Beatriz Williams

“Bravery is woven from all kinds of different fabric” (424).

The Cold War, espionage, estranged sisters: this book has it all—all of these different loose threads that end up tightly knitted together. It’s a dual timeline story between the 1940s and 1950s where the suspense built around the convergence of these two timelines is superb. Typically, with dual timeline styles, there’s usually one I’m more interested in. But not this one—I was equally engaged in both timelines, equally engaged with all characters. It’s completely captivating, reaching a perfect crescendo.… (meer)

Full disclosure: I am a sucker for well-done, intelligent historical fiction, so when a book is all that, I am transported and invested from cover to cover. This book had all of that. Set in two time periods — just before and during WWI and during WWII — in several countries — Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotland, the Bahamas, and south Florida — Ms. Willams weaves the stories of two grand, tragic love affairs into an historical, unflattering portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Edward and the woman he married, Wallis Simpson, thereby abdicating the crown of England. The plot has plenty of fresh twists, the characters are vivid and multi-dimensional, and the prose is lovely and lively. The narrator of the WWII-era parts, Lulu, is a plain-talking, tough but tender, modern American women thrown into this largely British life, and who would be at home in a black-and-white spy thriller. Delightful.… (meer)

I finished this book several days ago, and I am already having trouble recalling what I liked and did not like when I was reading it. Perhaps that is because I have been working very late at work lately, and consequently read the book in shorter sessions over a longer period. The story kept me interested. Oddly, I found I did not get any real sense of the main character, who is the story’s narrator. What I did get from Ms. Williams, though, was a keen sense of place, of certain cultural norms and divisions in a small community, and particularly in a seasonal place like a seaside town or, as here, an island. The story is presented in two different time frames, 1951 and 1969, and the climactic event, of which we know the outcome from the beginning, is nevertheless peeled away in tighter spirals shifting forward and back. That device worked well in this story; I am usually annoyed with it when employed for no apparent reason.… (meer)