Author: Hazel Woods
Title: This Is How I'd Love You
Publication Date: August 26, 2014
Publisher: Plume Books
Formats: eBook, Paperback, MP3 CD
Pages: 320
Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Blurb: As the Great War rages, an independent young woman struggles to sustain love—and life—through the power of words. It’s 1917 and America is on the brink of World War I. After Hensley Dench’s father is forced to resign from the New York Times for his anti-war writings, she finds herself expelled from the life she loves and the future she thought she would have. Instead, Hensley is transplanted to New Mexico, where her father has taken a job overseeing a gold mine. Driven by loneliness, Hensley hijacks her father’s correspondence with Charles Reid, a young American medic with whom her father plays chess via post. Hensley secretly begins her own exchange with Charles, but looming tragedy threatens them both, and—when everything turns against them—will their words be enough to beat the odds?
Praise for This Is How I'd Love You
“In This is How I’d Love You, Hazel Woods explores the enduring nature of an improbable love born of words, washed in tragedy, and sustained despite impossible circumstances. With prose as immediate and evocative as a painting, Woods accomplishes the magic of rendering sorrow into hope and fear into courage. It is as idealistic a tale as it is clear-sighted, a brilliant alchemy few novels achieve. Readers, prepare to melt” — Robin Oliveria, author of My Name is Mary Sutter
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Review: This book was really beautiful. I have a love for stories that happen during WWI I always have, so I had to read this one.
This Is How I'd Love You is told from two perspectives, Hensley Dench and Charles Reid. Charles is corresponding with Hensley father through a chess game.
You get snippets of their lives along with their responses to each other, or at first Charles' response to Hensley's father. (She sort of hijacks the letters)
Words can't begin to describe the beauty of this book. Both Hensley and Charles suffer tragedies in their lives on their road to finally meeting.
You get the horrors of war, told from Charles' viewpoint and WWI was not pretty. There was a scene with a dying horse that broke my heart.
Then there's the young, pregnant Hensley. She went through so much, and was really strong. She didn't accept what her brother wanted for her.
The other characters that stick out are Teresa and Berto, the Mexican's she meets in Hillsboro, New Mexico.
The letters exchanged by Hensley and Charles bring their lives together and bring them a rather unexpected love.
This book was a very emotional read, and one of the best books I've read all year.
Rating: 5 flowers
About the Author
Hazel Woods lives in New Mexico with her husband and two children. For more information please visit www.hazelwoodsauthor.com. You can also find her on Twitter.
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