Friday, February 25, 2011

Coventry by Helen Humphreys

Harriet Marsh is standing on top of Coventry Cathedral, filling in for a neighbor in the nightly fire watch on November 14, 1940, when the town is attacked by German planes.  During the chaos that follows the bombing, Harriet befriends Jeremy, a young man who reminds Harriet of her late husband, Owen, who was killed in World War I.  Jeremy turns out to be the son of Maeve, a woman Harriet met on the day Owen left for the war in 1914.  It is a short novel (177 pages), and while it portrays the terrible night that Coventry was destroyed, the character development was a bit weak.  It was good, but not great.  I rate it 3 out of 5.  It was my 3rd book for the New Author Challenge and my 4th for the Off the Shelf Challenge.

3 comments:

Timaree said...

Hopefully you'll enjoy more books than not as you go down your list!

Kathy A. Johnson said...

Even though it wasn't an unqualified success, you chose a book that fulfilled several of your challenges--there's something to be said for that. I've kind of bogged down in my challenges, though I am reading a collection of Agatha Christie's stories that will count towards the Vintage Mystery Challenge.

Anna said...

I really liked this book, though I thought it was too short and it left me wanting more. But not in a bad way. I think I could excuse the lack of character development because I was just so engrossed in the events of the bombing.

I've added your review to War Through the Generations. (I'm still doing updates but have been swamped, so if you don't see your other reviews yet, they'll be up soon. And please keep passing on the links!)