To Meet Again

Evelyn is studying to be a nurse to appease her parents who assume she will drop the program when they find her a suitable man to marry. It’s 1938 and Evelyn has no interest in men or nursing. Knowing her parents will not allow her to become the singer she wants to be, she heads to Singapore with a fellow entertainer, ready to begin her new life. While struggling to keep employed in the local nightclubs she meets Joan, an Australian doctor at a local hospital. It’s love at first sight. Their romance is cut short when the Japanese threaten to invade the city and the women become separated.

I loved this historical romance and found myself researching events portrayed in the novel to learn more about the brave women held in Japanese POW camps and subjected to brutal living conditions. Kadyan succeeds in building a strong romantic bond in the short time Evelyn and Joan are together, giving the reader hope against hope that they will find a way somehow to be together if they survive the war. Riveting read.

Eh Stevens via NetGalley

WOW, what a fast-paced read! As the story unfolds, I knew I was in for an emotional rollercoaster. WWII, Japan, Pearl Harbor, internment camps, forced/arranged marriages and so much more. Evelyn Baker, from England, talented singer looking for a sense of self away from a controlling family heads to Singapore. Dr. Joan Cliver, compassionate physician practicing in Singapore, from Australia. When the women meet it is likability from the start. They spend two wonderful years living together in committed love. Unfortunately, the women cannot control what is happening in the world and eventually they are separated and the fight for life and reconnecting consumes them.

This beautifully written story is told through letters written from Evelyn to her sister Dorothy. Thea in 2000 inherits a house from her great Aunt Dorothy (who she thought was her grandmother). Through the letters which takes the reader and Thea back to 1938 tell a totally different story. Although events happen fast, I continued to stay engaged and captivated.

Kennedy O via NetGalley

The book shares the story of Evelyn Baker who is a nursing student in 1938 London. Her first love is singing and when given the opportunity to be a performer she takes off to Singapore. After working at an upscale hotel she ends up singing at a cabaret. There she meets Dr. Joan Cliver, an Australian working at a nearby hospital. They become friends and more enjoying their time together. But after the bombing of Pearl Harbor war is coming.

With the Japanese invasion the reader experiences life in a POW camps. A group of women and children bond together to try and survive the conditions. Evelyn’s nursing skills prove useful to those she is with. The heat, hunger and infections are described as are other brutalities. There are twists and turns and some very convenient moments. The book is compelling. I know a lot about Europe in WWII but less about the brutalities and conditions in Asia. Because everything is told from Evelyn’s POV, I did wonder what Joan was thinking especially when the two were separated. And my heart broke at the cause of some unhappiness after the war.

I love learning history with fictional books and I will remember these two characters.

Kaye Cox via NetGalley

This is a story about Evelyn who is studying to be a nurse in London in 1938. She dreams of being a professional singer. To escape her controlling parents she takes a job and moves to Singapore. While preforming there, she meets Joan a young doctor. They have an instant attraction to each other. The Japanese invade Singapore and Evelyn and Joan are forced into a concentration camp.

I enjoyed this book very much, it’s fast paced and very entertaining. Both MCs are well developed and likable. The story is told from Evelyn’s point of view and I would have liked to have know more of Joan’s thoughts. Both women were very resourceful and courageous throughout the three years of imprisonment. The side character women were good friends and supportive...Overall if you are looking for a historical fiction/romance with some good action, this is the book for you.

Cheryl Weber via NetGalley

This was a historical and certainly dramatic novel, not for the faint of heart...It is about two women who meet in the months before the start of the Second World War, in the area that Japan invaded. They meet in Singapore where they are for different reasons, Evelyn is a singer who performs in a place where Joan goes to hang out after her job as a doctor. Evelyn came from England and Joan is Australian.

Before the start of the war, they enter into a romantic relationship that surprises and excites them at the same time, to the point that they come to live together, in a society that of course is not at all open in that sense. And when the war breaks out, they must leave hastily, but not at the same time, setting an initial course for Australia, to live with Joan's family. And then begins the drama of the two of them being arrested by the Japanese army, taken to work camps, suffering and surviving and suffering a thousand and one humiliations.

The drama gradually increases, with several high points of a different nature, moments in which the worst is to be expected, sad, desperate. But never to the point of being unbearable. The environment and situations have been believable and have created a distressing atmosphere as expected.

I particularly liked it a lot, it has been something different from what I usually choose, but it has not been disappointing at all.

Rosi DePlma via NetGalley