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1920s: Meet the spare brides. Young, gorgeous – and unexpectedly alone.
Spare Brides
What you need to know before your trail
Spare Brides tells a unique story about war and how it affects the women left behind – the Spare brides of the title, young, alone and unexpectedly lonely.
Sarah is left alone to raise two children. Meanwhile her sister Beatrice is starting to fear that she will never find a man.
Ava, on the other hand sees her ‘single’ status as a great opportunity for ti gives her added independence and a free pass to do what she wants.
And then there is Lydia, beautiful, rich who husband has not been sent to the trenches – so some would say she had it all.
But when the captivating Edgar Trent walks into their circle just which one will be tempted to risk a irresistible temptation?
Travel Guide
Eaton Square
This is the story about war seen from the perspective of the women left behind and so we see a lot of the london streets and scenes of domesticity within the grand houses of Eaton Square and the country ones out in Hampshire but the main action is focused on the capital and the many galleries, museums, cafes and homes that the four women frequent during war time.
Lyons’s House
The most iconic is perhaps Maison Lyon’s which was a popular cafe located at Marble Arch which is no longer there but having a cup of coffee in the open air just beside the imposing arch makes for a good alternative.
Historical details such as when Lydia goes out handing out leaflets with her new friend Marie Stopes about fertility and birth control are very interesting and there is a real sense of the London dark streets, street lamps and a sense of loss that pervades everything the women do. There’s the moment where Lydia is in one of London’s most iconic museums the Victoria and Albert Museum and this helps to set the scene of the time and place, now and then.
Booktrailer Review
Susan:@thebooktrailer
Spare Brides is a departure for Adele from what she has written before – her novels are modern and certainly not historical but I’m very glad that she went down this road! Spare Brides is the story of women stuck in extreme situations and at a loss as to know what to do and how to act. Their world is changing due to the war and just like the men who go off to fight, they have to adapt and survive as best they can.
Adele excels as making the characters believable and I was keen to know what they did and why even if I did not agree with all of the reasoning. But then this was war time and modern attitudes and opinions can not be forced to fit the past.
The details of the time is excellent – it was a world of glitz and glamour which was also tinged with sadness and despair. Even if these are upper class women, their worries and grief were all too real and I felt for them – money not being the answer to happiness or good fortune being the obvious lesson that you can take from their plight.
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