Review: The Care and Management of Lies

The Care and Management of Lies

by Jacqueline Winspear

Publisher: Harper

Pages: 336

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  By July 1914, the ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since girlhood, have become strained—by Thea’s passionate embrace of women’s suffrage, and by the imminent marriage of Kezia to Thea’s brother, Tom, who runs the family farm. When Kezia and Tom wed just a month before war is declared between Britain and Germany, Thea’s gift to Kezia is a book on household management—a veiled criticism of the bride’s prosaic life to come. Yet when Tom enlists to fight for his country and Thea is drawn reluctantly onto the battlefield, the farm becomes Kezia’s responsibility. Each must find a way to endure the ensuing cataclysm and turmoil.

As Tom marches to the front lines, and Kezia battles to keep her ordered life from unraveling, they hide their despair in letters and cards filled with stories woven to bring comfort. Even Tom’s fellow soldiers in the trenches enter and find solace in the dream world of Kezia’s mouth-watering, albeit imaginary meals. But will well-intended lies and self-deception be of use when they come face to face with the enemy?

Kritters Thoughts:  Kezia, our main character didn't pull me in and I had a hard time connecting to her.  Thea her friend and sister-in-law was easier to relate to and get to know, I enjoyed each time she was given a voice to tell her side of things.

A slow going historical fiction that moved at such a slow pace that it was hard to keep my interest.  I am not saying there wasn't action because there was as the author greatly captured the anticipation of war before it begins, but for some reason it felt as though things were repeated that weren't worth repeating and feelings were told over and over when once was enough.  

Towards the end there were scenes from war intermixed with scenes from home and it was an interesting look at the way war not only affects those who are out fighting, it but those who are at home trying to keep up the home front.  The end made the book a little better for me, but had to get through the slow start first.


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.