This HaBO is from Bev, who is searching for a romance set around WWI or WWII:
This will be extremely vague. I remember very little and I’m not sure what I remember is correct.
I read the book over a decade ago and it may have been written a decade or more before that. It was a random library pull.
If I remember correctly the book starts off in the English countryside before WWI, but it could be before WWII. The heroine and hero’s families are wealthy. When the novel starts, the hero and his family are visiting (they may even be neighbors) for Christmas. He gives the heroine an unusual necklace, maybe a snake necklace? The heroine is shy and maybe clueless to the hero’s feelings, and she comes across as indifferent. The heroine’s younger sister is jealous and makes a play for the hero, which I think he accepts. The heroine walks in on them.
Then war breaks out. At the end of the novel, the hero has been wounded and is in a hospital. His arm/hand is permanently injured. The heroine is holding his hand and he made some comment about how she will need to be the one to hold on tightly.
Oh, and when the heroine is dressing for dinner, the little sister helps her pick out a dress to wear with the snake (?) necklace. She, of course, picks out an unsuitable dress.
I hope someone knows the title, this has been bugging me for years.
I may be crying over the description of that hospital scene.
I don’t know about a book, but this sounds similar to the movie (which I am pretty sure is based off a book) called Atonement. The movie had Kiara Knightly and James McAvoy.
@Katy: I thought of Atonement too, but that book and movie make me ugly cry so much and I’d prefer to forget they exist.
Definitely not Atonement – at least not if the movie is true to the book. Too many discrepancies, especially the heroine was not clueless as to the hero’s feelings i.e. that hot seduction scene up against the bookshelves in the library in the movie!
But I am interested if anyone can identify this – it sounds interesting.
Bev, unfortunately I don’t know the book but I am thankful to see that I’m not the only one whose memory can be vague and confusing sometimes!
Good luck in your search!
No, not Atonement. This book is older than that novel.
Angelle, I have the worst book memory.
It couldn’t be Sally Beauman’s Dark Angel, could it..?
Tam, it is not Dark Angel. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
I’m not quite sure if it matches (I’m going back and rereading it now), but could it be Kate Morton ‘s “The House at Riverton”? That was published 10 years ago almost exactly (it was called “The Shifting Fog” in the UK and Australia).
It is similar to Atonement in period (WWII) and overall tone and plot, and has sisters as main characters with an older sister who was first indifferent while the younger is infatuated with a man visiting their house, but later in life the older sister and man become involved.
Not sure about a snake necklace, but there is a locket that plays an important part in the story.
I’m re-reading now, I’ll come back to report if the hospital scene is in it.
Do you remember if this was a genre Romance novel or if it was general fiction with a happy ending?
Amy Renee, not that, but great reminder that I want to try a Morton book. I really think it is older than I first stated. Sometimes I forget how long ago the nineties really are. I probably read it closer to that decade and it was older than that.
MaryK, I’m leaning towards general fiction with a happy ending. It was a hard back I pulled out of the adult fiction section of the library. But that section is a mix of genres.
My first thought was Flowers of the Field by Sarah Harrison . . . I don’t remember a snake necklace, but I do remember the awful younger sister, Dulcie, who seduces the elder sister Thea’s love interest. (Actually she is a bit psycho – the younger sister that is!)
Rachel K, I don’t believe that is it either.