Review: Heaven Forbid

Heaven Forbid by Rosalind James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars.

The blurb

So: I was a German princess sailing across the Atlantic to join my American-GI husband in 1947. My Jewish GI husband. And I was Catholic. And eighteen years old. And an independent woman.

In the previous book Marguerite (the princess) met Joe (the GI) in Nazi Germany. Now she has come to America to be with him like so many other GI brides, although I don't suppose many of them had a fortune in emeralds in their luggage. Joe's parents are aghast, a poor Catholic (probably Nazi) German wife for their only son? Inconceivable.

Whilst Marguerite was a wonderful baker and could scrub floors, her previously privileged upbringing meant that she had no idea how to boil an egg, or cook potatoes, or clean a house. While Joe returns to college under the GI Bill of Rights, Marguerite tries to get a job to help supplement his GI stipend. Turns out there aren't many jobs for former princesses. Also her lack of skills meant that she had one disaster after another trying to demonstrate domestic appliances (often to appreciative husbands). And once her colleagues/customers/boss found out she was German, then often she was let go. But her strength of mind, intelligence, and sheer determination meant that she was never down for long.

Just like with the previous book, I was sceptical about this - I mean we have already seen when Joe and Marguerite met and fell in love, we know what happens in the present day - what could this book bring to the table? Well I was wrong, different again from the two preceding books, this was both revealing about life in the 1940s, laugh-out-loud as Marguerite makes some truly awful clangers, infuriating as she encounters misogyny and racism (both against being German and also her husband being Jewish), and uplifting as the couple create a new life together.

This book had the feel of one of those big family sagas that were so popular back in the day (not saying it felt old-school), indeed I was sad that it ended where it did, I could have read on and on about Marguerite, Joe, their burgeoning business, and their family for hundreds more pages. In what has been a period of fairly dismal cookie-cutter novels (for me), this shone like a beacon of good writing, a great plot, and something that stands out from the crowd.

I received an ARC from the author, but the opinions are my own.

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