(The Canadians Book 3)
Three strong women make their way in 1950s Canada.
English hairdresser, Ethel, alone after the deaths of her parents and brother, and her wartime fiancé.
Widow and single mother, Alice, bringing up two daughters, receives an unexpected inheritance that will transform her life.
War bride, Joan, now mother to four small children. All brought together in a rural Canadian town where they each try to build a future – often in spite of the men in their lives.
Each woman has a different idea of happiness. Will any or all of them achieve it?
The final novel in The Canadians series after The Chalky Sea and The Alien Corn.
Grab your copy now and lose yourself in the lives and loves of these women.
Three women, in post-World War 2 Canada. They are all connected, but their lives have gone in widely different directions. Joan, who lives in Canada with her children and husband. Ethel, Joan’s cousin, who comes to visit after the death of her mother. Alice, Joan’s sister-in-law, a single parent trying to raise two daughters.
All each woman wants is happiness – albeit their ideas of what will make them happy differs between each woman. With the past hanging over all their heads, trying to find happiness is a difficult endeavour. But when the past comes back to visit, in the form of a man none of them want to be near, how can they be safe, let alone happy?
As it turns out, I have now read three books by Clare Flynn, and all three of them have been the third book of their respective series. I have never managed to read books one or two of any of the three series I have read book three of! I actually saw this book in a charity shop, and immediately recognised the author’s name. I obviously could not leave it there, and brought it home with me. The previous owner had clearly never read it, there was not a single crease in the spine. Perhaps, if they had, they wouldn’t have given it up.
I absolutely adored reading this book. The three main characters, Ethel, Joan, and Alice, are all very different people, and yet, they are all characters you can’t help but like. Well, saying that, it did take me a while to decide whether I liked Alice or not, but she grew on me as I continued reading. Alice lost her first husband (Joan’s husband’s brother – families can be a little confusing, can’t they?) during the war, and had a second child with a man she wishes she never met. She and her two daughters live with Alice’s ageing aunt, who has a very large fortune, which she has promised, in it’s entirety, to Alice. With the knowledge that she and her daughters will have the money to live comfortably, and then some, Alice puts her mind to the future. She can remain unmarried and know that she will be able to care properly for her daughters. Alice is an inspirational character. She knows what she wants, and she works incredibly hard to achieve her dreams, even if her actions are unconventional for a woman at the time.
There is not too much focus on Joan in this book, I felt. Perhaps she takes more of the limelight in the previous two books. She is pregnant with her fourth child, her other three are all young boys. She is the only one of the three women who is married, having moved to Canada as a war bride, married to Jim, the love of her life. They live on a farm, nearby to Jim’s parents. It is when Ethel comes to visit, that Joan’s family in Canada is practically complete. Joan has missed Ethel dearly, and she simply cannot see that there is anything in England for Ethel anymore and would love for Ethel to move to Canada. Ethel, of course, has other ideas. She has a life in England, a job, a house – she can’t just pack up and move… can she? I loved Joan. She is the conventional family woman of the book. She has a husband, children, a house… she lives nearby to her husband’s parents. And yet, with her coming across as the mother of the book, it is easy to forget that Alice also has two children. The only difference is that Joan has an entire support team behind her, and Alice is alone.
Ethel lost her beloved during the war and has never moved on. How could she just forget about him, and fall in love with someone else? But, when she arrives in Canada, she meets Duncan, the area’s doctor, and can’t deny the fluttering of her heart.
There is so much I want to say about this book, and not nearly enough time to say it. If I talked about everything I wanted to, this would be an incredibly long review, and I would give away the entire plot. Therefore, I will try to be a little vague, but my praises are much too high to not talk about this book far too much. I mentioned before that this is the third book in the series, and that I have actually only ever read third books by Clare Flynn. This is absolutely a testament to her writing. Not once have I felt lost while reading one of her books, even though there is plenty of backstory I am missing out on. I kept up with everything while reading, which, considering enough happened for two previous books, is almost surprising. Somehow, all of the emotion I was supposed to feel for each character, and for one in particular, it was strong hate, came across without needing to know everything that happened before. How Clare Flynn achieved this so perfectly, I don’t know, but I commend her for it.
I would probably have to say that, if you are interested in this series, you should start with book 1, but if you want to read book 3, and not the rest, you can do just that. Although, if you do read book 3, without reading the previous books first, you will definitely want to go back and read the rest of the series. Do yourself a favour, and start with book 1 – you will end up reading it either way!
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