It has been ages since I read a dual timeline historical fiction with the war at its core. I read a lot of them a couple of years ago, felt I had my fill and refrained from picking up more. I felt like I would not react favourably to any regular book in the headspace I was in and only appreciate something truly above the standard fare. With this book, I realised I might once again have reached a point where I would just like a secret-in-the-past-being-investigated-in-the-current-time plotline again. It might also just be this book; it remains to be seen.
The story begins in the standard format, but the writing was good enough to keep me hooked. We have a flashback provided to just drop a morsel of the narration to have us keep an eye out for that scene/scenario to play out later. In the present, we have a woman struggling to feel closer to her father. There are several reasons they do not get along; some of them, as it turns out, are things our lead protagonist is unaware of herself!
Caroline wants proof for something an old college friend shows her. Since it involves her own namesake, she has more than a casual interest in getting to the bottom of the cryptic information about the death of her great-aunt. She begins to dig and uncovers a lot more than ancient history.
The best part of the book was the writing. I felt for all the characters (along with their flaws and hangups) and wanted there to be a sufficiently engrossing resolution. It was not hard to guess the ultimate outcome, and this is where the narrative style saves the show.
I would pick up another book by the author and would recommend this to anyone looking for a story of sisters who may never really get closure ( which is not much of a spoiler), but their future generations might finally feel better about themselves.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience of the book.
Superfluous Reading 