England, 1942. 'It has to stay secret,' he whispers, placing the locket around her neck. 'If they find it, they’ll send me away.' As she holds the locket, glinting in the moonlight, she can’t hold back the tears. 'I just wish we didn’t have to hide…'
When farmer’s daughter Irene meets Theodore at a village dance, sparks fly instantly. The war has brought him all the way from Louisiana to build a US airbase just across her father’s fields, but as they sway together, there is nothing else in the world. Only his gentle touch and his deep brown eyes.
But being together comes at a price. As Theodore is Black, the might of the US Air Force is against them, and all the members of the little village community disapprove of their relationship. And they will all go to terrible lengths to tear the two young lovers apart...
Decades later, heartbroken Ruby is back at her family’s crumbling farmhouse for the first time in years, after the loss of her beloved grandmother Irene. The roof has fallen in, family photographs are damaged – and her grandmother’s jewellery is nowhere to be found.
When Ruby uncovers her grandmother’s waterlogged diaries, she discovers that Irene treasured one piece of lost jewellery above all. A locket from a man called Theodore. And the missing locket holds the key to unravelling a heartbreaking secret that changed her grandmother’s life…
Is someone in the village hiding the locket to keep the truth about Irene and Theodore buried? And can Ruby find a way to honour her grandmother’s memory – or in digging up the pain of the war, will she tear her family apart?
An absolutely breathtaking World War Two story about the power of love in the face of adversity, and how the tragic consequences of war can echo through generations. Fans of Fiona Valpy, The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See will be addicted to this incredible read.
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I don’t know how to begin the review. There are so many words I can use to describe this story, but there is not enough time in the day for that. The Locket was so emotional that I still think about the story. Everyone knows I love reading historical fiction and have read more than I can count through the years. What I loved about this book is that it had a mix of suspense in the plot; who doesn’t love a good mystery? I didn’t want to put the book down, and I was curious about what Ruby would discover about her grandmother next. I wondered if the locket would ever be recovered and what would be discovered there.
I love historical fiction that is told in dual storylines, especially if there is a connection between the two; I loved reading Irene’s story about how it all happened and how she fell in love. Somehow, I felt it would be a story I would love, and once again, I didn’t know I would fall in love. You couldn’t help but love Irene from the start; she was such a powerful character. She was one of those strong characters that you couldn’t get out of your mind. Irene went through so much in her life, and despite what she had to deal with, it didn’t stop her; she kept on going. Irene felt real to me, and I felt like I was transported to 1940 while reading her story.
Ruby was as strong as her grandmother had been. That was one of my favorites about this one; it was told from grandmother and granddaughter’s point of view, and the way that it connected the two stories. Theo and Irene, I loved the two of them together; I don’t think that anyone, maybe Irene, was as happy as Theo was. I have rooted for them all through the book and hoped they would find a way to be together. The connection that the two of them shared that’s what love is. Characters weren’t only what I loved about this book, but also the plot, not the one you could pull yourself away from. I felt everything the characters felt: love, fear, anger, and hope.
The Locket was the first novel that I read by Natalie Meg Evans and now I cannot wait to discover her other work.
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