lchamberlin97 's review for:

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson

3.0

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I knew what I was getting into with this book - I knew I wasn't going to love it. However, I think I did hope that I would be a bit more enthralled. In the end, I rushed through it, listening to it constantly not because I really WANTED to but because I wanted to FINISH (and it was going to be automatically returned to the library tomorrow). It was just a story. There was nothing I specifically didn't like about it, but...there was nothing particularly compelling either. I didn't care much about the relationship between Hugh and Beatrice. I liked Aunt Agatha and was mildly interested in Daniel, but I wasn't moved by either of them. I thought the way women were treated was frustrating, but it felt like a story I had been told before and nothing new was being added.
This book was a placeholder: something to listen to while I waited for other books to become available.