Today’s team review is from Terry.
Terry blogs here https://terrytylerbookreviews.blogspot.com/
Terry has been reading Lake Of Widows by Liza Perrat.
4 out of 5 stars
Lake of Widows is set in France in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when not all attitudes had caught up with the Swinging Sixties and Women’s Lib movement elsewhere in the West. The main character is Adrienne, a timid woman lacking in confidence, who doesn’t realise how much her whole personality has been subtly eroded by her manipulative husband, until an event when out shopping sends her head into rebellious overdrive, and she doesn’t go home.
Then there is Blanche, who lives by a lake dear to Adrienne’s heart; she is struggling with the reality that her husband is a treacherous conman. Most of all I was interested in the story of Suzanne, a First World War wife whose life takes a turn for the worst when her husband returns from the Front. All three women’s lives intertwine in this beautiful setting, as they discover their own expectations for themselves, finding courage they did not know they possessed.
I found the part set in an insane asylum most interesting – I’ve read and watched a few books and documentaries that show how the treatment of the emotionally sick was, even in the 1970s, positively Dickensian. I also loved Suzanne’s story – I would have liked to read more about her and her husband. As for the writing itself, it will make you want to visit L’Auberge de Léa, and stay there!
Book description:
Three women. One shared struggle. Can they survive?
1970. When Adrienne Chevalier’s perfect life in a chic quartier of Lyon unravels, she flees to rural Sainte-Marie-du-Lac to escape her controlling husband, Emile.
Taking refuge at the idyllic L’Auberge de Léa, Adrienne befriends Blanche Larue, who is herself trapped by her husband’s infidelity. Adrienne begins to understand the subtle strictures that keep women chained across generations.
But to what diabolical lengths will Emile go to reclaim his wife?
And can Blanche find the courage to choose truth over appearances?
1914. Suzanne Rossignol bids farewell to her beloved husband as he marches off to war. Through Suzanne’s journal entries, Adrienne discovers that the damaged soldier who returns from the trenches is a stranger, leaving Suzanne to navigate a home-front battlefield.
Join Adrienne, Blanche and Suzanne on their emotional journeys amidst the tranquil French countryside as they fight to escape the shackles of tradition and abuse. Their stories, bridging half a century, are bound by a timeless struggle.
