Summary:
Lily Valence is determined to forget the horrors of the war by throwing herself into the decadent pleasures of the 1920s and pursuing her career as a music hall singer. When she meets Captain Stephen Winters, a decorated veteran, she's immediately drawn to his wealth and status. And Stephen, burdened by his guilt over surviving the Flanders battlefields where so many soldiers perished, sees the possibility of forgetting his anguish in Lily, but his family does not approve.
Lily marries Stephen, only to discover that his family's facade of respectability conceals a terrifying combination of repression, jealousy, and violence. When Stephen's terrors merge dangerously close with reality, the truth of what took place in the mud and darkness brings him and all who love him to a terrible reckoning.
My Thoughts:
While this book was well written as expected, I did not enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed Ms. Gregory's other books. Lily, Rory, Charlie, and Coventry were the only likable characters. I did not like Stephen from the start, and hoped maybe I would later on, but I only started to hate him more. On their first (?) "date", he briefly thinks about raping Lily. As the book went on, he became both verbally and physically abusive toward her after they married. While Coventry was friends with Stephen from the war, he is a lot more likable. He has a soft spot for Lily, and ends up saving her and her baby in the end from Stephen. Rory is Stephen's father who was badly injured in the war. Lily spends time taking care of him, and as he starts to get better, we see why Lily spent so much of her free time with him: he is kind. Charlie is Lily's first love who she met during her time working as a singer. He loves her as well but won't marry her because of his infidelity. He also tells Lily that if she decides to leave Stephen, she can live with him.
While the book was really interesting, I was not a huge fan of it. I probably won't pick it up again.
My Rating: 2 stars
