I fell in love with Vee and Noel in the previous book. Vee, aka Mar, has left the scamming behind and instead runs a lodging house, giving Noel a stable home. Their lives are as good as they can be, given the times. But when Vee is called as a witness to an accident, their carefully constructed life may come crumbling down.
Evans has created such tangible characters in Vee and Noel. I like them both very much, but I must admit that my heart belongs to Noel. He's clever and kind, a teenager now, but inside he's still the boy without parents. That need to know propels one of the plot lines in this latest. There are other characters, each with their own plotlines as well - Winnie the local air raid warden, her twin sister turned author, and the myriad lodgers. And slowly but surely, the disparate threads start to weave themselves together. The wartime setting is also a character in Crooked Heart. The rationing, the attitudes, the bombings and more all shape, direct and change the course of each and every character.
Now, yes, there are sad situations, but.....Evans has a wickedly dark sense of humour that's quite appealing. Her sly wit is visible in a description, a look or a snippet of dialogue, or a passage from a book.
I love books that speak to the human condition - life, love, death and everything that comes in between. Even more poignant in wartimes. Evans easily captures all of the above.
V for Victory is heartwarming, heartbreaking and so very good. Heartily recommended! Read an excerpt of V for Victory.
2 comments:
I've heard great things about Crooked Heart, so I'm glad to see this one is a solid follow up.
Both are most definitely worth a read!
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