A tough read because of the underlying premise but given a chance it's a good historical novel that takes a chance. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

This book was an average read. I had been expecting more but it was still an ok book.
Writing style and pace were of average quality
An ok book

A love story set in Hong Kong after the Japanese invasion of World War 2

I really enjoyed this story, a tale of survival against all the odds and a terrible indictment of how the Japanese treated their enemies in World War 2.

The story revolves around Dr Rowena Rossiter, a beautiful, intelligent and feisty young woman working in the hospital in Kowloon in 1941. One evening she and her best friend, Nurse Alice Huntly, decide to go out one night to a bar near the walled city. It is there that Rowena meets the two men who are going to change her life forever. Connor O’Connor is serving in the army but has purchased the bar as an investment with his best friend and Officer Harry Grace. When Rowena is refused a drink because she is a woman, a man called Kim Pheluong intervenes and orders her to be served and asks Rowena and Alice to join him. Rowena is fascinated by Kim, he is immensely rich and one of the most handsome men she has ever seen, and despite Alice's misgivings agrees to meet him for a dinner date. Rowena also meets Connor O'Connor, the fun-loving Irishman who tries to forget the war and the fighting by singing songs in his bar. He is also bewitched by Rowena and tries to woo her.

Everyone’s world comes crashing down when the Japanese conquer Hong Kong and kill all the wounded soldiers in the hospital as well as some of the doctors in front of Rowena’s eyes. She is then raped by four of the Japanese soldiers and a few months later discovers that she is pregnant by one of them.

Kim rescues Rowena from the hospital and takes her into his home, but she soon discovers that he does not believe that she should do anything except being his lover and bend to his will. He is also the supplier of opium to anyone who requires it. This makes him useful to the Japanese as he was to the Chinese before the invasion. His power is such that Rowena cannot escape him, and although she is initially strongly attracted to him as a man, she also has strong feelings for Connor, who has been taken, prisoner.

There are many twists and turns in this story. It documents the privations and suffering felt by so many of the people living in Hong Kong after the invasion. Rowena, despite all her suffering, manages to stay strong but is then tormented by bearing a half-Japanese child that she is not sure she can love.

This was an interesting book to read. It is difficult to take in some of the horrors that people had to live through. The author's descriptions are at times in quite graphic detail.


I did feel that some of the events did not ring quite true, but that is for other readers to decide. An interesting story which I would recommend to anyone interested in the events in the Far East during the Japanese invasion.


Dexter

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

The author did a great job of writing as far as the time and place go, but the actual story felt like something was missing. It seemed to jump around and wasn't really centered on one character.

What an amazing novel! The character development was incredible, the story line flowed seamlessly and I was captivated the whole time. Highly recommended!

The setting of this book was interesting, the brutality of the war and the men and the area and traditions.

And I wanted more of that.

But it's the characters that I didn't like and when you don't like the main character you don't connect with the story and lose interest.

Rowena, is a doctor in Hong Kong and is out trying to have a bit of fun before the war when she meets two men on the same night who will have a role in her life.

I didn't like Rowena, she was too modern, too forward, and annoying.
She didn't care what others think and didn't take advice.
She meets this creepy guy and despite the warnings of the others she still want to be with him.
And she also likes to spend time with Conner but doesn't want to listen to him
This happens so fast in the beginning that there is hardly any character or relationship development, and when the war and the Japanese come into Rowena's life, everything for her changes dramatically, you start to feel sorry for her and what happens.
Except the creepy guy, Kim, pulls her out of it, and then her problems have nothing to do with the war and all to do with survival.

And yes I sympathised with what happens to her, but in a detached kind of way.

There are a few parts where we read about Conner and the war.

Near the end I was reading fast like let's get this over with.

I can't really say that I enjoyed it, but I can see how it might interest others who might see Rowena differently, I think that's what makes the difference.

I absolutely loved this book, loved the characters and loved the setting. Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities but I am very unfamiliar with what the city went through during WWII and this book opened my eyes to Japanese treatment of Hong Kong and of the nursing staff as well.

This is a tough read. I have to say that at the start as it does get very unsettling and hard to read. I realise a book about war is not going to be easy, nor should it shy away from the horrors of war such as rape and torture but it’s still hard to read about. That’s not a criticism of the book as it treats the subject with care but it’s still uncomfortable to read about.

I’ve read lots about the horrors of war and the effects on women especially but this took on a new and interesting angle being set in Hong Kong. This is Rowena’s story and what a story. I was hopeful one moment and lying in a heap on the floor the next. I can’t even imagine what these women went through.

My stomach is still churning and my head one mix of emotions after reading this. Powerful stuff and the horrors of war, of internment camps and the treatment of women during war time is all consuming. Shockingly this was, and in many countries, still is a reality.

It was just too much for me at this time and in a novel.

I absolutely LOVED this book!!

Everything about the story worked for me and I was gripped by the story from the first few pages and it kept me fully engaged right through to the end.

I thought that the author had a brilliant writing style and she brought to life for me the period and location and I felt I was living the story with the characters.

The story isn't an easy read in places due to some of the atrocities that took place but I found the topics to be dealt with in line with the story and the author handled them very well, I really felt for Rowena at times in the book and I thought that she was a fabulous character and very well developed.

It is definitely five stars from me, it was a very well written story that had everything I look for in a book, I cannot recommend this one highly enough!

I’m not sure how I feel about this book after finishing it in one sitting. Part of me enjoyed a different viewpoint of WWII as it was mostly set in Hong Kong, not England or France. However, I felt like the storytelling was disjointed. The book mostly centered on Rowena but occasionally split off to discuss Connor, though it was really Rowena’s story. I feel it would have been Better flow had it just focused on Rowena, but even her tale was splintered. Spoilers follow:

It’s clear from the beginning that Kim is a bad guy but there is a momentary hope that he will turn into a good guy once he saves her from the internment camp. Instead, she goes from one hell to the next and there’s no real understanding of the passage of time. She escapes and four months have passed? Then suddenly she’s giving birth and being taken away again by him and treated like an animal to be broken. Once again she escapes and now the war is over. It’s very oddly done and all over yet liberally sprinkled with details of how hard life is and what people are going through.

I liked it, but I didn’t like it.


I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.