Book: The Stolen Marriage
Author: Diane Chamberlain
Pages: 416
This is my 124th book for the year
What Amazon Says:
It is 1944. Pregnant, alone, and riddled with guilt, 23 year old Tess DeMello abruptly gives up her budding career as a nurse and ends her engagement to the love of her life, unable to live a lie. Instead, she turns to the baby's father for help and agrees to marry him, moving to the small, rural town of Hickory, North Carolina. Tess's new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows her no affection. Tess quickly realizes she's trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out. The people of Hickory love and respect Henry but see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain. When one of the town's golden girls dies in a terrible accident, everyone holds Tess responsible. But Henry keeps his secrets even closer now, though it seems that everyone knows something about him that Tess does not. When a sudden polio epidemic strikes Hickory, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess knows she is needed and defies Henry's wishes to begin working at there. Through this work, she begins to find purpose and meaning. Yet at home, Henry's actions grow more alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle the truth behind her husban'ds mysterious behavior and find the love - and the life - she was meant to have?
This was a pretty good book. I do like Chamberlain's books. She is a great writer. This one fell a little short for me based on her other novels. Still an interesting story. I really didn't love the main character. She was fine, but not great. I knew what the outcome was going to be - it was a pretty neatly wrapped up story to come out positive for Tess. Happy ending which I do like, but it wasn't surprising. Tess worked as a nurse for a bit and I found all of her skills a bit unbelivable as a new nurse. However - overall, good story, good writing, just wished for stronger characters.
Stars: 4
No comments:
Post a Comment