nermrlib 's review for:

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
4.0

What happens when you thoroughly enjoy an author's initial effort to the point that you're waiting for their next work--but then their next work is so completely different from the first? I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I think it took me longer to get into it because it was so different from the author's first work (Major Pettigrew's Last Stand). Set in a small England town just before the outbreak of WWI, it gives a glimpse into the life of an unaccompanied woman and what it was like to try to make her own way in the world. Very much recommended.