Wake by Anna Hope

I am so excited to be a part of the Wake Blog Tour.

The other stops are listed below, so please do stop by their blogs for some other great posts.

There is also a chance to win one of three copies of this book! More details at the end of the blog post.

Synopsis

Five Days in November, 1920:
As the body of the Unknown Soldier makes its way home from the fields of Northern France, three women are dealing with loss in their own way: Hettie, who dances for sixpence a waltz at the Hammersmith Palais; Evelyn, who toils at a job in the pensions office, and Ada, a housewife who is beset by visions of her dead son. One day a young man comes to her door. He carries with him a wartime mystery that will bind these women together and will both mend and tear their hearts.

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Review

Told only over a mere five days whilst an unknown solider makes his way home from Northern France, we follow the lives of three women; Hettie, Evelyn and Ada. Each are dealing with life in London after the destruction and devastation of World War One. Life and everyone around them seems to be moving forward, but for Hettie, Evelyn and Ada, they cannot seem to do the same.

This is an incredible debut novel. The author manages to capture the raw emotions of each of the three women and it moved me deeply. I thought  it was incredibly powerful and poignant and I just had to keep reading.  It was incredibly well done how the author splits up the story between the three women and at the same time not lose the reader with the constant shifts between them. There is also the Unknown Soldiers journey that we follow over the five days alongside the three women's stories.

Anna Hope's writing was simple and straightforward, but at the same time profound. She manages to capture every single detail, every emotion and every sound. I felt at one with these women and could feel their emotions as if they were my own.

These women, although ordinary, represent all the women who had to deal with the aftermath of World War One. The War may have been over, but there was a lot of devastation left behind and Anna Hope has given them a voice which they did not have back then. 

The last line of this story can lead your imagination any direction you choose, but for me it left me with hope that there is still a future for these three women. I would have liked to stay with these three women for longer as I feel like I got to know them and I want to know how their lives will turn out. I was sad to let them go.

Deeply moving and powerful. I already know this will be one of my top reads of 2014.

9.5/10


About the Author

Anna Hope was born in Manchester.  She was educated at Oxford University and RADA, and has a Master's in Creative Writing from Birkbeck College, London.

She lives in London.  Wake is her first novel.

Follow her on Twitter @Anna_Hope

Competition

I have three copies of Wake to give away. To enter fill in the Rafflecopter form below. I will announce the winners in a weeks time. Good Luck! (UK Only) 

P.S Please make sure you do the required below otherwise your entry will not count.

a Rafflecopter giveaway