Review ~ Map of Stars by Catherine Law

Zaffre
Bonnier Publishing
2016

A bit of blurb...

Love and duty, codes and spies - a tear-jerking wartime romance for fans of Rachel Hore, Kathryn Hughes and Leah Fleming

Kent, 1939. Eliza is to be married to Nicholas, her companion since she was a child. But when the pair are involved in a car crash, Eliza is rescued by a stranger, Lewis Harper, who she struggles to forget.

As the war begins, Eliza's world begins to fall apart: her beloved brother Martyn is killed in action, and her once-beloved husband grows increasingly distant. And then, when her efforts to help the Dunkirk evacuees take her to the south coast, she spots Lewis in the crowd.

Torn between passion and duty, Eliza must choose whether to follow her conscience or her heart. But wartime has plenty of its own dangers, and with spies infiltrating even the country houses of Kent, Eliza must find the courage to serve her country in even the most heart-breaking circumstances.

A beautiful story of star-crossed lovers, Map of Stars is another brilliant wartime saga from Catherine Law.

My thoughts about the story..

Map of Stars opens in 1967 with a lengthy prologue which introduces us to Eliza Staveley and her life at Forstall Manor, an Elizabethan house which gleams in the sunshine. Life for Eliza appears, on the surface, to be settled, but her daughter, Stella’s return to Fortsall opens up long forgotten memories for Eliza, and when an unexpected event occurs, Eliza is immediately taken back in time to 1939 and to the war years spent as a young wife at Forstall.

The book is nicely written with a well plotted mystery which looks at Eliza’s life in wartime Kent, it observes her relationship with her husband Nicholas, and of her attraction to Lewis Harper, an enigmatic stranger who once rescued her from harm. Interspersed throughout is the story of how people adapted to the changed circumstances of wartime and showed just how quickly events could spiral out of control. 

I like the way that the author has brought her characters to life, particularly Eliza, who I rather liked from the start. I admired her feistiness and in a world which was all too often dominated by her male counterparts, Eliza was able to find her own voice in this emotive story about war time romance, the danger of espionage and the thrill of forbidden love. War time England with all its associated problems is well explained and there is a nice sense of time and place.

Best read with …strong tea from enamel cups and a slice or two of Eliza’s cinnamon cake, warm from the oven.

More about the Author

Photo credit :David Berger

Catherine Law was born in Harrow, Middlesex and has been a journalist for twenty-two years, having trained first as a secretary at the BBC an then attending the London College if Printing. She now works on a glossy interiors magazine and live in Buckinghamshire.

There is more about the Author on her website Click here

Find her on Facebook Click here

Follow on Twitter @cathmarialaw

My thanks to Carmen at Bonnier Zaffre for my review copy of Map of Stars

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