Love Against All Odds

by Rosie Harris

When Gaynor’s God-fearing father drives her childhood sweetheart away, she’s certain she will never love again, until a young German helps her to forget her sorrows. Then war is declared, and he must return home, leaving Gaynor heartbroken once more. When her parents discover she’s pregnant and insist she cannot keep the child, she runs away to Cardiff, only to find herself penniless and alone in a strange city. She is forced to give birth in a workhouse, but shortly afterwards is taken in by a friendly Spanish family who care for her and little Sara. She quickly falls for the charms of the eldest son, thinking she has finally found love and a chance of happiness at last - until a telegraph arrives to shatter her dreams. . .

Genres: Historical, Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published March 13, 2007

About the author

Rosie Harris was born in Cardiff and for several years worked in the City Hall. Her husband, Ken, was from Wallasey and after they married they lived on Merseyside for many years.
She has been writing since the 1950’s. In the 1960’s she ran her own agency, Regional Feature Service, writing articles for most of the provincial newspapers.
During the 70’s she became Editorial Controller for a non-fiction house.
In the 1980’s, after publishing a number of non-fiction titles she turned to fiction and during the 1980/90’s had a number of short stories published as well as five books by Sphere under the name Marion Harris.
Since 2002 she has had some 20 books published by Heinemann/Arrow. She sets her books in the 20’s because she has a great admiration for the women who were wives and mothers in those days. They had none of the current time-saving equipment – no washing machines or vacuum cleaners, no instant electric fires or cookers, and certainly no Internet. Their days were long and arduous and often they had to manage on very little money.
In 2005 she was one of the judges when Arrow and Asda collaborated in a major national competition to find the next big saga writer.
Her most recent titles are Love Changes Everything and The Quality of Love. The next, Whispers of Love, will be published in March 2010.

Reviews

[Summer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay, good story line and all but it felt dragged out. It’s meh

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gaynor's father is ambitious for his daughter, and does not want her to marry a manual worker. So he persuades his employee Barri to move away to Cardiff. Gaynor then falls for a good-looking German; her father approves but things start to fall apart. Gaynor eventually moves to Cardiff too and loses touch with her parents.

The novel takes place over more than thirty years during the early part of the 20th century. It works well in historical context, evidently well-researched, and the author is clearly familiar with the places she writes about.

Unfortunately the characterisation is rather shallow, with far too much narrative for my tastes, racing through the years, sometimes, without pausing to get to know the various people. Motives and emotions were attributed to them in ways that felt rather artificial, and meant that I didn't have any emotional reaction to anybody in the book.

The plot was interesting - sufficiently so that I read it at one sitting - but the ending seemed forced and unlikely, albeit satisfactorily tying up various threads.

Worth reading for those who like the social history of the period, but not so much for those who prefer character-driven emotive books.

[Chrissi]

I thought this book was good, touching in some places, but seemed very unrealistic. Still, it was well written and okay to read.

[Tracey- Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice read, three sisters all so very different. I loved their English grandmother Florence , so lovely a character!

[Kiwileese · Rating 1 out of 5]

Far too slow and long drawn out very tedious

[P · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is good but I thought it was very slow-paced. Couldn't wait to turn the last page.