On tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club, The Lengthening Shadow (The Linford Series) by Liz Harris #BookReview #WW2 #histfic @lizharrisauthor @maryanneyarde

 

I am once again working with The Coffee Pot Book Club to introduce you to your next favourite read!

When Dorothy Linford marries former German internee, Franz Hartmann, at the end of WWI, she’s cast out by her father, Joseph, patriarch of the successful Linford family.

Dorothy and Franz go to live in a village in south-west Germany, where they have a daughter and son. Throughout the early years of the marriage, which are happy ones, Dorothy is secretly in contact with her sister, Nellie, in England.

Back in England, Louisa Linford, Dorothy’s cousin, is growing into an insolent teenager, forever at odds with her parents, Charles and Sarah, and with her wider family, until she faces a dramatic moment of truth.  

Life in Germany in the early 1930s darkens, and to Dorothy’s concern, what had initially seemed harmless, gradually assumes a threatening undertone.

Brought together by love, but endangered by acts beyond their control, Dorothy and Franz struggle to get through the changing times without being torn apart.

My Review

The blurb intrigued me, but the story itself bewitched me. With a beautiful narrative and characters that were just so loveable and believable there was no way I was going to put this book down. I thought this book would pull at my heartstrings, but I was not expecting such an emotionally compelling read, and oh, how I felt for Dorothy and everything she goes through.

Set both in England and Germany, and with a careful use of foreshadowing, we witness the event unfold. This story is one of personal struggles, discrimination, but above everything else it is about love.  

Reading this book was a wonderful way to while away a day, and I will definitely be recommending this book to everyone I know.

Buy this Book

Amazon UK • Amazon US

Liz Harris

Born in London, Liz Harris graduated from university with a Law degree, and then moved to California, where she led a varied life, from waitressing on Sunset Strip to working as secretary to the CEO of a large Japanese trading company.

A few years later, she returned to London and completed a degree in English, after which she taught secondary school pupils, first in Berkshire, and then in Cheshire.

In addition to the nine novels she’s had published, she’s had several short stories in anthologies and magazines. 

Liz now lives in Oxfordshire. An active member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Historical Novel Society, her interests are travel, the theatre, cinema, reading and cryptic crosswords. 

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