Adele Parks has written many books and I have not read one. This is not unusual for me and pretty sure there are many more authors who I will never read in my life because, let's face it, there is just Not Enough time. I went to the library today and there was an entire shelf of books by this author.
Spare Brides is set in the 1920's and a new decade of glamorous promise is in the air. A whole generation of young men have perished on the battlefields leaving a surplus of women looking for a husband. Wealth, beauty, wit and charm are needed in order to make sure that you were married and not left on the shelf. We meet Sarah, a widow whose husband was killed in the war. She loved him deeply and feels that she is happy to sink into middle age and devote herself to her children. Ava, a beautiful society beauty, wealth and able to 
do just what she wants. She worked during the war and is now frustrated with her butterfly existence, feeling her brilliant mind and talents are being wasted on lovers and fake fun. Then Lydia who feels ashamed that her husband escaped the conflict by working at a desk job and surviving when so many others died. And finally, Beatrice, plain and poor whose chances of a husband and marriage are practically nil.
The main centre of this story revolves around Lydia who meets a strikingly handsome and haunting officer and who is struck by a coup de foudre when she first bumps into him at a tea shop. He is damaged from his war experiences and has a reputation as a lady killer working his way through the willing women he finds only to happy to comfort a war hero. At first he treats Lydia as another such conquest but their brief affair flares into a passionate love which changes not only Lydia's life but that of her friends and family who find they too need to find a way to be happy with their future lives.
I freely admit that when I started reading Spare Brides I was not sure I was going to like it, but I found myself gradually drawn into it as the story progressed and ended up sitting up late one night to find out whether there was going to be a happy ending or not.
Not going to give anything further away as it is such a page turner of a book and I want you all to enjoy it. My thanks to Headline for sending me this terrific story and for introducing me, albeit somewhat late in the day, to Adele Parks.
Now back to the library to get some more….
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