Set in 1944 this novel starts out in Baltimore's Little Italy section of town where Tess DeMello lives with her mother finishing up her nursing degree and planning her wedding to her childhood sweetheart Vincent Russo. Then Vincent, a newly minted doctor, gets a chance to work with polio victims in Chicago so he goes for what is supposed to be only a couple of weeks but keeps stretching to more.
Tess's friend, Gina, eager to get away for a night to try to not think of her boyfriend fighting in Europe and get Tess's mind off of Vincent who rarely writes or calls, takes them to Washington D.C. where they stay in her aunt's rental. Her aunt is supposed to stay with them since there are two men staying in the rental too, but her aunt is called away on business and can't so they'll be alone with the two men.
So Roger Talbot and Henry Kraft, the two men in the rental, take them out to dinner and Roger plies them with drinks and Tess gets drunk. Henry helps her to her room and has sex with her. She will maintain later that she gave her permission, but honestly, she was too drunk and the description shows her allowing a kiss but that's it and then suddenly he's having sex with her. She was a virgin who had been saving herself for marriage with Vincent so it's hard to believe that she was willing in this. And frankly, I'm disappointed and surprised that a Southern gentleman, which he is from Hickory, North Carolina and is portrayed as such, would do that to a woman who was drunk.
Soon Tess finds out that she is pregnant and she can't go through with abortion so she plans on keeping it but she can't tell Vincent because it will break his heart and he would never forgive her. She goes down to Hickory to get money from Henry to start a new life over somewhere else but he suggests they get married instead. She accepts his offer and when she tells her mother that she's marrying another man her mother figures out that she is pregnant and is furious with her daughter and ashamed of her and kicks her out of the house. She goes to stay with Gina but then two days later finds out that that night her mother suffered a stroke and passed out and hit her head and died. Tess leaves Vincent a note not telling where she's going on the kitchen table with his ring since he's coming down to visit after the funeral and leaves on the train for Hickory.
Things in Hickory aren't easy because everyone expected Henry to marry Violet Dare the local beauty whose father is the District Attorney. But Henry insists that he doesn't love Violet and that they weren't engaged or anything. His mother Ruth, however, a formidable person, wanted him to marry Violet and so did his younger sister Lucy, a princess who has had everything done for her. Tess is told she is no longer a Catholic but a Baptist and she has to get used to having a maid, Hattie taking care of her. Hattie helps her out, though and is a kind face in a sea of those out to get her.
Tess doesn't fit in Hickory and worse her husband won't even kiss her much less have sex with her. In a way, this is a blessing because her heart still belongs to Vincent and she doesn't know if she can have sex with him yet. She hopes to one day come to love him and have him come to love her. But Henry has secrets. There are things he is keeping from her. And things get worse when she and Lucy take the car with the bad tires on some errands at Lucy's insistence and at least one tire blows and the car ends up in the lake with Lucy pinned under the dashboard and Tess unable to get her free. Now Ruth and the town really hates her.
This is an interesting book with the polio aspect to it that really happened. Hickory will have a huge polio outbreak and build a hospital overnight and the people really come together to help out. You feel pretty sorry for Tess being stuck in this situation, all alone with only letters from her friend Gina to give her support. There's someone else who helps her out a little bit, but I'll leave you the reader, to discover this unique character. Tess is a bit of a person who does the same thing over and over again expecting different results, which is the definition, according to Einstien of insanity. This book also delves heavily into coincidences, but it's a good story with a nice twist at the end. I give it four out of five stars.
Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Marriage-Novel-Diane-Chamberlain/dp/1250087279/ref=sr_1_1?crid=9TJCC7ZNTN89&keywords=the+stolen+marriage+by+diane+chamberlain&qid=1549889879&s=books&sprefix=the+stolen+%2Cstripbooks%2C181&sr=1-1
No comments:
Post a Comment