Review: After the War is Over by Jennifer Robson

After the War is Over

by Jennifer Robson

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 384

Format: ARC 

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  After four years as a military nurse, Charlotte Brown is ready to leave behind the devastation of the Great War. The daughter of a vicar, she has always been determined to dedicate her life to helping others. Moving to busy Liverpool, she throws herself into her work with those most in need, only tearing herself away for the lively dinners she enjoys with the women at her boardinghouse.

Just as Charlotte begins to settle into her new circumstances, two messages arrive that will change her life. One is from a radical young newspaper editor who offers her a chance to speak out for those who cannot. The other pulls her back to her past, and to a man she has tried, and failed, to forget.

Edward Neville-Ashford, her former employer and the brother of Charlotte's dearest friend, is now the new Earl of Cumberland—and a shadow of the man he once was. Yet under his battle wounds and haunted eyes Charlotte sees glimpses of the charming boy who long ago claimed her foolish heart. She wants to help him, but dare she risk her future for a man who can never be hers?

As Britain seethes with unrest and postwar euphoria fattens into bitter disappointment, Charlotte must confront long-held insecurities to find her true voice . . . and the courage to decide if the life she has created is the one she truly wants.


Kritters Thoughts:  A companion to Jennifer Robson's previous book Somewhere in France where characters from that book play a part, but this book focuses on Charlotte Brown and her and England's life after the war is over.  

I absolutely loved that Lady Elizabeth was still in the book and the reader was given a glimpse of how her and Charlotte Brown met and how their friendship formed.  I loved that the spots in the past were spattered throughout the book and it was easily marked to allow for the reader to seamlessly glide in and out of the past.

Maybe I am reading too far into the book, but I loved reading the unrest of England compared to the unrest of Charlotte Brown and how the country was recovering from the war and having issues with the soldiers coming home with bumps and bruises and how hard Charlotte Brown was having re-entering into her life that she had before the war.  It reminded me of college days as college students return home from summer but home is just a little off from how they left and so are the students and nothing fits as it used to.

These books are companions, so essentially you could read them out of order, but I would still suggest you pick up Somewhere in France and check it out - especially if you have read this one and liked it.


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

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.