Book Review: After The War Is Over

So I'm currently sitting in the Houston, Texas airport, waiting for our second of three flights for the day. And I have some time to blog. And I just realized that tomorrow is Valentine's Day. And it all kind of dovetails nicely because I wanted to write a book review of After The War Is Over by Jennifer Robson.

 

image from here

Shoshanah at "From L.A. to LA" first introduced me to Jennifer Robson, through her review of Robson's first book, Somewhere In France. (Go and read it, by the way. It's the story of a woman who becomes an ambulance driver during World War I and I've read it twice and loved it both times.) And then it turns out that Robson is friends with someone in my book club and she came to talk with us in November. And that's when I found out about After The War Is Over which released at the beginning of January.

This book follows a secondary character from Somewhere In France. Charlotte is fiercely independent, articulate, and smart. I love reading about periods of history I don't know much about, and while this book is somewhat a love story (see, Valentine's Day!), it is also the story of a woman in post-war Britain who wants to make a difference.

It's interesting to see how women's roles (and fashion!) changed and how Charlotte viewed those changes. For instance, I take for granted that when there's an election, I can vote. And I don't always choose to vote. For Charlotte, being able to finally vote was a momentous occasion.

I love how much detail Robson puts into her books. I was so drawn in that it was somewhat of a shock to be reading about Liverpool in 1919 and then stop reading and realize I was actually in Canada in 2015!

In a week where I was extremely stressed and sleep-deprived, I lost a little more sleep to finish reading this book. And it was well worth it!