In a 1953 England under the control of German forces, life is good for Rose Ransom, a member of the privileged Geli class - or at least as good as life can be for a woman in the oppressive regime. But when she is given the task of infiltrating Widowland in search of possible subversives, she comes to learn she might have more power than she always thought.

The premise of this book caught my eye immediately. I haven't really read alternate history books before, but the idea of how the world would look had another action been taken at a critical point in time has always fascinated me. Here, the different action is the British government continuing appeasement instead of declaring war on Germany.

The writing was poetic and evocative, plunging me straight into the tired grey world of occupied Britain. I loved how the author wove plenty of historical figures and the details of Hitler's vision for the future into the world-building, and showed how thoroughly the British populace was brainwashed into accepting this new version of their country. I also appreciated the exploration of how literature can be used to both control and inspire its readers through Rose's occupation.

However, I thought that the plot took too long to build - Rose's investigation in Widowland does not take up much of the story at all. Instead, it's more about how Rose's worldview begins to change as she becomes more open to questioning the Nazi regime, and this I didn't think the author did very well, considering how swiftly and arbitrarily it seems to occur. I was also underwhelmed by Rose's romances and felt blindsided by the ending, which leaves us before we can witness the fallout of the climax. I suppose it is addressed in the sequel, but I'm not invested enough to read on.

What an interesting take on a “what if” situation surrounding WWII.

I found the first 2/3 moved very slow and felt repetitive compared to the final 1/3.

I’m interested in finding out what happens in the sequel

Widowland tells of an alternate history. The story begins in 1953, thirteen years after England surrendered to the Nazis and formed a Grand Alliance with Germany. Many oppressive ideologies have bee
adopted and women have been subject to classification into hierarchical groups based on the perceived value they brought to society.

Rose Ransom is a member of an elite class, She works for the Ministry of Culture, rewriting the classics of English literature to ensure there are no subversive thoughts that will give women any ideas, but she still remembers what it was like thirteen years ago.

There have been outbreaks of insurgency and Rose is supposed to find the source. Will Rose follow along?

This is an interesting story filled with a lot of ideas. The way women are treated is infuriating. The way books are treated and classified is appalling but is the basis for the story. There is some beautiful writing and I loved all of the literary quotes.

The book is a little difficult to get through as there is so much detail. It's an alternative history but reads like an historical fiction the reader is already familiar with. I was confused in places because I didn't understand anything that had happened before the story began.

If you like dystopian tales, historical fiction, or books about books this might be for you.

Widowland follows Rose Ransom, a young woman living in London. The year is 1953 and it has been 13 years since England has surrendered to Germany. David and Wallis are about to have their cornoation in a few weeks. Now under the Leader's rule Rose is given the taske of book editing by the Misntry. She is basically rewriting the novels to the standards set forth by the Leader. Everything in England is censored including the newspapers, magizines and books.The women are segergated by a Caste System and interacting with someone from a lower class is frowned upon. Rose is soon asked to interview some of the women from the Widowland as part of her work for the Ministry. There she finds out the truth from the Resistance Group and helps them to elminate the Leader. This book really makes you think about "what if " could happen if events didn't turn out as they did.

Widowland
By: C. J. Carey
Review Score: 5 Stars

Boogie’s Bulletpoints

-Carey does an amazing job of building an alternative universe, a Britain under German control.

-This book is intense, fast paced, and engaging. I could not put it down, I HAD to know what was going to happen.

-I love the mention of real life people (several of the Nazi leaders, the Mitford Sisters, etc) and how their lives would be in an alternate universe.

-There are some really great plot twists in this story.

-The book ends on an AMAZING cliffhanger.

——

I read Widowland because I received an ARC of the second book in the series, Queen Wallis. I am SO glad that I did, as it’s one of my favorite reads this year.

Carey builds this world where Britain doesn’t fight Germany during World War 2. They sign an alliance, and Germany enforces their own rule on the land.

This alternate universe is so well built. You learn about the Alliance itself, and then about a Resistance network, that wants to fight back. No spoilers, but there are plot twists that I did not see coming.

I could not put this book down, and it’s a book that stuck with me even after I finished (don’t you love a book like that)?

Read this book! You will not be disappointed.


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I thought this was historical fiction but it's actually an alternate history set in 1953. It's confusing, but I couldn't stop reading and trying to understand motivations and consequences.

Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the eARC of Widowland! All opinions in this review are my own.

I downloaded Widowland when it was a Read Now book on NetGalley in honor of the newest book in the series being published. I loved the concept of this book! This speculative fiction novel explores the question: What if the former King Edward VIII had allied with Germany during WWII and returned to England in order to reclaim the throne from his brother King George VI?

I read most of Widowland in a very large chunk while on an overnight flight when I was supposed to be sleeping. I think it says a lot for this book that despite being exhausted, I couldn't stop reading it!

Widowland reminded me a lot of A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood so if you are a fan, I recommend checking this one out! I can't wait to find out what happens in the next book!

In 1953 England is preparing for the coronation of Queen Wallis in this alternate history where Britain made an alliance of sorts with Hitler. The alliance means Britain collectively changes it's memories of books, history, culture. Rose works at the ministry of culture and rewrites inappropriate parts out of classic novels. Yet she finds herself closer to rebellious ideas and investigating feminist graffiti that stems from Widowland - where older women are sent to be forgotten and ignored.

Really interesting alternate history with world building that takes hold quickly. Awaiting the sequel after a killer cliff hanger ending.

I profess myself over-the-moon enthusiastic with this incredible, totally engrossing, feminist Dystopian Alternate-History Historical novel. Wow! I couldn't set it aside, I'm determined to further research the "actual" history of this era (particularly Wallis Warfield Simpson and once-not-future King, Edward VIII), and right now to continue this electrifying saga in the sequel, QUEEN WALLIS.

I expect any thinking person is well acquainted with the question "What if?" Those of us who are fascinated by History ponder this often. Alternative History vivifies possibilities. In WIDOWLAND, the year 1940 saw Great Britain forming a horrifying, disastrous, alliance, future-altering, alliance with Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. The Aryan-supremacist Alfred Rosenberg was installed as Protector of this Protectorate, his long-cherished dream. Rosenberg believed that in the dim mists of the far past, the German race and the Anglo-Saxons were connected, so that "racially pure" British were also by lineage Aryan.

Rosenberg instituted a classification system to categorize all females in adolescence, grounded in pseudoscience. Nothing in this system glorified any female (who were to avoid both education and literature), nor did it offer any protection. Yet the most despised class was the older widows, age fifty and above, who were childless, and single women of this age. Confined to outcast, dilapidated, neighborhoods termed "Widowlands, they were disallowed meat and eggs, given reduced rations, and were considered valueless to Society [the State over all].

Reading WIDOWLAND is to hold one's breath as the danger to the characters is nonstop. Consider walking an invisible tightrope: one can't spot a misstep till it happens, and under the Alliance, the consequences are arrest, interrogation, torture, and disappearance.

Kate Quinn called Widowland a compulsively terrifying read and that it most certainly was. It may have been a combination of my mood and the fact that this novel felt frighteningly close to home that I actually had a hard time reading this. It was heavy and definitely not the shinier, happier novels I often gravitate towards. The weight to the novel comes from the incredible amount of details put into the worldbuilding.

Widowland tells the tale of Rose who lives in a world where Germany won WWII. 13 years have passed since Great Britain entered an “alliance” and Edward and Wallis are about to be crowned King and Queen. There isn’t an aspect of what this world would look like that wasn’t considered by Carey. From jobs to relationships, from local laws to foreign relations, from film stars to views on make-up.

This isn’t your ordinary dystopia. This one has a feminist twist à la The Handmaid’s Tale. Women serve one purpose in society to be mothers. Women who can’t or won’t subscribe to the doctrine are rounded up and put in a dilapidated place called Widowland. They work for nothing, live in squalor, and are given significantly less rations because they aren’t “contributing.” So, yeah, it hit close to home for me as a childless thirty-something with absolutely no desire to change that. I can’t tell you the number of people who have told me I am selfish. I even once had a family doctor who refused to treat me further because he no longer felt it was appropriate to prescribe me methods of birth control because “I should be doing what I was put on this earth to do.” But I digress…

The book is heavily detailed in worldbuilding to the point where there is little plot or action until 75% of the way. However, it is absolutely purposeful on the part of Carey. Because with the extraordinary amount of details, the reader is offered a bleak alternative reality. Rose is always in danger but the danger starts to become as ordinary to us the reader as it is for Rose who really came of age under the regime. For most of the novel, the reader is barely offered a glimmer of hope in terms of change in circumstance leading to what Rose eventually does/has happened to, to be quiet and yet jaw-droppingly impactful.

The sequel to Widowland, Queen Wallis, is available for purchase today!

Widowland by C.J. Carey takes place in 1953 London, but in an England where instead of fighting against Germany in WWII, they ally with Germany and become part of the "Protectorate", with Nazi leadership in charge and all of the ideals of status, race, and class imported from their ideals. Rose Ransom is a 'Geli', a woman classed as the most ideal and is working in the cultural ministry, rewriting classics to conform to the current ideals. Since women in the Nazi party ideals are less educated, not encouraged to read and basically treated as brood sows, Rose isn't as immersed in the classics before beginning her position but as she reads these books she, like a lot of people exposed to other ideas/ideals, begins to question the party's mantras. Outside of Rose's job and life, the book centers on the coronation of Edward & Wallis and a visit by the Leader (Hitler, but he's never named). The party officials are tenser than the usual security concerns arising from a visit like this because there has been some literary graffiti popping up all over London. Rose is tasked to visit 'Widowland' the ghettos where women over 50 are sent since they're no longer able to breed. The officials believe the graffiti is coming from there due to the literary nature and the women in Widowland are the only ones who are literate enough to use these quotes. Rose is even more caught between the party and the ideas of freedom and winds up upending her comfortable life.

This book was a decent look at an alternate England, at times infuriating, nauseating and terrifying. There were elements of other alt-histories but having the main character be a high-class/status woman strain against both the strictures of the party's ideals on womanhood along with the ideal of freedom from the party made the story have a more double impact and gave more stress to the idea that she has a lot more to lose by taking a more active path in life instead of being married off & producing tons of Nordic-ideal children. I enjoyed the book overall and it was a quick read.

I was mesmerized by this “what if” story with a cleverly crafted plot. It was very thought provoking.
May thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I could not finish enough of this book to be able to leave a comprehensive review, but I hope it finds its audience and I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Unable to provide a full review of Widowland. I could not finish this title. I found myself bored and my mind wandering elsewhere every time I tried to read. Then I'd go back and reread only to have the same issue. I think this title just wasn't for me, but I'm glad so many others have enjoyed it.

This was weird book for me. I think dystopian is my least fav. That said it was well written. Many thanks to publisher and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion

"Widowland" is quite a heavy book. Personally, I found the topic was depressing me as I read. The pace is slow; not a fast read. There is also a huge amount of history in the first chapter, so if you are not into fact-dropping, this book might not be for you. On a positive note, the cast system is very interesting. I think so many of us do have this feeing about war: what would have happened if...?

Extremely thought-provoking as to what could have happened in World War 2. Very well done. Can’t wait to read Queen Wallis now.

I am so thankful that I was able to read this book and do continually thank C.J. Carey, Sourcebooks Landmark, and NetGalley for the advanced access. Everyone loves a cozy mystery, especially when there's some historical fiction thrown in the pot.

Here is a dystopian story of what might have happened if the US didn't enter WWII and Hitler and his Nazis was allowed to take over England and France. The Germans are controlling the narrative of the 1950s by rewriting history and literature to conform to their ideals and eliminate subversive thoughts. In the vein of Handmaids Tale and Vox - we see what the lives of women could be reduced to.

The premise was wonderful - what if there was no World War and Britain decided to act for Germany as its Protectorate? Women have been divided into castes. The protagonist is of the higher caste that allows her more freedom yet she has numerous restrictions to pass. Life in Britain is dull and grey. There is a shortage of everything. Our heroine has a good life in comparison to others.

I think the concept/world building was fantastic but the storyline itself leaves a lot to be desired. It’s like it ran out of steam or was trying to be too many things at once. It’s technically a very good book, the world is super, I just wanted more from the storyline and character arcs.