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A review by emmiemerereads
The Liberty Scarf by Aimie K. Runyan, Rachel McMillan, J'nell Ciesielski
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I knew this would be a five-star read from the start. I loved every second of reading, couldn't wait to find out what would happen to each character, and at the same time didn't want their stories to end.
The Liberty Scarf is broken up into three parts, each written by a different author. While the three authors have different writing styles and you can tell it wasn't written as one flowing story, the three parts absolutely blend together.
The three parts are concurrent-ish, taking place mostly in London and France from about 1915-1918 during World War I. Part I, Iris is a burgeoning fashion designer stuck working in the backrooms for the Liberty of London department store. She meet and falls in love with Rex, who is called back to the war. Iris designs a scarf, in which she includes the words to an Emily Dickinson poem they shared. Their story ends with a will they-won't they find their way back to each other.
Part II is Genevieve, a French-Canadian by way of America, who works as a telephone operator for the U.S. Army. En route to France, Genevieve has a stop in London, and while at Liberty of London meets Maxime, a pilot with the French army. Maxime gifts her a Liberty scarf (duh, designed by Iris!) and they are separated by their duties to the war. Later in France and caught in an air raid, Genevieve comes upon a soldier/violin player hit in the arm. She uses her scarf as a tourniquet with the hope it will save his life.
Part III goes back to begin before the war where we separately meet Belgian nurse Clara, and French violinist Roman, who serves the Belgian army as a member of its orchestra. The two meet when Clara is working as a nurse at a hospital for injured servicemen and Roman is a patient. The two fall in love and are separated when Roman is called back. We're then taken to Roman being caught in an attack where he is hurt and a stranger ties her scarf around his arm to save him.
Thank goodness we're given an epilogue where we learn the fates of the characters. Trying to keep this spoiler free so I won't say any more but it's a nice circling back to each of the women and the scarf that made its way to each of them.
This book features three strong, independent women at a time when that was not the norm. Fighting against societal standards and expectations, each woman paved her own path. Iris, Genevieve and Clara all had women BFFs who also were awesome in their own rights. While blended together as one, each of these stories had enough depth to be their own book. I would have loved more of some of the supporting characters, but understand why those pieces had to be shortened.
The stories nicely carried through themes of the beauty of, and power in art - whether through design, fashion, architecture or music. I loved the idea of one scarf touching (literally and figuratively!) each of the characters, and it definitely makes you think about how we all are connected.
I've never read from any of these authors before but absolutely will seek out more from each of them. I appreciated that the author's notes indicated which book part each author wrote, so depending on which section the reader connected to the most, you can favor that author.
The Liberty Scarf is broken up into three parts, each written by a different author. While the three authors have different writing styles and you can tell it wasn't written as one flowing story, the three parts absolutely blend together.
The three parts are concurrent-ish, taking place mostly in London and France from about 1915-1918 during World War I. Part I, Iris is a burgeoning fashion designer stuck working in the backrooms for the Liberty of London department store. She meet and falls in love with Rex, who is called back to the war. Iris designs a scarf, in which she includes the words to an Emily Dickinson poem they shared. Their story ends with a will they-won't they find their way back to each other.
Part II is Genevieve, a French-Canadian by way of America, who works as a telephone operator for the U.S. Army. En route to France, Genevieve has a stop in London, and while at Liberty of London meets Maxime, a pilot with the French army. Maxime gifts her a Liberty scarf (duh, designed by Iris!) and they are separated by their duties to the war. Later in France and caught in an air raid, Genevieve comes upon a soldier/violin player hit in the arm. She uses her scarf as a tourniquet with the hope it will save his life.
Part III goes back to begin before the war where we separately meet Belgian nurse Clara, and French violinist Roman, who serves the Belgian army as a member of its orchestra. The two meet when Clara is working as a nurse at a hospital for injured servicemen and Roman is a patient. The two fall in love and are separated when Roman is called back. We're then taken to Roman being caught in an attack where he is hurt and a stranger ties her scarf around his arm to save him.
Thank goodness we're given an epilogue where we learn the fates of the characters. Trying to keep this spoiler free so I won't say any more but it's a nice circling back to each of the women and the scarf that made its way to each of them.
This book features three strong, independent women at a time when that was not the norm. Fighting against societal standards and expectations, each woman paved her own path. Iris, Genevieve and Clara all had women BFFs who also were awesome in their own rights. While blended together as one, each of these stories had enough depth to be their own book. I would have loved more of some of the supporting characters, but understand why those pieces had to be shortened.
The stories nicely carried through themes of the beauty of, and power in art - whether through design, fashion, architecture or music. I loved the idea of one scarf touching (literally and figuratively!) each of the characters, and it definitely makes you think about how we all are connected.
I've never read from any of these authors before but absolutely will seek out more from each of them. I appreciated that the author's notes indicated which book part each author wrote, so depending on which section the reader connected to the most, you can favor that author.