Forbidden Places [Unknown Binding]

Penny Vincenzi (Author)

Book Description

Forbidden Places is about love and marriage, families and secrets, and about wartime and what it does to every accepted social value. It is the story of three women and one family. One is married and widowed within five years. She is free to start again. Or is she? The second has a perfect husband she thinks she loves. He becomes a grotesque parody of what he once was. Is that love real? The third becomes trapped in a nightmare marriage. Can the war free her?

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Vincenzi’s latest sprawling saga is set in the WWII-era English countryside and revolves around the ordeals of three young women. Virginal Grace Marchant is just 19 when she meets Charles Bennett, the wealthy, remote man who becomes her husband. Though Grace feels a kinship with Charles’ father, she’s put off by his cold mother and haughty sister, Florence. Florence is married to Robert, whose apparently genial nature masks the cruelty with which he treats his wife. Unaware of Robert’s abusive ways, Grace is shocked and disgusted when she discovers Florence is seeking comfort in the arms of another man. Grace is also thrown when she learns Florence’s best friend, the glamorous and newly married Clarissa, was once engaged to Charles, and she’s perturbed that neither Clarissa nor Charles will reveal to her why their engagement ended. Vincenzi does an admirable job of evoking the bustle and fears of wartime England, and providing plenty of juicy plot twists and turns to keep readers hooked. --Kristine Huntley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Nobody writes smart, page-turning commercial women's fiction like Vincenzi." -- USA Today

"Soap opera? You bet-but with her well- drawn characters and engaging style, Vincenzi keeps things humming." -- People

"Penny Vincenzi is poised to fill the gap in the American realm of Cinderella fiction. With so few current writers able to summon the quaint allure of such women's fiction without stooping to sensationalism." -- Janet Maslin, New York Times

"Vincenzi does an admirable job of evoking the bustle and fears of wartime England, and providing plenty of juicy plot twists and turns to keep readers hooked." -- Kristine Huntley, Booklist

"A ripping good epic that manages to draw together violence, betrayal, love, danger, and lots of sex. As in her previous bestsellers, Vincenzi carries her audience along on a tidal wave of supercharged plot tempered by genuine emotion, a thrilling combination that picks readers up and won't put them down again until the thoroughly satisfactory conclusion." --Bookreporter.com

"I have found each of Penny Vincenzi's novels to be absorbing and page-turning reads, but this one takes the cake...What I find so endearing about Vincenzi's books, this one being a prime example, is the revelation of the imperfect lives behind the perfect exteriors and circumstances. Not that this is a new technique in literature by any stretch of the imagination, but Vincenzi does it extraordinarily well...The novel's plot, although seemingly predictable at the beginning, is actually quite suspenseful. Vincenzi manages to twist the plot so the reader is convinced she knows what is coming and then has the rug of certainty pulled out from under her. The prose flows quickly and is conversational, chatty, and informal, making the book easy to slide into from the first page and remaining captivating all the way through. The characters are engaging, true-to-life, and multidimensional. A thoroughly enjoyable novel, on of my favorites this year." --The Queen's Quill Review Blog

"Forbidden Places is another exhilarating , addictive read from England's most prolific doyenne of commercial women's fiction...Cleverly plotted, rich in characterization...Readers will find themselves flying through the pages of this book, utterly captivated and being drawn toward a heart-thumping climax. Highly recommended for those who enjoy historical family dramas." -- Historical Novels Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: Century
• ISBN-10: 0712638539
• ISBN-13: 978-0712638531
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,886,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Guilty Pleasure, April 9, 2003

By 

voraciousreader1 "voraciousreader1" (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forbidden Places (Paperback)

I don't know why Penny Vincenzi isn't a better known writer here in the US. Her books are filled with interesting characters and situations.

This book, set in WWII England, is about 3 women and their marriages and relationships. Naive Grace marries above herself, Florence marries a bully, and Clarissa is married to a fighter pilot who is seriously hurt in combat. Their conflicts and choices are detailed and interesting and it makes for a great read!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Offers not only a healthy dose of escapism but also a fascinating glimpse into a particular period of history, October 20, 2010

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forbidden Places: A Novel (Hardcover)

Penny Vincenzi's latest novel to make an appearance stateside (it was originally published in the UK in 1995), FORBIDDEN PLACES opens with three old friends meeting for an annual lunch. The women --- Grace, Florence and Clarissa --- obviously know each other well, but despite their cordial tone and elegant manners, there's still a tension in their interactions. They want to know Grace's secret, and Florence and Clarissa tell the other woman; Grace, however, reminds her companions that they, too, have secrets that have never been told --- secrets dating back to World War II when so many things changed in all their lives.

Vincenzi's narrative then rushes back to the eve of World War II, before Grace knew either of the other two women. Grace has been brought up in a small English country town by middle-class parents who are thrilled beyond words when their lovely young daughter catches the eye of Charles Bennett, the only son of the wealthiest family in town.

Grace can't quite understand why Charles is interested in her, especially when his mother and his sister Florence are almost openly hostile to her. But interested he is, and before long, the two are married.

Married life is not quite the paradise Grace had imagined, however. Sure, she lives in a lovely home and never has to worry about anything. But her husband can be distant, even cold, and Grace, accustomed to earning her own living, is bored doing nothing but staying at home and overseeing her small household staff. And the more she learns about Charles's prickly sister Florence, affable but secretive father Clifford, and vivacious ex-fiancée Clarissa, the more uncomfortable she becomes with her role in this fine, upstanding family that might not be so upstanding after all.

When war breaks out, Grace uses the social turmoil that follows to bend, or outright violate, Charles's many rules governing her behavior. Despite his protests, she takes a position with the women's Land Army and takes in two young evacuees, little boys from London who, it turns out, will have a far more important role to play in her life than anyone would imagine. As the war churns on and things change forever not only for Grace but also for Florence and Clarissa, the formerly timid Grace travels into unexpected territory: "There were two ways you could go through life, she thought: as driver or passenger, and she was by inclination and upbringing a passenger, accepting what she was told, doing the right, the proper thing, obeying rules, remaining within boundaries. But...the betrayal from so totally unexpected a source...had given her in some strange way the courage and authority to look past those boundaries, into the forbidden places beyond."

Like many of Penny Vincenzi's novels, FORBIDDEN PLACES offers not only a healthy dose of escapism but also a fascinating glimpse into a particular period of history, in this case the Second World War. The Blitz, the women's branches of the armed services, the surprisingly complicated politics of housing young London evacuees, not to mention the more personal politics of trying to keep marriages alive in wartime --- Vincenzi touches on all these topics even as she writes a ripping good epic that manages to draw together violence, betrayal, love, danger, and lots of sex. As in her previous bestsellers, Vincenzi carries her audience along on a tidal wave of supercharged plot tempered by genuine emotion, a thrilling combination that picks readers up and won't put them down again until the thoroughly satisfactory conclusion.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forbidden Places, November 19, 2003

By 

ROSALIND MANN (PRINCE ALBERT, Saskatchewan Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forbidden Places (Paperback)

I recently started reading Penny Vinzenzi's books, I started with Another Woman and then read Forbidden Places. I am very impressed with Penny's writing, you didn't want these books to end.....I will now continue reading all her books......