When We Meet Again
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
An emotionally compelling tale of love and mystery set in the publishing world of World War II London, When We Meet Again tells the story of a mother searching for her stolen child, and illustrates the unbreakable bonds among families, lovers, and readers under the shadow of war.
London, 1943: War and dwindling resources have taken their toll on the book publishing industry, but Alice Cotton, a young editor at Partridge Press, has seen her star begin to rise. She has a knack for creating new books to distract readers from the grim realities of the war. And the demand for books is greater than ever, both on the battlefield and on the home front. But just as her hard work seems poised to pay off, Alice unexpectedly falls pregnant.
Facing the stigma of being an unwed mother, Alice flees to a small town to give birth to her child, Eadie, whom her family has promised to help raise. Instead, her mother sells the newborn to "baby farmers" who plan to give the child up for a private adoption. Alice begins her desperate hunt to find the daughter she never planned for but suddenly deeply loves.
Alice's story intertwines with that of Theo Bloom, an American editor tasked with helping Partridge Press overcome the publishing obstacles of the war. Theo and Alice are quickly drawn to each other during their darkest hours, bound by hope, love, secrets, and the belief that books have the power to change lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Beecham's tense American debut follows an unwed London mother's search for her stolen newborn, who was given to child traffickers in 1943. Alice Cotton races to find her baby before the trail goes cold after her mother, Ruth, takes one-day-old Eadie to a "baby farmer" while Alice is sleeping. Ruth leaves a note, saying, "this really is for the best." With the pregnancy a secret from the father and her book publishing colleagues, Alice had taken a leave of absence and given birth outside town. Panicked, Alice returns to London to locate the trafficker and confront her mother. She also cleverly convinces her colleagues to use a journalist's research to publish a book on the buying and selling of children, while she uses the information gleaned to track down Eadie. Meanwhile, Theo Bloom, from the publishing firm's New York City office, arrives to assist the London branch, leaving behind his fiancée, and a romance between Alice and Theo develops. While depictions of Alice's weepy emotional state grow tiresome, Beecham pulls off a thrilling conclusion and elevates the story with some well-researched context on the publishing industry during the war, when demand for books was high. Fans of sentimental WWII fiction will fly through this.
