Saturday 5 September 2015

Not by Sight by Kate Breslin

Back Cover: In the spring of 1917, all of Britain's attention is on the WWI war front and the thousands of young men serving their country on the front lines. Jack Benningham, dashing heir to the Earl of Stonebrooke, is young and able-bodied but refuses to enlist despite the contempt of his peers.

A wealthy young suffragette, Grace Mabry will do anything to assist her country's cause. Men like Jack infuriate her when she thinks of her own brother fighting in the trenches of France, so she has no reservations about handing him a white feather of cowardice at a posh masquerade ball.

But Grace could not anticipate the danger and betrayal set into motion by her actions, and soon she and Jack are forced to learn the true meaning of courage when the war raging overseas suddenly strikes much closer to home and their fervent beliefs become a matter of life and death.


Review: This is the first book I've read by Kate Breslin. She's not a new author, but she is new to me. I quite liked her style - the dialogue was meaningful and flowed easily. I really appreciate it when the characters speak in a way that makes sense with the times but also when the speech isn't so proper that it's awkward for us to read today. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of mystery in this book. I was expecting a romance with World War I as a backdrop. I was not anticipating the story to end up so involved in the fighting. The way the characters' lives get pulled into the conflict really adds to the story. The last few chapters of this book, in particular, really became tense and I was flipping the pages as fast as I could. The espionage twists were just great.

And the couple… Grace and Jack are the most unlikely duo. It took me a little while to like both the characters, but they both really grew on me over the course of the book and I was definitely cheering for them by the half-way point. I think the reason for my hesitation on them was that I was expecting Grace to act like the prissy princess once things started to get tough, and I was anticipating Jack to be an arrogant noble. However, Grace toughened up fast and showed great character and Jack turned about to be a lot more than what you first think him to be. I was pleasantly surprised.

A good book overall!


Book has been provided courtesy of Bethany House and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from BakerBooks, a division of Baker Publishing Group"

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