Sir Thomas More by Hals Holbein (Accessed via Wikipedia ) During lockdown, we had Time. Remember that? I was in my probationary year of teaching: almost certainly among the most exhausting years for any profession. All my time had been taken up with school work, and I regularly stayed at school until after 6pm, having arrived there at eight in the morning. Now, children, this is not sustainable and, very soon, I decided I didn’t like working where I was. Then I realised that I didn’t like teaching at all. But, in fact, neither was particularly true: I just needed to be true to myself and to say no, which would give me the ability to manage my work/life balance in a more appropriate way. What does this have to do with historical fiction, I hear you say? Well, during March 2020, we went into lockdown and suddenly I went from working ten-hour-days to ten-hour-weeks. I met up with my class on Google Meet, I put work up for them on a meticulously designed Google Classroom, but I just h...
The first thing to mention about this book was that it was not what I was expecting! I thought, from the blurb and the fact it had been shortlisted for a military literary award, that this would be a military story with a romance, but this is definitely a romance set during a war. Given this difference, it took me a while to get my head into the book
There is a line in the book when Roseen observes how eager and enthused Kelly becomes when he is discussing the Navy, and Dawson's writing is exactly the same. The book springs to life as the campaigning starts and the account of the offensive against Copenhagen is handled skilfully and compassionately. The movements of the military machine were well-researched and the care taken to set the reader in that surrounding is commendable.
I found most of the characters irritating to one degree or another - although this is not a criticism, as I have read plenty of great book with protagonists who annoy me! Roseen I found most annoying of all, and I kept willing various ones of her companions on this journey to push her into the sea. Having said all that, I had a soft spot for Durrell, with whom I most identified, and I felt that he was unfairly treated by Kelly, who had a long way to go on his journey to becoming a gentleman. I did feel that people were either good guys or bad guys, and some shades of grey along the way would have been interesting - especially in terms of Roseen's suiters.
The hard sell for me was how convenient everything seemed to be. I don't want to mention events which will be spoilers, but it is a case of constantly being at the right/wrong place at exactly the right/wrong time. This is fine once or twice (after all, that's what keeps a great adventure going) but it seemed to happen time after time.
Overall, this is a great read for fans of historical romance and happy endings, and we all need that from time to time.
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