Liverpool, 1937. Jessica is married to Bertie, a mean, patronising man who she has stayed with purely for the sake of her two young children. To make up for the love and passion that is missing from her life, she spends the occasional afternoon at the local cinema, lost in romantic films. But when an unexpected glass of champagne is offered to her in a Liverpool hotel, the consequences turn out to be shattering.
When Bertie discovers his wife's deceit, he is ruthless in his revenge. He sells their house and disappears with her beloved children, leaving Jessica devastated and alone. Then she is asked to visit Paris and help an old friend and her small daughters return to Liverpool before the onset of the war. But Jessica finds herself stranded in Paris under German occupation. With new friends and a small family to care for, she must find the courage that she never knew she possessed...
Rating: 4 Stars
What I really liked about Au Revoir Liverpool was that the main character Jessica is so easy to connect with. Right from the off I found her extremely likeable although I can't quite put my finger on why that was. Even when she spends one afternoon in the arms of another man, thereby ruining her marriage to the horrendous Bertie, I found myself thinking of Jessica as the victim and being wholly on her side.
Whilst many people have described this book as a wartime romance I saw it as more the story of Jessica coming into her own. Through her own mistake she has lost her husband and her two children and is thoroughly down in the dumps. However she finds herself becoming a completely different person who is capable of standing on her own two feet and surviving wartime France. Okay yes some of that was to do with having a man around the place, but she does survive several years on her own as well.
So now I'm going to be a little bit nitpicky. The one thing that bugged me was that Jessica kept falling completely and irrevocably in love. Now don't get me wrong, it's perfectly possible to fall in love. But to be completely and utterly in love with one man, and then another one only a year or two later I don't quite buy. There was also one character who appeared to me to have no redeeming quality whatsoever, and that would have to be Sara. Without beating about the bush she's one hell of a bitch. At least her superficial theatre owning husband did something worthwhile in the end. But the last thing that really bugged me was Ethel's reaction to Tom's affair. What woman would just go oh well I'm in love with him, and stay with him for years and yet delight in his later ruin? She doesn't make any sense to me.
Would I recommend this book? Oh yes. It may have only occupied me for a day but this was a very enjoyable read.
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