The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes

Jojo Moyes is one of my favorite authors. She is a talented storyteller and I love reading her stories. I also love learning about something I previously knew nothing about. I had no idea that ships brought war brides to their new husbands in their husband's countries. What brave women they were! First of all, they were brave to marry a soldier from a different country in wartime. Secondly, they were brave to leave their home countries and families to sail across the globe to their husband and his family. I would guess that there were some "second thoughts" about this on both sides of the ocean! How awful for the women that received the "go back home" messages. Yikes.

The four women from Australia featured in this story were shockingly different from each other. They made for interesting cabin-mates to be sure. Margaret & Frances were my favorites. Margaret was so kind and helpful, despite her obvious discomfort from being far along in her pregnancy. I just wish she would have left her little dog, Maude Gonne, at home in Australia with her family! A ship is no place for a dog, at least a dog that must be hidden. The poor thing. Dogs need to run & play. I still feel crushed that Maudie didn't make it to England. 

And if Margaret was an "open book", then Frances was the opposite. I had no idea what her story was. I did wonder why it took so long for her to help the Captain! I kept waiting for the Captain to ask for her help, since he had to know she was a nurse who served during the war. I also thought that Frances would offer her help to him since she seemed to know that he was hurting. Goodness it took a long time for the two of them to connect! I was incredibly happy that the Captain saved Frances from "ruin" and being sent back to Australia.

After I finished the book, I had to go back and read the beginning again. When a book starts at the end of a story, and then goes back to the beginning of the story for 400 pages, I sometimes forget where it "ended", so to speak. Since you don't know the characters at the beginning of a book, it's difficult to absorb the meaning of it all - or even who's involved in the opening scene.

Jojo Moyes doesn't necessarily always have a "happy ending" to her books, but this one was definitely satisfying. She had me wondering for awhile, but fortunately, it turned out the way I wanted it to.

Wendy's Rating: ****