The English Wife: The international best selling, sweeping and emotional historical romance novel

Since I happen to be intensely fascinated with both WII lit and almost any novel born out of 9/11, including the Newfoundlanders stunning hospitality, I could not wait to plunge into this novel. However, while the multiple story lines kept my interest, I crawled through this book reluctantly. The writing is just dreadful -- rife with infuriating cliches, weak character development, stilted dialogue, and glaring holes in the story. One of two leading characters, Sophie, is portrayed in ridiculous one-dimensional strokes. For example, she expresses her thoughts as if she's a hastily written idea of what a writer from an earlier generation only imagines what a young, driven but conflicted career gal would tell herself. Zero nuance, zero irony, zero perceptiveness. Nearly every other character is just as poorly drawn with the possible exception of the other lead, Ellie. However, the author leaves a gaping hole as she describes Ellie's trajectory. It's as if the author suddenly decided it would be "hip" to present Ellie as a woman who comes out of the closet much later in the life, but completely ignores the ramifications of doing so in the conservative, extremely isolated, backwater village where she lives. Despite multiple earlier chapters painting Ellie as young woman passionately in love with her handsome finance, while also finding comfort in the arms of another man, not one word explains her sexual transition later in life. The reader does not need a full explanation, but the author literally offers zero context. This is just one of dozens of missteps in an extremely choppy, awfully told story. Except for the colorful idioms bandied about by Ellie's late-life lover, Florie, the dialogue throughout this novel is also horridly forced. For the most part, conversations sound as if it they were written by a middle schooler. In retrospect, I would have been better off avoiding this terribly frustrating reading experience. I would advise others to do the same.

The constant switching back and forth between two time periods takes some getting used to, but well worth not giving up. Around halfway through, what seems like two unrelated stories begin to mesh and become one. This is a book full of surprise twists and turns, but unlike some books, there are no loose threads left undone at the end.

This book had an intriguing and reasonably complex plot, and I did enjoy reading it. As other reviewers have mentioned, jumping between time periods made it a bit hard to follow. But that was not the book's main problem. My issue was the quality of the writing which seemed "amateurish." Lots of trite sayings and platitudes, dialogue that did not ring true, characters and events that weren't always believable. I would have been quite happy if a middle school student built scenes as this author did. But from an adult author, I appreciate better writing.

Lovely descriptions of the people and scenery of Newfoundland . Not much history, but likeable characters. The puzzles kept me reading .

I stuck with it to the end, even though the author took way too long to get through the beginning and into the story line. Perhaps if there had been better editing, it would have flowed more smoothly. When secrets were revealed towards the end of the book, somehow they didn't seem to fit into the story. I only paid $.99 for the Kindle edition, so I didn't mind the outlay.

A hold your interest love story on 2 different generation levels. At times the back and forth time levels were hard to follow. However the different love stories were a worthwhile and interesting read.

Warning: Long review ahead with spoilersUnlike most reviewers, I did not have trouble following the switching time periods. I mostly enjoyed reading this book because of the settings and time periods, but I do have a fair few criticisms of it. I think it all boils down to the fact that it needs better editing. And since I am an editor, I think I’m qualified to say that.The first gaffe that just really irritated me was Sophie’s new green velvet Escada suit and Jimmy Choos. On a good day, the flight from London to New York is an 8+ hour trip in an uncomfortable seat, and then add another few hours of travel to and from airports. Nobody in their right mind would deliberately wear such an outfit for that long journey, unless perhaps they had no choice but to go straight to their interview from the airport. But that wasn't Sophie’s plan. My only guess is that her attire gave Sam the basis to call Sophie (a brunette) “Princess Grace,” (a blonde), because the annoying nickname is never explained.We are also told Sophie has two pieces of luggage: a shoulder bag and a carry-on, which we would assume contained a change of clothing. Yet, later, she mentions a suitcase left on the plane as the reason she has nothing to change into. These kind of things are silly details that add nothing to the story, but irritate an observant reader.It was also unrealistic that Sophie was able to call the New York office of her interview the morning after 9-11 and chat with the secretary. If memory serves, New York City was shut down and the phone service was spotty for a few days. People were not going in to Manhattan, because they were terrified. I doubt anyone would have been in that office that day.The second thing that almost made me stop reading was the sudden appearance of Florie, Ellie’s 30-years-younger lesbian lover, whereas the whole book is premised on Ellie’s passionate love for her husband, Thomas. Did “Florie” start out as “Floyd”—a second husband—but some editor felt that wasn’t cool enough or something? There were a couple of opportunities, late in the book, when I thought we might get an explanation...but nope!Then, the Big Surprise did indeed surprise me—mostly because it was completely unbelievable. Dottie said she saw Ellie and George having sex in the Cow Tower. Well...WE didn’t. That scene must have been cut, and I don’t understand why. Considering that Ellie and George had been engaged for years without ever having sex, and considering that she really wanted nothing to do with George once she met Thomas, and considering how deeply she loved Thomas, I think the reader could have used some context as to what made her finally have sex with a guy she barely cared about anymore. And then to do it again years later just to get pregnant for a sister who hated her!? Makes no sense.Oh, and don’t get me started on the inexplicably creepy character of Emmett. I’m glad he fell off a cliff.I think if the author/editor cut out the repetitive scenery descriptions and filled in the plot holes instead, this book would have fared a lot better. I think it was a missed opportunity to write a great novel about interesting places and times.

I bought it as I enjoy books taking place during WW2. Also since it covered 9/11 and the planes landing in Newfoundland it kindled my interest as I had recently seen the play Come From Away. However the short chapters jumping back and forth between 3 time periods were confusing. Usually I don't mind the jumping back but the chapters were too short to warrant this. The ending was good but on the whole it was just ok

I thought that the storyline was good to begin with but it showed a complete lack of research. As someone who was born just after the end of WW11, I know we did not have; plastic trays, plastic hair slides or nylon nighties. The nighties were not available in Britain till the 60s. Trays were made of wood, hair slides were metal and mainly we wore "kirby grips" or even ribbon. Neither was there coke available in a britsh dance halls in war time. The choices I'm sure would have been tea, or coffee made of dandelion roots. Men didn't just ask for a beer in a pub, it would have been a choice between bitter, brown ale, pale ale, stout or indeed cider! As for the providing her ex fiance/ brother in-law with a child, what a fanciful idea. It could have taken some time to get pregnant but somehow it happened and he high tailed it back to the UK and she followed to give birth, leaving the rest of her family in Newfoundland for presumably a few months. I am thinking that air travel was not that common and probably very expensive in those day so a sea crossing? IT all just did not add up for me, sorry

I thoroughly enjoyed this book set in Norwich and Newfoundland - both are places where not many books have been set. Wonderful insight into the culture and history of Newfoundland especially. Good dual timeline story, set in 1940s and 2001-2011, and plenty of twists.If I had a criticism it's that I felt it to be a little choppy, as some of the chapters were very short and barely let you get involved in one time period before cutting back to the other.Good book though, and I would read more from this author.

I normally like 'time-slip novels but I've struggled with this one. It skips about the place making it difficult to remember who the characters are and where they fit into the story. Theres way too much irrelevant detail about cakes, place settings and other minutia that has no relevance to the story and becomes tiresome. I lost interest after a while so skipped most of the book.

A wonderful story that takes you from war torn Norwich to wind swept Newfoundland and pulls you into the interwoven lives of the beautifully drawn characters. This book will live with me for a long time.

I looked forward to reading this book partly because of being a Newfoundland story. However I found it difficult to read with such frequent changes of year! It took a long time to connect it all up during which I was getting bored. Why does it take such along time to leave everything to the very end of the book for things to fall in place, then abrupt ending! Characters were frustrating.