The Wife's Promise (The Goswell Quartet #1) by Kate Hewitt
Genre: Historical fiction, Contemporary fiction, Dual timeline, WW2
Read: 12th November 2022
Published: 17th November 2022
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Alice looked at the young girl standing alone on the platform, sensing the same vulnerability she’d once felt entering the village she now called home. Then, as the child gripped her hand, the pain and sorrow Alice had held in her heart for so long softened… And in that moment, she vowed she’d always protect her – whatever the cost…
England, 1939: When Alice marries twinkly-eyed, kind-hearted vicar David, it means leaving everything from her old life behind and moving into the draughty vicarage in the beautiful but remote village of Goswell, Cumbria. Though homesick, Alice is determined to make a new life there for herself and her husband.
But soon tragedy strikes, and she is devastated when war breaks out and David chooses to sign up to fight. But everything changes when Alice is asked to take in a child evacuee, and she makes a promise to protect this girl, no matter what it costs her…
Now: When Jane and her family move to the small coastal village of Goswell where her husband grew up, she’s afraid she might have made a huge mistake. Their new home – in what had once been the vicarage – feels a million miles from their previous fast-paced life in New York City, and Jane struggles with her empty days that seem lonely and purposeless.
But then she finds a small note, forgotten behind a shelf in the pantry. A note written in the Second World War. By a woman named Alice, whose incredible story has the power to change everything…
Two wives’ stories – told over 70 years apart – about courage, finding a home, and how the unexpected arrival of someone else’s story in your life can change your own. Perfect for fans of Fiona Valpy, Lucinda Riley and Barbara O’Neal.
This novel can be enjoyed as a standalone.
Previously published as The Vicar’s Wife by Katharine Swartz.
MY THOUGHTS:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Kate Hewitt's delightful dual timeline tale THE WIFE'S PROMISE.
It all started with a shopping list...
Cumbria, present day: Jane and Andrew uproot their family from the hustle and bustle of their busy lives in New York City to relocate to the dank, cold and miserable Goswell on the Cumbrian coast. For sixteen years Andrew has lived in New York where he met and married Jane and now it's time for him to come home. But for Jane, the move is not as smooth sailing as they thought it would be...at least, not for her. Their three children Natalie (14), Ben (11) and Merrie (7 or 8) find the transition difficult at first but soon make friends and settle into their new life.
They move into a spacious old Vicarage and Jane has every intention of painting each room and making it home but for some reason can't seem to find a connection between the woman she was in New York to the one she's expected to become here and now in sleepy Goswell. It is while she is cleaning out the pantry that she finds an old shopping list stuck beneath the cold slate shelf, for keeping things cool in the times before refrigerators, that Jane finds herself a new purpose and feels compelled to investigate who wrote this list and what became of them.
In asking the current vicar in the neighbouring church about records of old vicars, does Jane come across the names of David and Alice James who lived in the vicarage from 1930 till 1943. And Jane feels sure she has found the writer of her list.
1931: Nineteen year old Alice has just met and married the man of her dreams, David James. After their small wedding at her home in Cambridge, the couple then make the long and slow journey by various trains to Goswell in Cumbria, where David is serving as vicar. As soon as she arrives, Alice realises she has not put much thought into what it means to become a vicar's wife and all that it entails. It seems the villagers have such expectations of what she must do and Alice hasn't the first idea of how to do any of it. Or if she even wants to. All she wants is to be married to David, have a family and grow old with him. But David's duties to his parish are many that they only seem to have a couple of hours together in the evenings before retiring for the night.
From the time to arrived in Goswell, it seems she has had to face many challenges. From adapting to being a vicar's wife to a tragedy from which she thought she may never recover to the onset of war and David enlisting as a chaplain. Life becomes very lonely for Alice in the ensuing years that she takes up gardening and soon has a thriving array of vegetables to keep them going through the harsh rationing.
By the time 1940 comes around, news arrives that the village is to take around fifty evacuees and Alice decides that she wants to take one of them on, much to the annoyance of her housekeeper and the nosey churchwardens (you don't know what you are getting with the likes of them from the cities). She ends up with a resentful surly 12 year old girl called Vera with a seemingly huge chip on her shoulder whose attitude borders on rude. Alice wants so much to give her a loving home but has no idea how to reach the sullen young girl. That is, until a stray German bomber empties the last of his load on the Vicarage's outbuildings and Alice finds a frightened Vera hiding under the table thinking she was going to die.
THE WIFE'S PROMISE is a beautiful heartbreaking tale of two women separated by seven decades who lived in the same house. It is compelling and engaging throughout as each story speaks of sacrifice, love and love. It did take me a while to get into the story but once I did I was fully invested in uncovering what happens next.
This is my second read by Kate Hewitt and I love this particular style in dual timeline, which is one of my favourite formats. I intend on diving right into the second book in this compelling quartet right away. I think though my favourite story was Alice's. I found Jane a little self-absorbed and Natalie a bratty teenager.
Overall, a pure delight to read. Perfect for fans of dual timelines.
I would like to thank #KateHewitt, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheWifesPromise in exchange for an honest review.
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