A Splendid Boy

Melanie
Martin
Genre: 
Historical

A love story that transcends time begins in the summer of 1914, when Daniel Beresford and Emma Tavenor’s innocent relationship is discovered by her father. Displeased with her daughter’s choice of a poor fisherman, Emma’s father offers the one thing Daniel cannot refuse - cancelling his family's debts in return for leaving Emma. Torn between family and love, Daniel enlists in the Newfoundland Regiment and heads off to join the First World War. Learning of her father’s manipulations, Emma risks everything by joining the Voluntary Aid Detachment to track down the man she loves. With the war taking many young men and women, will Emma be able to find Daniel, and if she does, will they survive the horrors of battle or become two more lives lost amidst the chaos?

 

A historical romance told through flashbacks and alternating points of view, “A Splendid Boy” is a romance of two lovers torn asunder by circumstance, but also a coming of age tale. With the war to end all wars as the backdrop, Ms. Martin provides the perfect setting, and a cast of different characters to showcase the different attitudes and experiences of the Newfoundland volunteers and those supporting from home. The romance itself is full of passion and determination readers want to see more of. The conflict provides drama and danger.  With a happily ever after to look forward to, readers will speed through this novel hoping for more.  In short, a must read for historical lovers!

 

Sarah E Bradley