Book Feature and Giveaway: My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young

My Dear I Wanted To Tell You by Louisa Young

Publisher:Harper

Publish Date: May 31, 2011

Hardcover, 336 pages
Fiction, Historical
ISBN: 978-0061997143

About the Book:
The lives of two very different couples are irrevocably intertwined and forever changed in this stunning World War I epic of love and war.

From the day in 1907 that eleven-year-old Riley Purefoy meets Nadine Waveney, daughter of a well-known orchestral conductor, he takes in the difference between their two families: his, working-class; hers, "posh" and artistic. Just a few years later, romance and these differences erupt simultaneously with the war in Europe. In a fit of fury and boyish pride, Riley enlists in the army and finds himself involved in the transformative nightmare of the twentieth century.

While Riley and his commanding officer, Peter Locke, fight for their country and their survival in the trenches of Flanders, Peter's lovely and naive wife, Julia, and his cousin Rose eagerly await his return. But the sullen, distant man who arrives home on leave is not the Peter they knew. Worried that her husband is slipping away, Julia is left alone with her fears when Rose joins the nursing corps to work with a pioneering plastic surgeon treating wounded and disfigured soldiers.

Only eighteen at the outbreak of the war, Nadine and Riley want to make promises to each other—but how can they when their future is out of their hands? Youthful passion is on their side, but then their loyalty is tested by terrible injury, and even more so by the necessarily imperfect rehabilitation that follows.
Moving among Ypres, London, and Paris, this emotionally rich and evocative novel is both a powerful exploration of the lasting effects of war on those who fight—and those who don't—and a poignant testament to the power of enduring love.

About the Author:

Louisa Young grew up in London in the house in which Peter Pan was written. She studied modern history at Cambridge and was for many years a freelance journalist, working mostly for the motorcycle press, Marie Claire, and the Guardian. She lives in London and Italy with her daughter and the composer Robert Lockhart.

Giveaway:

I am trying my hardest to work my way through this and I'm giving myself about 75 more pages to see if it clicks.  Whether it does or not, I would like to get this into the hands of a blogger or reviewer (if you post reviews on Goodreads, Amaon or another website like those).  I would love to get reviews out for this book , but I'm just not sure it's going to work for me.  So if you are a reviewer or a blogger and think you could get to reviewing this one in the next month, fill out the form below and I'll get it out to you.  Open to US/Canada, ends 6/5/2011.  Thanks!


FTC Information: I received this book from the publisher, Harper Collins for review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.