Review: The Officer's Wife by Catherine Law

Today, I'm delighted to share my review of The Officer’s Wife by Catherine Law. It's an intriguing story of exciting love, the dangers of war, and of human frailties.

My thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and the publisher, Boldwood Books, for a copy of the book.

The Officer’s Wife

Catherine Law

The Officer's Wife begins with a flashback of two children meeting on a Kent beach – a girl called Elise and an unnamed boy. Little did they know how fateful that initial meeting would be...

We move to 1939, and a whirlwind romance between rich American heiress, Vivienne, and Nathan, an English Naval officer. With the threat of war hanging in the air, they quickly marry, and Vivi settles into his family manor with his parents. But her unfriendly father-in-law makes her feel like a stranger. She tries to make the best out of an unusual situation, but their attitude towards her – having called her a Wall Street Princess behind her back – doesn't help. 

Nathan is off to war, but returns, injured, and distanced, and Vivi is at a loss as to how she could help him with the horrors in his head. Little does she know that there is another reason for his aloofness – he met Elise who worked as a nurse in a hospital. 

The story continues in Vivi's and Elise's points of view. We also learn Nathan, worried he may turn out just like his father, feels torn. Is Vivi correct in not trusting her estranged husband? Or is there something else?

The Officer's Wife is a moving tale of friendship, love, loss – and secrets. The novel portrays the human side of war well, showing the struggles between old friendships and ’modern' relationships, and it explores links between the past and the present. 

I liked Vivi's character. Her internal journey takes her from superficial society girl to disillusioned wife to determined mother. She deals with her fate with a strong sense of self-preservation and dignity. 

Elise, from a different class to Nathan and Vivi, is a young woman who shares her home with her healer mother. We learn a little about her in her point of view, but I felt she still evaded me.

As for Nathan, I found him the weakest link. Some of his reactions would now be regarded as PTSD, but I felt he still could have acted more responsibly. At times, his conflicting emotions seemed like an excuse. It was Vivi who always picked up the pieces.

The Officer's Wife draws you into a deftly-woven plot interlinking past and present (within its WWII and post-WWII setting), with opportunities, secrets, and the dangers that came with the time. I found the story engaging and intriguing.

I would recommend The Officer's Wife especially to readers of well-plotted women's fiction.

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Blurb:

1939 - American heiress Vivi Miles falls for naval officer Nathan as soon as she arrives in England. And, under the threat of war, they marry in a whirlwind before he leaves to join his ship.

When Nathan returns from Dunkirk injured, he is distant, aloof, and no longer the man Vivi fell in love with. But it’s not just because of his brutal experiences of war. Nathan has a secret and Vivi suspects it’s linked to the mysterious evacuee at the secluded house in the woods on his Kent estate.

As war continues to rage, Vivi battles her own grief and loneliness, and tries to find out the truth of the girl’s identity, uncovering a scandal from the past.

Is her love for Nathan strong enough to survive?

Buy Link: https://amzn.to/3QgqLiu

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About the Author:

Catherine Law

Catherine Law lives in Kent, 10 minutes from the sea, having grown up in Harrow. And ever since she was a child, she has loved to create stories.

She writes romantic novels set in the first half of the 20th century, in and around the First and Second World Wars. Her books are inspired by the tales our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers tell us, and the secrets they keep. 


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