After the War Is Over: A Novel

After the War is Over picks up where Jennifer Robson’s celebrated first novel Somewhere in France leaves off. The World War I is over and Charlotte Brown is working for a female politician in Liverpool. Her life is sedate; she is “on the shelf” at 33. Yet she longs to make an impact in the lives of the poor. But then Charlotte discovers her former employer Lord Ashford is suffering from shell shock. She puts aside her ambitions to nurse him back to health, knowing she is danger of losing her heart to him.

Like its predecessor, After the War is Over is well-researched. It is a compelling look at the aftereffects of a horribly exacting war. Charlotte is caught between her old dreams and her desperate desire to move on to something bigger and better. Lord Ashford is tormented by the war and still stuck in the pre-war aristocratic mentality. But he is not a lost cause, and Charlotte has the chance to be the making of him.

Lovers of the period spanning “The War to End All Wars” will find much to enjoy in this novel, as will general historic fiction readers and romance enthusiasts.