Title: The Stolen Marriage
Author: Diane Chamberlain
Published: November 28th 2017
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Genres: Fiction, Historical, World War II
RRP: $29.99
Rating: 4.5 stars
My review:The Stolen Marriage is a compelling novel from Diane Chamberlain, the bestselling author of The Silent Sister, Pretending to Dance and The Midwife’s Confession.
In 1944, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina. Hickory is a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows no interest in making love. Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.
The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain, especially after one of the town’s prominent citizens dies in a terrible accident and Tess is blamed for the death. Tess suspects people are talking about her, plotting behind her back, and following her as she walks around town. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not? Feeling alone and adrift in a hostile town, Tess turns to the one person who seems to understand her – a local medium who gives her hope but seems to know more than he’s letting on.
When a sudden polio epidemic strikes the town, taking the lives of some of its children, including a boy well known to the Kraft family, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital in less than three days. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to work at the hospital, finding meaning in nursing the young victims. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more baffling and alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle her husband’s mysterious behavior and save her own life?
From the pages of history in North Carolina, during the war years and the turbulent times after, comes a new tale from bestselling author Diane Chamberlain. The Stolen Marriage is an emotionally arresting novel of lies, betrayal, loss, discrimination, love and life.
Twenty three year old nursing student Tess DeMello is the starring figure in Diane Chamberlain’s latest release, The Stolen Marriage. Tess is a young woman who has a perfect life all planned out. Once she completes her training to become a registered nurse, she plans to marry Vincent, a young man she has been promised to since childhood. Her plans are derailed when Vincent, a physician, finds a work posting that will take him away from Tess for a number of weeks. A spur of the moment trip with her good friend Gina to Washington DC, sees the two girls left unchaperoned. They are wined and dined by two gentlemen and at the close of the evening, Tess lets her inhibitions go with disastrous results. Her dalliance with Henry Craft is enough for Tess to have to make the heartbreaking decision to break off her engagement with Vincent. She then makes the tough move from her home in Baltimore, to Hickory, in North Carolina. In Hickory, a town with strained race relations and suffering from the impact of the war, Tess finds hostility. Her new husband Henry, although kind to her, seems to be withholding much from her and she cannot get close to him. Feeling increasingly ensnared in an unfulfilling marriage, Tess realises she has made a huge mistake. When polio makes its strong presence felt in Hickory, it offers Tess a scapegoat. She can finally feel meaning in her life again, as her nursing skills at put to the test. As Tess becomes more involved in helping the victims of polio in Hickory, Henry withdraws even further from his wife. Tess is determined to get to the bottom of Henry’s secrets, in order to save her life from further ruin.
I am a new fan to the work of Diane Chamberlain, the popular author of twenty five novels. The opportunity to read a historical fiction title, which is one of my favourite genres, was a welcome one and my experience reading The Stolen Marriage was very good. So good, that I plan to make some room in my schedule to read some books from Chamberlain’s twenty five novel strong back catalogue.
My interest in this novel was soon piqued by the historical backdrop to this book. Although I have read many books based on the World II era, rarely have they been set in the US. The Stolen Marriage was very interesting, it is a book that shines a light on the American experience of the war years and the era immediately after. Chamberlain’s novel zones in on what life was like specifically in two locations, Baltimore and North Carolina. In Baltimore, we learn about Tess’ heritage as a young Italian girl. When the action moves to the small town of Hickory, in North Carolina, we get a solid impression of the issues and tensions that were rife in this location at this point in time. The historical backdrop allows Chamberlain to explore race relations, prejudice, class differences, marriage laws and the focal subject of the novel, the rise in polio. The inclusion of all these very interesting issues, highlights the extent of research Chamberlain has undertaken.
Tess DeMello, the leading lady of Chamberlain’s novel, was an agreeable protagonist. I was immediately drawn to Tess and I admired her, especially the heartbreaking choices and situations she was faced with. She is also a determined young woman, who defied her husband to fulfil her dreams to practice nursing. When Tess finally gets the chance to put her skills into practice, she seems to take flight and this was a pleasure to read. Tess is also very human and the mistakes she makes and learns from makes her all the more authentic. The leading men in this novel, Vincent and Henry, have much to add to the novel interest wise and I enjoyed the storylines they were involved in. Henry’s story in particular was a great source of intrigue. My guess as to what Henry was hiding was way off the mark, but it certainly added a late extra twist to this full bodied narrative.
There are some supporting characters featured in The Stolen Marriage that I liked very much, such as Tess’ maid Hattie, friend and confidant Gina, as well as Reverend Sam. The Reverend’s involvement with Tess allows Chamberlain to sneak in an extra paranormal based side story thread, which was interesting to follow. There were characters I disliked very much as well. These included Henry’s mother Ruth, sister Lucy, Henry’s admirer Violet and the judgemental townsfolk of Hickory. Despite my dislike for these characters, they played a key part in the interesting proceedings of The Stolen Marriage.
The Stolen Marriage concludes on a much anticipated happier note, after all the secrets, tragedy, death, grief, difficult choices and missed opportunities. Love and retribution after a hard life lived conquers, as the lead of the novel, Tess, finally makes it to the other side with a brighter future ahead of her. I did appreciate that the author of The Stolen Marriage, revisited the characters years after the main events of the novel, to reveal a little about their changed lives. I was just as pleased to see the inclusion of an author’s notes section, which provides some extra information on the historical grounding for this novel. From the last pages of this book, we learn how this story was inspired by true events, in a real town and the research Chamberlain undertook to bringing this story to life was all encompassing.
I have no qualms in highly recommending The Stolen Marriage, it really was a very good read and marks a great introduction to the work of Diane Chamberlain.
The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain was published on November 28th 2017 by Pan Macmillan. Details on how to purchase the book can be found here.
To learn more about the author of The Stolen Marriage, Diane Chamberlain, visit here.
*I wish to thank Pan Macmillan for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.
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