Secrets of a Charmed Life

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Meissner, Susan	4-week checkout	Due 05-24-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Meissner, Susan	4-week checkout	Due 05-23-2024

"She stood at a crossroads, half-aware that her choice would send her down a path from which there could be no turning back. But instead of two choices, she saw only one-because it was all she really wanted to see... Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart. 1940s, England. As Hitler wages an unprecedented war against London's civilian population, one million children are evacuated to foster homes in the rural countryside. But even as fifteen-year-old Emmy Downtree and her much younger sister Julia find refuge in a charming Cotswold cottage, Emmy's burning ambition to return to the city and apprentice with a fashion designer pits her against Julia's profound need for her sister's presence. Acting at cross purposes just as the Luftwaffe rains down its terrible destruction, the sisters are cruelly separated, and their lives are transformed... "-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Booklist Review
Summary / Annotation
Excerpt
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Loved it! submitted by smgop on July 13, 2016, 8:14pm Devoured this book - engaging, compelling, couldn't put it down. Great character development.

Wonderful book! submitted by mickplu on July 23, 2016, 6:17pm An absolutely wonderful piece of historical fiction! Set in London during the evacuation of the children during WWII, this is a well written and thoroughly researched book. I appreciated the interview with the author at the end of the book. She mentions interviewing over a dozen survivors of the London bombings and how the memories of that tragic time still are carried with each one over 70 years later.