The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain

 

From Goodreads

The Stolen Marriage is a compelling novel from Diane Chamberlain, the bestselling author of The Silent Sister, Pretending to Dance and The Midwife’s Confession.

In 1944, Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life, marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night and hides money from his new wife, and Tess quickly comes to realize that she is now trapped in a strange and loveless marriage.

The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain. She suspects people are talking about her, plotting behind her back, and following her as she walks around town. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not?

When a polio epidemic strikes the area, taking he lives of some of its children, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital in less than three days. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to work at the hospital, finding meaning in treating the young victims. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more baffling and alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle her husband’s mysterious behaviour and save her own life?

My thoughts

I grabbed a copy of this via Borrowbox, the digital lending side of my local Library.  I have read several books by Diane Chamberlain before and the blurb caught my attention.

I gave this a 4 stars or 8/10.  

This was a great read in my opinion and I really did feel for the characters, all of them to a certain extent apart from Henry's immediate family who tended to be quite bigoted in their outlook on life. However, having said that I felt that was quite reminiscent of the time and possibly even how some families would feel nowadays.

I really felt for the main characters Tess and Henry, a moment of madness in some ways had a far reaching effect on their lives which saw them as man and wife, stuck in a loveless marriage that they both had differing feelings about.

Coming from a different nationality Tess, found herself at odds with Henry's family and was always having to fight for her place in their lives.

Set around the latter years of the Second World War, this story told of some of the struggles that surrounded people in that time.  Will the characters Tess and Henry have a happy ever after as a couple or are they destined for other things relationship wise?