Love over several decades…

Synopsis

1939 – American heiress Vivi Miles falls for naval officer Nathan as soon as she arrives in England. And, under the threat of war, they marry in a whirlwind before he leaves to join his ship.

When Nathan returns from Dunkirk injured, he is distant, aloof, and no longer the man Vivi fell in love with. But it’s not just because of his brutal experiences of war. Nathan has a secret and Vivi suspects it’s linked to the mysterious evacuee at the secluded house in the woods on his Kent estate.

As war continues to rage, Vivi battles her own grief and loneliness, and tries to find out the truth of the girl’s identity, uncovering a scandal from the past.

Is her love for Nathan strong enough to survive?

My review

Vivi Miles moves in 1939 from America to England. Little did she know that she would fall in love so quickly with naval officer Nathan. With the threat of war, they decide to get married before Nathan leaves to join his ship.
Vivi is waiting anxiously for his return, but Nathan is not the same after being in Dunkirk and got injured. Vivi does her best to find the man back she fell in love with, but it’s not easy, especially as she suspects that Nathan is keeping secrets from her.
With the war still going on, and even when the war is definitely over, Vivi is surrounded by grief, loneliness, and even heart – break as she discovers scandals and secrets not only from a faraway past, but also a more recent one, affecting her more than she would think… 

A story taking place during war always intrigues. I want to know how the characters experience those hard times and how they try to keep on moving on, despite all the terrible things happening around them.
And then there is this story, which contains all the above, but also shows us what happens several years later. 

When Vivi arrived in England, I was curious to see how this American girl would adapt in a whole different world and with a looming war around the corner.
So when she meets Nathan, I was somehow happy to see how she could envision her future in England with a man she has fallen in love with.
Yet I have to admit that it happened all rather quickly for me. They met, they write letters and then they marry. But that is maybe also an effect of the war, wanting to catch the moment, and enjoy those happy moments whenever you can. 

However, it appears that Vivi wasn’t meant to have many happy moments… she quickly had to face several tragedies on her own, not having someone close to confide in…
Yet these tragedies also shows the readers what a surprisingly strong character Vivi is.
Obviously, each tragedy Vivi needed her time to process it all, yet each time she manged to get up again and move on from it. 

It saddened me to read how Nathan changed with thank to the war, and how cold he was around Vivi. Of course he has seen terrible things and he is literally scarred by the war, yet I found it not always easy to like him. And living his life or just living next to him cannot have been easy, as it wasn’t in real life. 

The secret he had wasn’t really a great shock, but perhaps I would have liked to see more of the run – up and more depth? Also, with that prologue I expected more from Elise’s character, while now she was more on the background, while her presence in the book for sure had important consequences. And while the focus was on Vivi, I also felt that Elise deserved her own spotlight, even if Fate didn’t treat her that well. 

However, despite everything our main characters went through, it is clear that people would do anything for love, and are ready to face the consequences of their choices. I admired Vivi’s strength and kind heart, doing the impossible after a betrayal. But I also understood Nathan’s limbo and scars and also saw and comprehended Elise’s feelings, courage and strength. 

This was a story filled with sadness, hardships, pain and betrayal, but love, compassion and care stood above all those negative feelings. And even during the thirty years’ time span, it shows that wonderful things can come from things that hurt us the most.