” by Samantha Chase. As always, please visit the actual post (I’d love to know how many people are reading these posts!), like, comment and share.
