Book Club: The Girl You Left Behind

Before I go into the book review, I just wanted to let you know that: As we are now officially in Spring (even though it feels like Winter), I decided to give my blog a bit of a spring clean. I changed my layout a little using a fantastic tutorial from Gillian (here), which was easy to follow and great for html novices like myself. I feel like it's now more aesthetically pleasing and less 'blocky' after getting rid of the black header backgrounds. I also made a new header using a font that I recently downloaded (and am obsessed with) and rejigged a few things around. What do you think of it? I hope you like it as much as I do!

Moving on to the main blog post: Today, I am reviewing "The Girl You Left Behind" by Jojo Moyes. I finished this in a few days, which is a feat for me as it usually takes me ages to finish a book. Like the other book I read by Jojo Moyes, I absolutely loved this book.

The book is split in two parts. Part I is written through the eyes of Sophie in occupied France in 1916 and tells the story of Sophie and her family working in their hotel, while their husbands are at war. The story has a nice pace to it and leaves a bit of a cliffhanger at a crucial point in her story, which made me want to read part II quickly to see whether or not you find out what happens to Sophie. I personally really liked Sophie's character and thought all the characters were well written.

Part II is set in modern day London and we are introduced to young widow, Liv, and Paul Cafferty, her new love interest. I found the story dragged a little in the middle of this section, but the story reaches a point where you can't read it fast enough as you want to find out what happens. The last quarter of the book leads you to a satisfactory conclusion and I felt rather emotional reading through the last few chapters of the book.

The two parts of the book are tied together by a portrait of Sophie, which was done by her husband before he left for the war and hangs in their hotel in the first portion of the book and is owned by Liv in the second portion.

I thought this was beautifully written and I enjoyed the dip into WWI history in part I. I have loved both of the books that I have read by Jojo Moyes and am looking forward to starting the next one.

RATING: ★★★★★

Have you read this book? If you haven't, read it!

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy