Title: Beyond Coincidence
Publisher: Harlequin Escape
Publish Date: Sept 1, 2014
Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley & TLC Book Tours
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb:
Mixing romance, history, and a touch of the unexplained comes a new novel from Jacquie Underdown about love that needs to cross oceans and time before finding a place to come true.In 2008, 250 Australian and British soldiers are uncovered in a mass grave in Fromelles, France, lost since the Great War. One soldier, bearing the wounds of war so deep it has scarred his soul, cannot be laid to rest just yet.
When Lucy bumps into the achingly sad soldier during a trip to France, she doesn’t, at first glance, realise what he is – a ghost who desperately needs her help. Lucy can’t turn away from someone who needs her, even someone non-corporeal, and they travel back together to Australia in search of answers and, hopefully, some peace.
This chance meeting and unexplainable relationship sets into motion a chain-reaction of delicate coincidences that affect the intertwined lives of family, friends, and lovers in unexpected, beautiful ways.
Review: Beyond Coincidence combines two things that I love reading about, WWI and ghosts!
It is hard to imagine being in France and being approached by a long dead soldier looking for closure. The story put me in mind of the beautiful song No Man's Land, about another battle in France in the same year. The Battle of Fromelles was one of the worst for the Allies, and definitely one of the worst for Australia. 5500 lives were lost in 24 hours. Jacquie brings one of them to life in Freddy.
I loved how eager Lucy was to help Freddy in his quest to rest, at last, in peace. There's so much heartbreak that he has to go through, including learning of the death of his wife, though she lived 88 years, and his son, who lived 75.
In the course of their journey together, Lucy finds love of her own, in the ghost's grandson, Nate. Their courtship/relationship is quite turbulent, add in a few reappearances by Lucy's ex and you get a novel that's full of drama.
What I love the most though, is learning about Freddy and his family and what happened during and after the Great War.
This is a book that will hit every emotion you have by the time it ends. In fact, I would say this is a keeper shelf book, and I'll go even further to say that this is a book you'll probably read over again.
Rating: 5 flowers
2 comments:
Thanks, Andrea for your lovely review. I'd not heard the song, No Man's Land. It had me tearing up anew. Thanks for sharing.
Stories from The Great War really get to me - it was a time of such loss and so many changes in society. Sounds like this book is not to be missed!
Thanks for being a part of the tour.
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