julian_griffith

Promises Made Under Fire by Charlie Cochrane

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Charlie Cochrane is one of my favorite m/m authors, and in this book, she delivers once again.

It's set in WWI, beginning in the trenches, and shifting back and forth between there and England when the protagonist has leave, and concluding after the war. As you might expect, it's a story woven through with loss. But it's anything but tragic.

As you also might expect of a story of romance between men set in the time period, it's a story of secrets and careful deceptions, and the efforts that men have to make to build relationships in the face of social and legal sanctions. I'm addicted to this trope even while it makes me cry out at the injustice of it -- there's hardly a better way to put obstacles in the way of two characters getting together without making them do stupid things or requiring a specific and persona villain. So the cautious, uncertain way the romance builds had me cheering the boys on.

There was also an element of class conflict, and the way it was handled was both deft and a surprise; to say more would be a spoiler, so I won't. But I love class conflict, and I really enjoyed it.

As is typical of Charlie's books, what sex there is is described only in the mildest and least explicit of terms. But don't think there wasn't any sexual tension. She can get more out of a light touch on the arm than many authors can get out of a full-on sex scene. I was listening to the audiobook version in the car, and I squeaked out loud when the characters finally kissed!

A note about the audiobook: it's lovely. I bought it intending to use the WhisperSync function to switch between the ebook and audiobook versions, but I wound up listening to the entire thing. The narrator read at a pace and level of expressiveness that I could easily follow along -- and that is rare for me with a book I don't already know very well, and doubly rare if it's not a book I've chosen on the strength of the narrator's voice. (Why yes, I will gladly pick up just about anything narrated by Paul McGann and Samuel West, and I'm loving the Georgette Heyer titles narrated by Richard Armitage, though, again, the Heyer titles are ones I know essentially by heart.) If you like the audiobook format, or even if you don't usually but think it might be convenient, I heartily recommend this one.

It's a beautiful story, and I give it four out of five stars.

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