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Friday, August 30, 2024

When the World Fell Silent by Donna Jones Alward

A story of loss, hope and redemption against the most impossible odds. 1917. Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Nora Crowell wants more than her sister’s life as a wife and mother. As WWI rages across the Atlantic, she becomes a lieutenant in the Canadian Army Nursing Corp. But trouble is looming and it won’t be long before the truth comes to light.

Having lost her beloved husband in the trenches and with no-one else to turn to, Charlotte Campbell now lives with his haughty relations who treat her like the help. It is baby Aileen, the joy and light of her life, who spurs her to dream of a better life.

When tragedy strikes in Halifax Harbour, nothing for these two women will ever be the same again. Their paths will cross in the most unexpected way, trailing both heartbreak and joy its wake…

Paperback, 374 pages
Published August 1, 2024
 by One More Chapter
3/5 stars

I grabbed this book because of the Canadian setting, a debut Canadian author and that it revolves around real Canadian history.  It’s 1917 when the Halifax explosion rocks Canada.  Do you see the theme?  Yea I love reading about this great country.

I wanted to love this book.  The social media hype was high so maybe my expectations were way up there.  But for a number of reasons I was left wanting more.

I love that this story highlights an almost forgotten tragedy in our history but I wanted more details, like the how, why and who was responsible.  It almost seems that this was more a background story with Nora and Charlotte's story front and center.

Told from the point of view of these two young women, who I found similar and at times hard to distinguish.  They have both lost so much between the war and the explosion, and now they struggle to carry on afterwards.

This is falling between a 2.5 and a 3 star book for me. While I didn’t love it, I also didn’t hate it. It was a predictable story with a lot of inner dialogue and at times repetitive. 
It was just a so-so read that would have taken me longer to finish if it was not for the audio.

This book was part of my 2024 reading off my shelf challenge.

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