The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain Published by St. Martin's Publishing Group on October 3, 2017
Genres: Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / World War II & Holocaust, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Historical, Fiction / Women
Pages: 384
Format: Audiobook
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Steeped in history and filled with heart-wrenching twists, The Stolen Marriage is an emotionally captivating novel of secrets, betrayals, prejudice, and forgiveness. It showcases Diane Chamberlain at the top of her talent.
One mistake, one fateful night, and Tess DeMello’s life is changed forever.It is 1944. Pregnant, alone, and riddled with guilt, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly gives up her budding career as a nurse and ends her engagement to the love of her life, unable to live a lie. Instead, she turns to the baby’s father for help and agrees to marry him, moving to the small, rural town of Hickory, North Carolina. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows her no affection. Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.
The people of Hickory love and respect Henry but see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain. When one of the town’s golden girls dies in a terrible accident, everyone holds Tess responsible. But Henry keeps his secrets even closer now, though it seems that everyone knows something about him that Tess does not.
When a sudden polio epidemic strikes Hickory, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess knows she is needed and defies Henry’s wishes to begin working at there. Through this work, she begins to find purpose and meaning. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle the truth behind her husband’s mysterious behavior and find the love—and the life—she was meant to have?
A Library Reads Top Ten Book of October 2017
Praise for The Stolen Marriage:
"[A] well-crafted crime-tinged tale." —Publishers Weekly
"The Stolen Marriage is the kind of story that will grab you and refuse to let you go until you turn the last page." —All About Romance
"Readers will be sucked in immediately...you just can't go wrong with a book with [Chamberlain's] name on the cover." —Southern Pines Pilot
I am lacking in all the words, so I am going to tell you a fun story to try to make other words connect with my brain. Not too long ago, Draven randomly said, ‘We should read more Diane Chamberlain.’ We were first introduced to her early this year through The Book Girl’s Guide. I was on board, but then, like within the week, the May Guide for our In Case You Missed It Challenge came out, and lo and behold, there it was. The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain. I’m pretty sure the Book Girls are totally spamming into our convos now and doing a Facebook-style targeted reading list! I mean, probably not, but that timing though . . .
Have you ever read a book where the description was great, but vague? Yeah, that was this book, and the description didn’t quite do it justice. Have you ever read a book where you were extremely confident of what the twist would be early in the book? I mean, it doesn’t have to be mystery/suspense to have a twist, but there’s always a twist. I was a thousand percent confident in the twist, and I was oh so right in all the wrong directions. And while I realize this book is almost a decade old, I’m going to try to not spoiler anything that wasn’t revealed in the vague description, though that’s almost everything that happens in this book.
Diane Chamberlain does everything I love with historical fiction. It’s authentic, well-researched, doesn’t shy away from dark topics, and doesn’t try to modernize the thinking. Authentic. Racism and segreation was real, and it was actually illegal in most states for mixed-race marriages. Good (in general) individuals subscribed to this theory. It doesn’t make it right, but if we don’t remember where we have been, how can we presume not to repeat it? I appreciate that realism, without pandering to modern ideology, that she handles so tactfully. It’s subtle and not in your face, but it’s real. And while that stuck with me, that’s not even the real story of this book, but just proof of how well Chamberlain weaves realism into her characters and settings. Yes, we have war, racism, polio, classism, and heaven forbid being pregnant outside of marriage. While there is some storyline here that gives me pause on believability, it doesn’t detract from the pure historical account of Hickory, North Carolina, in the 40s and 50s. The care for research to present historical accuracy (yes, they really did build a Polio Hospital in like 54 hours) to place, people, and ideology shine through in a way that feels so authentic.
About Diane Chamberlain
Diane Chamberlain is the New York Times, USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author of 27 novels published in more than twenty languages. Influenced by her former career as a social worker and psychotherapist, she writes suspenseful stories that touch both heart and mind.
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