This book is a number 1 bestseller. Here is my 4 star review below:
Abi is broken, having just escaped from an abusive and controlling husband. She takes a summer job at the Chateau Bellevue, hoping that a change of scene will begin to heal her emotional scars. Her employers tell her the story of Eliane and her family, who had lived at the chateau some 80 years before. Abi discovers more about herself as she learns of Eliane’s struggles during World War II.
It’s a great novel, but I didn’t really like how the two timelines run concurrently throughout the story. I think it would have been better if the author had told Eliane’s story first, and then told Abi’s, who of course comes along many years later. Timelines chop and change with each chapter, and you cannot get into Eliane’s life as on the next page you’re then thrust into Abi’s story.
Nevertheless, there are wonderful descriptive passages which took me back to a holiday I had in rural France 10 years’ ago. The romance aspect of the book could have been a bit better developed, but on the whole an enjoyable read for fans of historical WWII fiction.
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