A Soldier’s Wife is the first book in The Devereux Family Trilogy by Marion Reynolds featuring a turbulent and turning point in Irish history. Ellen Ainsworth is a romantic and naïve as she falls in love with James Devereux, a member of the British army. As she has always dreamed of traveling, his post to India is a dream come true. After seven years of heartache and joy with a luxurious life, they return to Ireland as James ends his enlistment. They settle in Dublin, an impoverished city with political and civil unrest. When war is declared, James re-enlists and Ellen is left in a city which views the wives of British soldiers with suspicion. Ellen longs for James but worries that if he survives, what Ireland would he return to?
Inspired by her grandfather’s World War I stories and her grandmother’s experiences on the homefront, Marion Reynolds writes a story which covers the Easter Rising of 1916, World War I and the beginnings of the Irish Civil War in 1922. I expected a story filled with historical events of the time, and it was; however, I was surprised and disappointed that instead of seeing the events and seeing the characters’ reactions to them, the story simply retold the events. Long periods of time would be covered in a chapter. The story was more retelling than showing the events which made for a very dry and difficult read. Overall, I did not enjoy A Soldier’s Wife and most likely will not continue the series.
A Soldier’s Wife is available in paperback and eBook
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