Comments (43)

What did you think about this title?
1 to 25 of 43 items
Nov 09, 2020gardenglove rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
The history aspect was interesting, but the characters fulfilled every stereotype and thus I found it very predictable. I didn't finish the book.
Feb 17, 2020odettewright rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I borrowed this book because the title sounded interesting and I was in a hurry to download something to read for a weekend away. It wasn't until too late that I realized I had read it before. But since I had nothing else to read, I…
Dec 14, 2019AaronAardvark1940 rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Part of our reading project, this is a romance story with predictable outcome. Strong history and culture research make this an interesting read. Victorian England is not a time or place I'd wish to visit in my time machine. I understand…
Aug 17, 2019IndyPL_SteveB rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
In her second novel, Simonson proves that the best-seller success of *Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand* was no fluke. The “War” of the title is “The Great War” – World War One – and the novel begins in June, 1914. It is the summer of the…
Aug 15, 2019Einer2 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Started this one as an audio book and couldn't engage, but as a book I found it fascinating and love the historical detail!
Aug 14, 2019DorisWaggoner rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
I didn't find this historical novel of the same caliber as "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand." WW I soon breaks breaks out, making a mockery of the title. Many of the characters are also made mockery of as well. Some are tedious, smarmy, or…
Jun 19, 2019glotet rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I found the first 100 pages a bit of a challenge, but hung in there because of the favourable reviews. It wasn’t until I completed reading before I realized that what seemed arduous reading at the beginning was actually laying the ground…
Mar 07, 2019Inga57 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Kindle Immersion Read Helen Simonson does it again! She's created a vivid picture of the time and painted lovely characters to tell the story.
Nov 27, 2018trude31 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
A great read. This stands out among other books with similar subject matter. Great character descriptions with some droll humour . I could not stop reading til I finished it. The settings are authentic in the details, of the early 20th…
Nov 26, 2018EAEccher rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
A slog. Endless descriptions of what characters wore and ate. Read Simonson's source materials instead.
Jul 17, 2018Bonnie_Schultz rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I loved this novel! It took me awhile to get involved in it, as it started somewhat slowly. It was a different book than "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand," which was a great read and absorbing right from the beginning. Apparently there…
May 25, 2018Lilybug062 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Wonderful story !
Aug 24, 2017jkline1 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Great book. The reader "lives" in a small town in England and meets its inhabitants. The book concentrates on the summer before WWI and how the upcoming war effects its inhabitants. I felt like I really got to know the characters as…
Aug 15, 2017tedperry rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Loved this book in all its delicious, 'plodding' detail. Although I wasn't around in 1914, have certainly read enough books set in that time frame to know that many people really were like this. For those who don't read much, Downton…
Jul 25, 2017
1914. The last lovely summer in East Sussex. Beatrice Nash arrives to teach Latin - who knew she would be so young and so beautiful?
Mar 23, 2017lcassity rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
With the anniversary of America's entry into WWI approaching, this book is a timely and spellbinding read. My grandfather talked of WWI and his comments made the book seem more personal. I put off reading this book for several months and…
Mar 12, 2017debover60 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Couldn't put it down. Excellent historical fiction, historically accurate details. I love Simonson's aesthetic: dialogue, setting, dress, class and social structure. Many layered story, wonderfully branched out from the village of Rye,…
Feb 19, 2017Margush rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
Did people really talk like that? Like all those people in the book? Did they really have those impossibly educated and highly elaborated conversations about their poems, bycicles, dinners and everyday life? The book is so annoyingly slow…
Feb 13, 2017lilypad_1 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This book is set in the same time and place as Downton Abbey which is what drew me to it, that time frame is filled with such an almost caste system it is very interesting to me. It was also a time of a newly forming suffragette movement…
Jan 22, 2017Tannisz rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is a fabulous book and it's made my short list of go-to books to give as gifts. I relished every moment I spent in the book! It is intelligent, charming, wise, witty, and has an engaging story line. Truly, it made me recollect my…
Sep 19, 2016kathyonpost rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written by an intelligent well read author. A diamond among the dross.
Sep 01, 2016ArapahoeAlice rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written, wonderful characters. As the story evolves, one sees how the great social upheaval during World War I moved England from the Edwardian Era into more modern times. By portraying relationships among characters in the…
Aug 21, 2016brangwinn rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
When Beatrice Nash, a well-educated but impoverished young English woman is left alone after her father’s death, she finds his family unsympathetic to her wants, that of editing her father’s writing. They pack her off to Rye to be a…
Jul 29, 2016sunnye1988 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
The first two parts were boring; it was life in a small English town of high society vs. lower class of the poor and gypsies. High teas and criticism of the poor, sexism, and overall social ranking of British society before the Great War…
Jul 26, 2016EscapesToBooks rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
I loved Major Pettigrew and couldn't wait for this book to come out. I have to say that I liked the characters and loved the storyline, but the pace was slow and it was just too long.