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A review by jenbsbooks
The Dilemma by Sarah Hawthorn
emotional
3.5
I liked this ... I'm just not sure I'll really remember much about it. Text included in KindleUnlimited, with audio on Hoopla (not on Libby, text or audio, just Amazon). Two timelines, two POVs ... Esme in 1958 and Jane in 1914. The chapters in the table of contents were numerical, and labeled with the POV (I appreciate the name being included in the TOC). Doesn't stick perfectly alternating, sometimes one POV would get a couple chapters in a row.
Esme is getting to "spinster" status, the reader meets Jane as a young woman, during WW1 and beyond ... her story is one Esme eventually uncovers, although the reader gets it along the way. I liked both storylines, and have this marked as "realistic" as there is nothing paranormal, it's just "historical" fiction, yet there is SO much going on, I have to wonder how realistic it would be for all this to happen to one woman. SPOILER with Jane's father abusing her mother/sister and village boys, the war- her husband going off and not coming back ... except that oops, he wasn't dead and DOES eventually come back, but this is after she's re-married and had a baby. Rather than coming clean to either, she manages a double life, has another baby with hubs#1 (who was maimed and disfigured during the war), gives baby up for adoption. Divorces hubs#2 - still w/o really coming clean. Her mom has a same-sex relationship. The unknown baby just happens to be the woman Esme has come to investigate ... her half-sister, who by the way, has been wrongly accused of murder. It was just a lot. That last thing did catch me by surprise.
No proFanity, but there were some sex scenes and talk of sexual and physical abuse. Third person, past tense for both POVs. Two different narrators in the audio, which I was glad for. Helped keep the POVs separated for me.
Esme is getting to "spinster" status, the reader meets Jane as a young woman, during WW1 and beyond ... her story is one Esme eventually uncovers, although the reader gets it along the way. I liked both storylines, and have this marked as "realistic" as there is nothing paranormal, it's just "historical" fiction, yet there is SO much going on, I have to wonder how realistic it would be for all this to happen to one woman. SPOILER
No proFanity, but there were some sex scenes and talk of sexual and physical abuse. Third person, past tense for both POVs. Two different narrators in the audio, which I was glad for. Helped keep the POVs separated for me.