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Book CoverSandy M’s review of Tides of Honor by Genevieve Graham
Historical Romance published by Simon & Schuster 21 Apr 15

Okay, I’ll be honest – the reason I read romance? The sexy heroes. Everything else is secondary. Except emotion. There are very few authors I’ve read who have made me cry, laugh, or react in some other way through the emotional intensity in their books. I have just added Genevieve Graham to that list. Tides of Honor is all about duty, honor, tragedy, triumph, and, of course, love. She had me turning pages as fast as I could to find out what was next for Danny and Audrey as we travel along with them through their entire romantic and emotional life with World War I as their backdrop.

Danny is a simple man from Nova Scotia, but he’s in France fighting in a war that takes from every nation involved. His battalion is tired and hungry, looking for shelter before the coming storm with none in sight. Then they come upon a young lady and her grandmother, their wagon needing work, and as he gazes at this beauty, his world shifts. It’s the same for Audrey, and she invites the men to their farm for a warm meal and place to bunk for the night. I love those first new and slightly awkward but full-of-emotion scenes between Danny and Audrey. You can feel the sweet love take hold, while neither of them truly realizes what it is right at that moment. But Danny does promise to return for Audrey as soon as humanly possible.

What neither of them can imagine is that Danny’s life is about to change even further. He and his best buddies from home are hit by enemy fire, his friends killed and Danny losing his leg. So he’s then shipped home, where everything is now so different from what he knew before, people staring and not knowing what to say to the newly injured hometown boy. It’s even awkward with his parents, especially his father, Danny feeling he’s let his dad down, he’s not the man he should be in his father’s eyes. The scenes where he returns his friends’ last possessions to their families are wonderfully done. Truly a bygone era when mothers and fathers are so very happy to see a son of their heart, even though their sons are gone and buried.

As Danny tries to find a new normal, he awaits Audrey’s arrival. She’s had a time of it herself – her grandmother passes away, leaving Audrey on her own, heading for London with the memories of her mother who also left home on her own to live as she wished before dying so young. But she’s free of her grandmother’s judgment and on her way to Danny, though it will take a while before she can begin her journey. In the meantime, she works in factories and befriends a few ladies who are fighting for women’s right to vote. I enjoyed this look into the women’s suffrage movement, having only really seen it from a U.S. point of view. But women everywhere did go through the same prejudice and work to equal their rights, and Ms. Graham does an admiral job in describing how Canadian women progressed and persevered through the process. Audrey even uses her artistic skill to further their cause.

When Audrey finally makes it back into Danny’s arms, all is right with the world. They marry quickly and live in a room attached to his parents’ house that Danny himself built. It’s those small nuances that pull you further into the story and make you feel you’re part of these lives that live simply but happily with so very little. Slowly, however, Danny’s feelings of inadequacy become more pronounced and he moves them to Halifax where there’s work he’ll be able to handle, even with his disability. Audrey is hesitant to leave their idyllic life, but she goes where her husband goes. All does not go well for them in Halifax, to the point it seems they no longer know one another. Separation comes abruptly one night and Danny is now truly afloat in a morass of emotion he can’t contain. And if that’s not enough, their world literally explodes one bright and sunny day.

As I read those scenes when a ship explodes in the harbor at Halifax, killing hundreds – including scores of children – destroying everything near and damaging everything far, I kept wondering if those events were real. It’s a horrific tragedy and Ms. Graham does it justice in these scenes. I felt the impact of that day in every way possible as Danny helps those he can while he searches for Audrey and falls for three young orphaned brothers. He’s turned his life around after experiencing such devastation, and when he finally finds Audrey alive, there’s still the question of how strong their love is after so much strife and turmoil. I love the ending Ms. Graham gives them. Thankfully in such simpler times love can conquer all.

This is a beautifully heartwarming and romantic story in a time when hope and dreaming were in low supply. Danny and Audrey find each other by a fluke of fate, and the trials they go through will wrench your heart. If you’ve not read Genevieve Graham yet, please do so soon. Start with this one. I guarantee then you’ll want to read her Scottish historicals too.

sandym-iconGrade: A

Summary:

A novel of love, loss, and honour amidst the horrors of war and its aftermath.

In the summer of 1916, Private Daniel Baker marches into battle with the boys of Nova Scotia’s 25th Battalion. Out of brutal necessity, Danny has steeled himself against the trials and horrors of war, but he is completely unprepared to meet the love of his life in war-torn France.

Audrey Poulin has the soul of an artist. She lives alone with her grandmother in the quiet French countryside, where her only joy is in her brush and palette. When, by chance, she encounters Danny, the handsome young soldier captures her heart and inspires her painting. The young lovers believe that only together can they face the hardships the war brings.

But love is just the beginning. Mere months later, Danny is gravely wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and his future is thrown into uncertainty. Soon, he and Audrey find themselves struggling to build a new life in Halifax, a city grieving its lost men. As the grey winter of 1917 sets in, Danny’s lack of purpose and Audrey’s isolation continue to mount, pulling the two apart just as a new catastrophe threatens their existence.

No excerpt available.