My grandmother, Edith Adelaide Fry Chinn, emigrated to Alberta, Canada with her British Army veteran husband and her two very small children in 1922 and never saw her English family again. I would like to thank Adrienne Chinn, One More Chapter and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I really, really enjoyed this book and felt quite sad when I reached its end and am looking forward to the next book featuring this family. Love in a Time of War provides an excellent contrast between the three sisters and their experiences leading up to and during World War I.

Give me something with a well-defined storyline, add some suspense (or spice), and I am a happy reader. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, I did find the story a little slow to start with and Adrienne Chinn skillfully picked up the narratives pace. Celie, the eldest, works in the photography studio, is an ardent suffragist, and is in love with her German tutor, Max. Amateur artist Etta is the most playful and falls in love with flamboyant Italian Carlo and elopes with him to Capri.

It was one of those rare books where I became so caught up in the characters and their story that I really didn’t want it to end – and I couldn’t be more delighted that this is the first in a planned trilogy, and that I’ll have the opportunity to immerse myself in their lives and experiences once more. Chinn wrote the sisters so that their differing personalities shone through as they embrace the suffrage movement in their own individual way.

A sweeping emotional roller-coaster from a master storyteller, Love in a Time of War is a compulsively readable historical novel from Adrienne Chinn.Celie, the eldest, is clear-headed, thoughtful and has a strong sense of justice particularly when it comes to the question of women’s suffrage. The Fry sisters are coming of age in a time when rights for women are in the news and the future seems positive for them all. Haunting, atmospheric and enjoyable, Adrienne Chinn’s Love in a Time of War is an unforgettable historical novel I highly recommend.