In Love and War - A Novel of Ireland
Very rarely have I read a romance novel that has so much to “say” about a historical period. Suzanne Barrett’s work, In Love and War (Turquoise Morning Press), manages this in a way that is informative and gripping, yet so skillfully understated that the love story is what sent me to bed (where I read) each night with the book clutched in my hands. The story involves a war-shattered TV foreign correspondent/journalist of Irish descent, Quinn Lawlor, who comes to a small village near Waterford, in Ireland, to heal his wounds - both physical and emotional - and to write a book. There he meets my all-time favorite heroine, Meaghann Power, a not-so-young woman who has inherited a dairy farm which she struggles to operate on her own. She is a rare combination of down-to-earth, no-nonsense practicality and sensitivity - a mature woman who yearns for love. Meaghann feels love and loyalty for her family, but when Quinn arrives, this wars with her hunger for emotional/physical connection ...