Tuesday, March 14, 2017

A Bridge Across the Ocean - Review

Idgie Says:
The book description doesn't quite fully explain the story.  There are ghosts, you see.  Plus a few generations of women who can see these ghosts. A little Sixth Sense thrown into the mix.

Combine the ghosts on the Queen Mary with the stories of living women traveling on the ship, holding secrets and hiding stories of their own, and you end up with a juicy novel. 

The novel swings back and forth between the past - before and during WWII - and the present.  Secrets are hidden in the past and are about to be discovered in the present.  

What really happened to Annaliese and Simone during WWII?  What happened once they finally reached the possible safety of America?


I enjoyed how the novel's chapters moved between time and place and gave just enough of a glimpse into a particular woman's life each time to keep you not only guessing, but anxiously awaiting more. 

A great book to escape into. 

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(Berkley Trade Paperback Original; March 14, 2017

About the book:
Shifting between the war years in Europe, the 1946 voyage, and present day California, A BRIDGE ACROSS THE OCEAN is told from the alternating perspectives of Annaliese Lange, Simone Deveraux, and Brette Caslake.
In the aftermath of WWII, Annaliese and Simone join hundreds of other European war brides aboard the Queen Mary. Both have suffered greatly during the war: Annaliese is a German desperate to escape her abusive Nazi husband, and Simone is the only surviving child of a French Resistance spy. Their stories converge when they meet in line to board the ship. Both are desperate to leave the war behind and start over. 

As the women sail toward their new lives in America, tightly-held secrets are revealed in their shared cabin.
When the ship docks in New York Harbor, only one of them will live out her American dream. 
In present day, facing a crossroads in her own life and coming to terms with her family’s dark legacy, Brette visits the rumored-to-be-haunted Queen Mary. What she finds will lead her on a search to solve a decades-old mystery connected to Annaliese and Simone’s fateful crossing.