World War II War Brides

Crowmarsh Priors is a sleepy coastal village in Eastern England. During the evacuation of London before the Nazi Blitzkrieg, many evacuees were billeted in local homes. Five young women, Evangeline, Alice, Francis, Antoinette, and Elsie are all affected by the war and its hardships. They pull together to defeat enemies—hunger, bombs, a possible Nazi invasion, and a traitor in their midst—to form a bond that will last a lifetime. 

Evangeline Fontain was a teenage girl in love with her cousin, Laurent. To escape an unwanted marriage to a local man she detests, she seduces a young British officer, Richard Fairfax. The couple marry on a ship to England and settle in Richard’s hometown of Crowmarsh Priors. 

Alice Osbourne, the twenty-two-year-old daughter of the town’s vicar, promises Richard Fairfax she will be his wife, but was shocked when her fiancé returns home with a bride.  

Francis Falconleigh is a young fearless debutante from London sent to Crowmarsh Priors by her father, Admiral Tudor Falonleigh, as punishment for her outrageous behavior, and to keep her safe and out of the newspapers.

Refugee, Antoinette Joseph is a Jewish girl from Austria. In 1938, at the age of 16, she is quickly married off to Bruno Zayman, a local boy who is a professor at Oxford University. Tanni’s greatest joy is reading fairy tales to her four-year-old twin sisters, Klara and Lili. In Crowmarsh Priors, she waits with her baby for her sisters and parents. 

Elsie Pigeon is a poor fifteen-year-old London girl sent to the countryside for her safety so she wouldn’t be at risk from the threat of German bombs. She sees her evacuation as an opportunity to escape her poverty. 

War Brides, by Helen Bryan begins with a VE-Day invitation to the principal characters, who are now very old women. They all agree to come not to commemorate the historical occasion they lived through, but to settle a score and avenge one of their own. Throughout this historical novel, we are painted beautiful scenes of the English countryside, the horrors of London during a bomb blitz, and the terror of Nazis rounding up frightened Jews. 

The novel is character driven with a plot that takes readers from Tel Aviv to New Orleans, London, Paris, and an English village. The author does an exceptional job of research delivering a 497-page book that will hold a reader’s interest from start to finish. 

About the Author:

Helen Bryan grew up in Virginia and eventually settled in a small UK East Sussex village. She’s the author of five published historical novels and an award-winning biography, Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty.

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