Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner Published by Penguin on February 3, 2015
Genres: Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / World War II & Holocaust, Fiction / Historical / General, Fiction / Women
Pages: 416
Format: Audiobook
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The author of A Bridge Across the Ocean and The Last Year of the War journeys from the present day to World War II England, as two sisters are separated by the chaos of wartime...
Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden—one that will test her convictions and her heart.
1940s, England. As Hitler wages an unprecedented war against London’s civilian population, hundreds of thousands of children are evacuated to foster homes in the rural countryside. But even as fifteen-year-old Emmy Downtree and her much younger sister Julia find refuge in a charming Cotswold cottage, Emmy’s burning ambition to return to the city and apprentice with a fashion designer pits her against Julia’s profound need for her sister’s presence. Acting at cross purposes just as the Luftwaffe rains down its terrible destruction, the sisters are cruelly separated, and their lives are transformed...
Huge shout out to the The Book Girls’ Guide In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) Reading Challenge: 2026 Edition for introducing me to Susan Meissner with A Fall of Marigolds in February and then making me want to read more of her. Because come the March list we have this book and I could not have been more excited. Helping me reach a goal one book challenge list at a time 😀
While this book is set to the backdrop of WW2 and the London bombings and the evacuation of children to the countryside that’s not really what this book is about. It’s not a history lesson but it’s a well done story with that specific backdrop. But you could set this story against any backdrop and it would still stand. It’s more about the consequences of our choices (big and little, right and wrong) and a lot of self-blame and guilt. It’s a story built on hopes and dreams, lies and fear, and hope with maybe just maybe a chance at redemption. This is not a WW2 story but a human story and honestly, at the end of the day, I think I loved it more for that than that than anything else.
Isabel is a fraud, a lie she kept for so many years. But no spoilers here! But she started as a young woman with a passion and a dream at only 15. And in pursuit of that dream she made some pretty sketchy choices, because well 15. And maybe, just maybe, that would have all worked out for her except her timing was terrible. I mean the bombs where dropping by the time she ran back to London to pursue those dreams. There’s a lot of loss (I mean bombs) which leads to a lot of lies and while it breaks your heart you get to see how one wrong choice can lead to a lot of other choices. But you also get a chance to see how it transformed everyone involved, most sometimes for the better. You can do the wrong thing for the wrong reasons and you can try to make it right by doing the wrong thing for the right reasons but ultimately each choice leads to another and all choices have outcomes that you have to live with. The real story here is how to overcome your own guilt and blame when you do the wrong thing for the wrong reason. There’s always the possibility for redemption, it’s not always the outcome you want but it’s the outcome it’s supposed to be. Sometimes you get it right. . . and sometimes you find out that the lies you told become a better version of who you are.
About Susan Meissner
Susan Meissner is the critically-acclaimed author of 27 novels for adults and two children’s books. Her engaging novels feature memorable characters facing unique and complex circumstances, often against a backdrop of historical significance. A multi-award-winning author, her books have earned starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and Booklist.
She was born and raised in San Diego, California, but spent some of her adult life living in Minnesota as well as in England and Germany, before returning home to southern California in 2007. Susan attended Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego.
Prior to her writing career, she was a managing editor of a weekly newspaper in southwestern Minnesota. She enjoys teaching workshops on writing, spending time with her family, reading great books and traveling. Susan now makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband Bob (a retired chaplain in the Air Force Reserves) and their yellow lab, Winston.
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