Two women. Two love affairs. One unforgettable story.
Kings Cross station, 1943. Rose arrives in London hoping to swap the drudgery of wartime for romance, glamour and jiving with GIs at Rainbow Corner, the famous dance hall in Piccadilly Circus. As the bombs fall, Rose loses her heart to a pilot but will lose so much more before the war has done its worst.
Las Vegas, present day. A beautiful woman in a wedding dress walks into a seedy bar and asks the first man she sees to marry her. When Leo slips the ring onto Jane's finger, he has no idea that his new wife will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
So when Jane meets Rose, now a formidable older lady, there's no love lost between them. But with time running out, can Rose and Jane come together to make peace with the tragic secrets that have always haunted their lives?
After the Last Dance is an extraordinary story of two women, separated by time but connected by fate, that will make you believe in the redemptive power of unexpected love.
My thoughts
I am a Sarra Manning fan girl. I was first introduced to her via Just 17 and have since read and enjoyed everything she has written. I heard this book was in the works and was very very excited. Sarra Manning and Historical Fiction set in World War Two seemed like a dream combo for me.
I loved this book and it was as perfect as I hoped. The story is split between two narratives split between modern day and the 1940s which crossover as the story progresses. I love that sort of book at the best of times so it was a good start.
The modern day story feels like classic Sarra Manning. The story starts with a bang and hooked me from the start as I needed to know where the characters were going to end up. As their story progressed you started to get under the skin of the characters and find out more about why they were the way they were and at the core of it the story was full of heart. Exactly what I expected from an author whose work I adore.
The story set in World War Two is perfect. The history is well researched meaning the story feels real and grounded in the period in which it is set. I really loved the story of Rainbow Corner and finding out more about an aspect of the history of World War Two that I knew nothing about. As you read it you get a real sense of the period, the excitement of living for the now in a time when you don't know if you or your friends will see the end of the week through. I could have read about Rose's War for hundreds more pages.
All in all a book I can't wait to recommend to others.
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