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alisoun's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Soooooo this is a weird one for me to read.
This is a story started in 1941 and it's about two very normal people who fall in love. They both have a lot of trauma, and they both just want to be happy.
Elly is five months pregnant when Will answers an ad she placed asking for a husband. She's a widow, and her previous husband is so lovingly described by her. He was a dreamer and he started things and never finished them. He left behind two boys and another in Elly's belly and she needs help on her little farm.
It's a romance - sure. But it's very different from romances written now. There's multiple sex scenes of other characters. The MMC has a sexual dream of another woman and wakes touching his pregnant wife's body. There's other woman drama but not quite how I expected it. There's war - it's set in 1941 of course. There's trauma to pile on the trauma they already had. There's a birth scene which is both so close to true birth and also so far away from it. There's a librarian old enough to be will's grandma who becomes his good friend. There's two little boys who are such bothers and also such loves. I adored the scene where will and Elly dry them after they were stung by bees.
I gotta take about the birth scene. I know it was set in the 1940s so the science of it all is off a fair bit. For example, they are way hard up for cleaning and sterilising everything including Elly's vulva. Also the placenta is born before the baby breathes????? That is extr mely incorrect. But it also describes a perineum stretching and comfry being used to heal a perineum tear (which in my mind, on her third baby shouldn't happen if she was allowed to birth off her back but she makes herself birth on her back and even with her legs in stirrups! Goes to show that USA based removal of midwifery affected even unassisted home birth practises).
It's not a perfect book. It was very interesting but I didn't very much fall in love with these two. I also think their troubles (particularly Elly's family trauma and will's clear PTSD) didn't get enough time to smooth over.
Overall though it was a sweet book. I can imagine these two as very real people who continued to make quince pie and to let honey run while they had grand children and great grand children.
This is a story started in 1941 and it's about two very normal people who fall in love. They both have a lot of trauma, and they both just want to be happy.
Elly is five months pregnant when Will answers an ad she placed asking for a husband. She's a widow, and her previous husband is so lovingly described by her. He was a dreamer and he started things and never finished them. He left behind two boys and another in Elly's belly and she needs help on her little farm.
It's a romance - sure. But it's very different from romances written now. There's multiple sex scenes of other characters. The MMC has a sexual dream of another woman and wakes touching his pregnant wife's body. There's other woman drama but not quite how I expected it. There's war - it's set in 1941 of course. There's trauma to pile on the trauma they already had. There's a birth scene which is both so close to true birth and also so far away from it. There's a librarian old enough to be will's grandma who becomes his good friend. There's two little boys who are such bothers and also such loves. I adored the scene where will and Elly dry them after they were stung by bees.
I gotta take about the birth scene. I know it was set in the 1940s so the science of it all is off a fair bit. For example, they are way hard up for cleaning and sterilising everything including Elly's vulva. Also the placenta is born before the baby breathes????? That is extr mely incorrect. But it also describes a perineum stretching and comfry being used to heal a perineum tear (which in my mind, on her third baby shouldn't happen if she was allowed to birth off her back but she makes herself birth on her back and even with her legs in stirrups! Goes to show that USA based removal of midwifery affected even unassisted home birth practises).
It's not a perfect book. It was very interesting but I didn't very much fall in love with these two. I also think their troubles (particularly Elly's family trauma and will's clear PTSD) didn't get enough time to smooth over.
Overall though it was a sweet book. I can imagine these two as very real people who continued to make quince pie and to let honey run while they had grand children and great grand children.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and War
Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual content, Blood, and Stalking
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
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