Monday, July 12, 2021

THOSE I HAVE LOST

MY THOUGHTS: 

This coming of age story takes place before, during and after World War II.   When Rosie looses her mother she is sent to live in Sri Lanka to live with her mother’s friend Silvia.  She has three sons and because Rosie considers them brothers, she immediately feels like part of the family.  As the effects of the war travels to Asia, Rosie meets and falls in love with a soldier on leave.  He has to continue to fight in the war, and they quickly say goodbye.  Each of the boys she considers brothers, also get called up to fight in the war and Rosie, broken-heartedly says goodbye to each one.  Rosie decides she has to do something, and so she volunteers to work in military intelligence.  It gives her the opportunity to find out information about the family she loves, fighting in the war.  As information is received it is news that she didn’t want to hear.  

The author’s detailed description of the landscapes, the sights and the sounds throughout the story are exquisite.  Be prepared to be whisked away into landscapes you can see, sounds you can hear and scents that make you forget where you are.  I have read a lot of historical fiction but the way the author completely pulled me into the story was beyond amazing.  

Thank you Sharon Maas for such an emotional and wonderful story.  The storyline was captivating, the characters were relatable and the story is unforgettable.  I can’t recommend this one enough, this is without a doubt, a must, must read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

DESCRIPTION:

Rating: 5 out of 5.
THOSE I HAVE LOST
Author:  Sharon Maas 
Publisher:  Bookouture 
Publication Date: July 9, 2021 
Pages: 430 
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A family on a faraway island. Seas crawling with Japanese spies. A terrible war creeping ever closer… 

1940 When Rosie loses her mother and is sent to Sri Lanka to live with her mother’s friend Silvia and her three sons, her world changes in a heartbeat. As she is absorbed into the bosom of a noisy family, with boys she loves like brothers, she begins to feel at home. 

But the war in Europe is heading for Asia. Searching for comfort from the bleak news and the bombings, Rosie meets a heroic soldier on leave, and falls in love for the first time. Yet the war will not stop for passion; he must move on, and she must say goodbye, knowing she might never see him again. She is left with just a memory. 

Meanwhile, one by one, the men she considers brothers leave to fight for their island paradise. As she waits in anguish for letters that never come, tortured by stories of torpedoed ships and massacres of innocent families, she realises that she, too, must do her bit. Rosie volunteers to work in military intelligence, keeping secrets that will help those she loves and protect her island home. But then two telegrams arrive with the chilling words ‘missing believed captured’ and ‘missing believed dead’. Who of those that she loves will survive the devastating war, and who will she lose? 

ABOUT SHARON MAAS

Sharon Maas was born into a prominent political family in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1951. She was educated in England, Guyana, and, later, Germany. After leaving school, she worked as a trainee reporter with the Guyana Graphic in Georgetown and later wrote feature articles for the Sunday Chronicle as a staff journalist.

Her first novel, Of Marriageable Age, is set in Guyana and India and was published by HarperCollins in 1999. In 2014 she moved to Bookouture, and now has ten novels under her belt. Her books span continents, cultures, and eras. From the sugar plantations of colonial British Guiana in South America, to the French battlefields of World War Two, to the present-day brothels of Mumbai and the rice-fields and villages of South India, Sharon never runs out of stories for the armchair traveller.

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