Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Hedgerow, by Anne Leigh Parrish {ends 10/9}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

She came home exhausted to find Henry reading, listening to the radio, or drinking and playing solitaire. Alistair wasn’t due back for another week and Edith had been preparing their meals. She’d arranged for their laundry to be picked up at the apartment – Alistair usually dropped it off weekly at a place a few blocks away. She asked for groceries to be delivered, too. She just didn’t have time to shop.

That Henry was useless in domestic matters was no surprise. All his life other people had handled things for him. Even in London during the war he’d had Alistair. But she was infuriated that he expected her to put in hours at the store and then wait on him at home. He said he was happy for them to dine out every night until Alistair returned. She said she didn’t always want to go out. Sometimes, it was nice to stay home and put her feet up.

“You’re right, poor dear. Let me make you something. I’m sure I can find my way around the kitchen well enough,” Henry said.

Edith seems to have gotten herself out of one marriage that wasn’t a good fit only to be falling into another.

Official synopsis:

In the long-awaited sequel to Anne Leigh Parrish's An Open Door, Edith Sloan navigates life after leaving her dull, demanding husband, Walter, for Henry, a well-off British peer. The bookstore she owns on Harvard Square, The Turned Page, thrives under her management, and prospects for a publishing venture take shape. As 1949 comes to an end, and with her sights trained on a new decade, Edith struggles with stifling social conventions, unreliable men, and an unforeseen circumstance that might ruin everything.

While the book is a sequel, it was easy to read and understand without the previous story details. Edith is in the middle of her divorce from Walter, and co-habitating nicely with Henry, the man who bought a bookstore for his then-wife and Edith to run together. The wife soon returns to England, but Edith is only too happy to keep overseeing the bookstore alone. 

Edith and Henry may be a little more than friends while living under the same roof, but she’s always been very careful not to mislead him—she does not love him and doubts she ever would. Eventually he confesses that he knows this, but still wants her to be his wife anyway. She decides she sees no good reason not to accept his proposal.

Unfortunately, none of the characters were very likable, and the choices they made were making them even less likable as the book went on. It was a generally pleasant read, and would be enjoyed by those who might appreciate Henry and his butler’s British background or fiction based in the late 1940s in the U.S. Overall, the book earned 3 out of 5 stars.

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Becki Bayley likes reading, napping, and looking at 50s styles. Check out what else she’s been up to on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of The Hedgerow!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Wednesday, October 9th, at 11:59pm ET, and winner will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

The Hedgerow, by Anne Leigh Parrish