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After the War is Over

Jennifer Robson

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Jan 27, 2015 writer... rated it liked it

Shelves: around-the-world-challenge, audiobooks, library-reads, canadian-authors, canadian-book-challenge-7-15, historic-romance, wwi-wwii, women-s-fiction

Well, it finally arrived in my local library branch after my first message, "HaH #73 on the library reserve wait list :)" and I completed the audiobook version today. Perfectly timed for June is Audio Month and the final week of the Canadian Book Challenge #8 at BookMineSet blog. The new year's reading challenge always begins on Canada's Birthday, July 1st. This book is my 17th for the year. Written by a Canadian author, Jennifer Robson.

Many of the insights gleaned of WWI fascinated me. The exci Well, it finally arrived in my local library branch after my first message, "HaH #73 on the library reserve wait list :)" and I completed the audiobook version today. Perfectly timed for June is Audio Month and the final week of the Canadian Book Challenge #8 at BookMineSet blog. The new year's reading challenge always begins on Canada's Birthday, July 1st. This book is my 17th for the year. Written by a Canadian author, Jennifer Robson.

Many of the insights gleaned of WWI fascinated me. The excitement over a rare piece of fruit -a surprise gift shared willingly amongst housemates. Secrets kept from each other to protect from some unwanted and unknown outcome. Absolute devastation of families, children and soldiers left unpensioned and unsupported by their country. Horrific consequences of this era all served to inform Ms Robson's well researched storytelling. Advances of women in the work force, opportunities to assist disenfranchised women, warfront involvement, the chance to cast a vote, suffragism, and societal reactions to these advances. Good variety of characters in unique circumstances supported the main plot and character development of Charlotte and Edward. I did feel some important aspects of the story where I wanted detailed writing weren't developed and one other went further into the physical aspect of relationship than was comfortably needed.

What I found difficult was the audio narration. A particularly grating voice with shrill tonal quality that irritated throughout. At several points I was ready to give up listening. I resolved this by turning it off to give myself a mental break - resulting in a lengthier listen than the stated 10.5 hrs.
I also had the misfortune of either the order of the cds being wrongly recorded or misnumbered. I was totally confused by the sad loss of one character gone missing, then reappearing without explanation in the next audio segment. Thus, not an entirely pleasurable listening experience. Sorry that it was so. The story deserved better. Be sure to give the audio a preview listen if you're considering this version of the novel.
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