Reviewing The Captain’s Wife
By Norma Curtis

The Captains Wife is a descriptively written now and then story of a welsh nurse and American airman during World War II. This historical fiction will bring readers to tears, stir up anger, and keep engage them in both stories equally. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves character driven novels with a little bit of history.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 Stars for and engaging World War II love story set in beautiful, rural Welsh.

A romance told in two different time periods, this slow-moving story tracks the lives of Al & Elin and their long-lost love. 60+ years ago, a young Al & Elin were in love, but then Al must depart with the Navy. Instead of living out her own dream of marrying Al, Elin later receives a wedding invitation from Al announcing his marriage to someone else. But in the present day, 85-year-old Al is back in town, looking for Elin. Will he find his long-lost love? Or live through one last heartbreak?

I admittedly wasn't prepared for some of the steam in this romance, but readers who love a mix of history and steam will really appreciate this story. The setting in Wales was unique, and the Welsh cultural notes added to the story nicely. What I did not love about this book was the narration - it sounded like the narrator was emphasizing every single word and sentence, which made it harder to listen for the emphasis on certain parts of the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookoture for the advance audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

A beautiful and heartbreaking story about lost love, forgiveness, and family secrets.

Al, a retired Navy Captain, came back to the valley that he left sixty-five years prior. At last, he was ready to face the truth and hear of the events that broke his heart so many years ago. As he turned the last bend, the reality shocked him to the gore. In the place of the village now stood a lake. And just like that his hopes were once again wiped away.

I can't express the anger and heartbreak I felt while reading this novel. Al's lack of patience made him jump to a conclusion that resulted in a terrible chain of events that felt over Erin. The dreams she once had were crashed. And she was left to pick up the broken pieces and built a different future. To be completely honest, I fully supported her decision in the end. The past should be left in the past.

This was a wonderful story, a great lesson. It touched my soul, and I will remember this story for a long time. Great writing and a welsh history presented in the novel made this a very enjoyable read. Thank you NetGalley and Bookoture for a free and advanced copy of the novel.

During WW2, in a small village in Wales, Al Locke, a US Navy sailor fell in love with local Welsh girl Elin Jenkins. He asked her to marry him, but she felt obliged to postpone the wedding & a move to the USA in order to fight against the flooding of the Welsh Valley to form a reservoir. A misunderstanding leads to Al believing that she has changed her mind, and he marries a childhood friend.
Sixty-five years later, he returns to Wales to continue some research and also wonders if Elin is still alive. We follow Al during his six-day visit, as he discovers that the village he remembered is long gone, sitting at the bottom of a reservoir. We join him as he recollects the past, and gradually uncover the full picture of what happened.
At heart, this is quite a simple story (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy goes to find girl years later … but what results is beautifully written emotional yet not sappy story of love, loss, misunderstandings, lost opportunities and how time changes everything.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Josh Wichard, and he did a good job with some of the Welsh pronunciation, though some words were a bit too Americanised! Other than the words, the narration was well paced, suited the storyline well and he was interesting to listen to as he brought the story to life.

It would have been nice to have had an authors note detailing what was fact & what was fiction in terms of both the flooding of the villages and the Welsh ancestry of Abraham Lincoln!

Quite an interesting story. A mixture of fact fiction and love. I found it a bit long but persevered to the end and was quite glad I did. Thank you for the opportunity to listen to this story.

The Captain’s Wife
Norma Curtis
The setting was sixty-five years ago (during WWII) in the small Welsh village of Capel Celyn. Elin Jenkins, a young nurse, and Al Locke, a Navy sailor, were planning their wedding. A few days later Al boarded his ship to Pennsylvania. Elin deeply loved Al, but she also loved her parents who have a farm in Capel Celyn. Her Uncle Eric shamed her into postponing her wedding so that she could assist in saving the town hence saving her parent’s farm. She sent a telegram to Al saying cancel the wedding. Al was devasted. He proposed to Virginia and married her on the day he should have been marrying Elin. He sent Elin a wedding invitation with the words “No Hard Feelings” written on the back. Before Elin received the invitation, she wrote a letter to Al telling him how much she loved him and explaining why she had to cancel the wedding; she also shared the fact that she was pregnant. Al never read the letter.
Eighty-five-year-old Al returns to Capel Celyn seeking Elin. The village is gone, it lays at the bottom of a manmade lake and Elin is nowhere to be found.
The Captain’s Wife is a moving tale of love, misunderstanding and love lost. To read this novel is to feel the pain and heartbreak of Elin and Al. Oh if she had worded her telegram differently, if she had used the word postpone instead of “cancel” but then we wouldn’t have this beautiful story. I was angry with Eric for shaming Elin into canceling the wedding and then at a later date betraying her. I was angry at Al for bedding Virginia as soon as he received the telegram of course Virginia invited him into her bed. Their marriage was not a happy one but that’s what happens when you manipulatel someone to do things your way. My heart went out to Elin, she was the one who suffered the most. I enjoyed the history concerning Abraham Lincoln and the Welshman that discovered America.
Author Norma Curtis is very talented and so is the narrator, Josh Wichard.

Two things drew me to this book- the cover and the mention ‘for fans of Kate Morton’ in the description. Let’s take a moment to appreciate the former: isn’t the book cover gorgeous! I felt like I couldn’t NOT read a book with such a beautiful cover. And as for Kate Morton, I have only read one book by her and I absolutely loved it. So I went ahead and requested this book. And I can’t say that I am disappointed. In fact, to the very contrary, the book “exceeded my expectations” on all levels.

The Captain’s Wife (I will come back to the title in a minute) is a tale of classic star-crossed lovers. Elin and Al are made for each other but not meant for each other, in a cruel twist of fate. But sixty five years later, when Al comes back to her place on a research for Abraham Lincoln’s mother’s Welsh roots, he still feels excited at the thought of seeing her, talking to her. He wonders whether she’s married (or widowed, hopefully) and how she will react to his visit. What he never expected was that her entire village would be drowned under a reservoir built to provide drinking water for Liverpool. There was no trace of the village, the Quaker burial ground he was looking for, or of Elin.

The story progresses through Al’s six-day visit and his recollections of the past, and we gradually get the full picture- what went wrong with the scheduled wedding and how the pair drifted apart. Everything about the story was just right: pace, tone, setting, characterisation and style of writing. Although I don’t agree with the title- this book is not about the Captain’s wife at all, she plays a rather minimal role.

Also, this was my first audiobook experience, and while I missed the feeling of a book in my hands and turning the pages, it was really convenient to just listen even when my hands and eyes weren’t free to hold a book and read. Josh Wichard narrated the story beautifully and with feeling.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for access to the audiobook. I would be delighted to read more works by Norma Curtis.

She’s guarded her secret for a lifetime. He’s not ready to let go.



Sixty-five years ago. Pushing aside drooping hollyhocks, Elin Jenkins tosses back her dark hair and runs up the familiar path to the tiny village of Capel Celyn, past the mossy graveyard with its crumbling stones, towards the farm that’s been in her family for generations. Laughing, Al catches her around the waist, squeezing her tight. ‘Marry me,’ he whispers. ‘I’ll use my Navy liberty leave, we’ll go ask your parents. I don’t want this to end.’ Tears prick her eyes as she smiles up at him.



Three days later, Al is on his ship back to Pennsylvania. And in the months that follow, Elin’s frantic telegrams to him go unanswered. Then she receives the wedding invitation. Scribbled on the back are three words: No hard feelings.



Present day. Al Locke, retired Navy Captain, smooths his silver hair and finishes up with a spritz of aftershave. With a spring in his step he hasn’t had for decades, he sets off up the well-worn track through the valley. As he rounds the last bend, his heart begins to race. He has no doubt he will meet her in the village today. He will at last hear the horrible truth of what happened to Elin after he left, and he’ll confess why he couldn’t face coming back… until now.



As Al crests the final, familiar hill, a startling brightness draws him in like a vision. Before him, a glittering lake fills the entire valley. The pretty stone village of Capel Celyn, and all trace of Elin, are gone…



A beautiful and heartbreaking story about lost love, forgiveness and family secrets. The narration has good pace and flow,and the narrators voices seemed right for the characters they were portraying. I listened to this as an audio book and felt the narrators really helped bring the story to life. The narrator narrated the book beautifully, and I loved the depictions of the different characters.

**please note due to low rating I will not be leaving a public review for this book as I have not paid for it.**

Cover is FANTASTIC and eye catching
Narrator has a great voice, but I just could not get into this story. Sorry

Name of Book: The Captain’s Wife
Author: Norma Curtis
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Bookouture
Pub Date: February 21, 2022
My Rating: 4

Sixty –five years ago in Capel Celyn a small village in Wales, Al Locke, a Navy sailor fell in love with Elin Jenkins and asked her to marry him.
Awww but marriage didn’t happen well not to each other!
Story is sad, however, it is so beautifully written and the narrator Josh Wichard does a great job performing the characters and when he added their accent, it totally added to the enjoyment and kept my interest.

I love a good audiobook but my one disappointment is that they usually never include the author’s note ~ and/or Acknowledgements; which is something I love! Always interesting plus I like when it includes background into their motivation and in the case of historical fiction, clarifying which is actual and which area was creative writing. Sooo I had to do a Google search. Delighted with the article “Wales helped build America”

Want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for this audio eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for an honest professional review.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for February 21. 2022.

The narrator of the story was just right. The story itself was captivating but heartbreaking. I almost didn't want to keep listening because it was so sad. But I couldn't stop without knowing what happened. I loved the Wales backdrop and the history. I do wish it wasn't so sad though.

I challenge anyone not to be moved by this emotional story about long lost love, missed opportunities, regrets and a life half lived. I was caught up in the romance of Al and Elin, him as a handsome American Navy Captain, her as a young nurse. I was hoping they would have their happy ever after but life took them on different paths. 65 years is a long time thinking 'what if' and wishing things could have been different. I loved the rural Welsh setting of the story and the characters were well developed and interesting. I listened to the book on audio and the narrator was excellent in changing between American and Welsh accents. Overall a lovely albeit heartbreaking story that I highly recommend.

"A beautiful and heartbreaking story about lost love, forgiveness and family secrets. "
Sometimes, a book blurb can be misleading, this one certainly wasn't.

Beautifully told, and emotionally heartbreaking, the drama unfolds slowly, dramatically, and it wasn't with certainty how it would end, until the last page was read (listened to).

Engulfing the reader in rich history, pieces of interesting geography, and a quest in searching the connection of Abraham Lincoln's ancestry, the main characters are interesting and colorful in dual timelines.
But being young, compulsive and hurt, sometimes leads to decisions made in hast that will have lifetime consequences.

The audiobook edition of The Captain's Wife, by Norma Curtis, was narrated by Josh Wichard. Mr Wichard did a beautiful job narrating, his tone was quite believable to the story told.

4 Stars - RECOMMENDED for those who enjoy the historical fiction genre.

My profound thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Norma Curtis for providing a digital AAC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Al is an American Navy man whose ship stops in England for awhile. He meets Elin and they connect immediately. She takes him back to her home town in Wales and they quickly fall in love. But not everyone in Elin's town is pleased with this outcome. When they decide to marry, parents on both sides of the ocean think it's too soon. When Al's ship leaves they plan to reunite, but due to misunderstanding on both sides, this doesn't occur.

Sixty five years later Al returns to the small town where he found so much happiness, but it has vanished beneath the waters of a man made reservoir. Will he find Elin and also conclude a search for relatives of Abraham Lincoln's mother?

I listened to the audio version. He was male and managed to slip between accents easily and affectively, which added to the enjoyment of the listen.

This was a quick read of a gentler and slower time and I enjoyed the journey there. My only quibble is I wanted a different ending, but this was probably the author's braver choice. I would give it 3.5, but will round up to 4 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, Author Norma Curtis, and Bookouture Audio for allowing me to listen to this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

The days before email and wifi when communication was expensive and took time, mis communication or delayed messages could have life changing repercussions. The story is about a welsh nurse and american airman who met and fell in love during WW2.The story is also set in present day and you find out exactly what happens to the couple. Bit of history and welsh geography make this a very enjoyable read. Thank you #NetGalley for the audiobook to review.

It’s been 65 years since retired naval officer, Al Locke felt so happy. After so many years, he’s traveled back to Cape Celyn to find Elin, the woman he loved and, ultimately betrayed. But to his shock, the village has disappeared, in its place is a lake. Everything, buildings, trees, sidewalks, are underwater. The villagers are long gone, scattered to the winds. How will he find Elin and explain why he left and never returned, never answered her frantic telegrams, and why she received an invitation to his wedding to another woman