Richard Madeley

It all begins from the vintage France when Germany was at its verge to attack former and at its vicinity blooms a love story between James and Diana. But things turned into nightmare on Diana's wedding day, when the news of his brother's death and fiancée's missing arrived. Then story takes a leap of 10 years with the subsequent drama. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, the story from the beginning sounds certain and monotonous-- the usual drama and twist we expect at every nook of the book. The engulfing of war into France has been beautifully drawn. The best part was the life Diana lives after a leap of 10 years. And the bad part is that even before you complete the novel, ending becomes certain. The spoiler is revealed at the starting of the novel, first time reader may like it, but pro-readers will get it quickly.
Overall I liked reading the novel. With 3/5 rating.… (meer)

I don’t read many ‘celebrity’ written novels but the storyline for this debut novel sounded like something I would enjoy and I’m pleased to say I wasn’t disappointed. It was well written with an interesting and captivating storyline. I loved the short sharp chapters in the first part of the book; for me it certainly makes for quicker reading as I think I’ll just read one more chapter.…and then it’s the early hours!

The first part of the book gives an indication of what kind of a man James Blackwell really is. Despite his good looks and charm, he is actually the type of man that should come with a warning notice. His insidious charm wins over the Arnold family, especially Diana. In the time leading up to the outbreak of WW2, Diana and James enjoy a whirlwind courtship and marriage and then tragedy strikes.

Although Diana is written as a feisty character she seemed to have had a naivety and vulnerability where James was concerned and at times with the benefit of being an onlooker I wanted to shout “no don’t do it”. The main characters are extremely well drawn. Some of the lesser characters are not quite as well developed but nevertheless they have sufficient depth to make them believable.

The main part of the story is set in the south of France and it’s obvious from the excellent descriptions of the locality that this comes from the author’s personal knowledge. I could imagine myself sitting at a pavement café in the sunny south of France watching the story unfold.

I don’t want to give away any more of the plot, you can enjoy finding out for yourself but the twists and turns made this a book that I couldn’t put down and it was a very enjoyable read.

My only niggle is with the poor proof reading – in some places the wrong names were used, for example ‘James’ instead of ‘John’ which was confusing and I also spotted some grammatical errors. I expect these mistakes in a proof copy but not in a copy on public sale.… (meer)