Customer Reviews

The Amazing Interlude

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I'm woman enough to admit this old tale got me a bit teary-eyed. But isn't that the sign of a good book, when you come to care so much about fictional characters?

It's the very beginning of World War I, before America enters the fighting. Sara Lee Kennedy is a young Pennsylvanian woman whose life is already planned out by society, if not herself. She's engaged to marry Harvey soon, and settle down to a drawn out life of having babies and dying old. But something's happening to Sara Lee. As she and her church society pull together to sends funds and supplies to the beleaguered Belgians, Sara Lee feels the call to do something more. She actually wants to go over to the front lines and open a soup kitchen, a haven for the poor soldiers to have something to eat, a cup of coffee and a dry place to rest for a moment. Of course Harvey is totally set against this. Let the foreigners take care of themselves is his opinion. But Sara Lee has the backbone to defy convention and travels by herself to England.

While there she meets Henri, a Belgian spy who constantly risks his life to gather important tactical information for his country. He aids Sara Lee into smuggling herself into Calais, a city under martial law and right next door to the front. With Henri and others' help, Sara Lee takes over an abandoned, bombed out house and begins her life-fulfilling work.

Henri finally confesses he's fallen in love with Sara Lee, but she's a real enough character to question her own feelings. She loves Henri, but is she IN love with him? And what about Harvey, who's constantly badgering her in letters to come home. She loves him, doesn't she? She's made a solemn promise to return and marry him, she can't go back on that.

Who will Sara Lee chose? Will she even survive the war TO chose? You'll have to read the book to find out.

First I must admit I didn't read this book, but listened to the Librivox.org version. Having just finished, I have come to Amazon to search for the movie. I do hope one was made.

I won't spoil the book by giving away the entire plot. I'll just say that while listening, I'd stop what I was doing, to cheer on our wounded Hero ... or scold our loyal heroine, to, listen to, then follow her heart!!

This is a love story set during a time of war, written by a woman, geared towards woman. There are casualties, but minus the bloody details so prevalent in most war stories.

It was not an intense, quick paced war story, full of puzzles and
mystery, like "The Thirty-nine Steps" by John Buchan. But I did so enjoy it, and believe you will too.

PS I'd also recommend "The Thirty-nine Steps", excellent book, men will love it as well!

A love story during war time, but more than that, a story of a character who had the courage to find her place in the world despite the dangers and the protests of those around her. A truly worthwhile read.

I loved this book. This is the story of a woman promised to one man, but who has not come to the knowledge of what a deep abiding love can be, but it is just around the bend, about to tap her on the shoulder. The war setting for this story & the plot are excellent!

This is the first book by Mary Roberts Rinehart that I have read. After all the graphic sexual content and desolute language of the modern day novel, it was so refreshing to read this simple little tale of Sara Lee Kennedy embarking on her humane quest to help Belgian soldiers in France during World War I. The censure and insensitivity Sara Lee receives from her fiancee Harvey is not too far off the mark even today. I thoroughly enjoyed this story which will warm a true romantic's heart.

to feel the characters so vitally without the tawdriness so many others would have added to cheapen it was amazingly wonderful. i have hungered for a book of late to be well written and feel filled by its integrity warmth and humanity. thank you

I so enjoyed this book and will be forever grateful to the reviewers who put me on to it with their positive reviews. As previously mentioned, this is a love story that is satisfying and poignant notwithstanding the passage of so much time. I couldn't stop reading this wonderful tale and became vested in the lives of all characters and circumstances of the war-time setting. Ms. Reinhart was a simply magnificent writer who deserves more recognition than she is currently receiving. I can't wait to read another of her works.