My Dear I Wanted to Tell You

In crisply enunciated tones, Dan Stevens narrates this love story of two couples from different classes as they navigate life during WWI. Working-class Riley Purefoy, educated above his station, falls in love with the posh, artistic Nadine Waveney. The other couple appears when Purefoy meets Peter Locke in France when both enlist, Locke having left his wife, Julia, with his cousin, Rose. Stevens delivers the details of war and life at home with a relentlessness that echoes the bombing, gunfire, and death of war. The action moves from Ypres and Paris to London and the surrounding countryside without pause or respite. Listeners will be drawn into a story of hope, love, and life after the couple's world is torn apart by war. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

February 21, 2011
Singular in quality, if not unique in plot or tone, Young's WWI novel, her adult debut after coauthoring the Lionboy YA trilogy, follows two emblematic couples: Peter and Julia Locke, lovely and well-placed until their relationship disintegrates under the pressure of war and changing conventions, and, more centrally, working class Riley and posh Nadine, who, in a nice bit of symmetry, are hampered before the war by the very upper crustiness that the Lockes embody, but are subsequently more free to love each other and better suited by their modernity and openness to survive. Still, separation and a terrible injury ensure uncertainty and tension. The plot has a certain Atonement feel to it—working-class boy is semiadopted by upper-middle-class family and educated beyond his station, then falls unacceptably in love with their independent-minded daughter and goes to war while she becomes a nurse—but the similarities become increasingly irrelevant as Young's characters come into their own and easily shoulder the burden of escorting readers through an unsensationalized and thoughtful story of English class, world war, and that universal constant—love.

Starred review from March 15, 2011

Set in London, Paris, and Ypres, Belgium, Young's (Desiring Cairo) latest novel quickly captivates with a tale of two couples, each affected in powerful ways by the horrors of World War I. Riley Purefoy and Nadine Waveney met as children and formed an instant bond. Challenged by class differences and later by distance, their love is put to the test when Riley volunteers for military service. Riley's commanding officer, Peter Locke, is suffering his own tribulations in the trenches, while Peter's naive wife, Julia, undergoes a metamorphosis at home. Perhaps the only person who can keep them all from falling apart is Rose, a toughened yet loyal and compassionate nurse, who acts as a support system and whose character adds a wonderfully rich layer to the story. VERDICT With well-written, mesmerizing prose reminiscent of an earlier era, this novel will be enjoyed by any fan of romance or historical fiction. The level of detail and description is sometimes shocking but always poignant and relevant. [See Prepub Alert, 11/20/10.]--Amy M. Handley, Kent State Univ., Columbus

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2011

As a boy, working-class Peter falls for classy and artistic Nadine. Years later, love bursts forth, but then so does World War I, and Peter enlists. His commanding officer ends up so emotionally damaged by battle that his wife hardly recognizes him; will the same thing happen to Peter? Coauthor of the best-selling "Lionboy" trilogy, Young here ventures to write her first adult novel. Interesting detail: she grew up in the house where Peter Pan was written. Maybe some magic rubbed off?

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2011

Innocence, devastation and restored hope cycle through two British couples after the men go to France to fight World War I and the women cope with their absence in very different ways. This is Young's first adult novel to be published in the United States.

An epic love story, a grim war chronicle, a class study, a heartwarming tale of overcoming--London native Young's page-turner has Masterpiece Classic written all over it. Riley Purefoy, a bright, wide-eyed, working class boy, falls for the sweet, privileged and equally adoring Nadine Waveney after stumbling into a childhood job posing for her neighbor, a famous painter. At 18, still a prize model and still in love with Nadine, Riley enlists to flee from an embarrassing encounter with a gay student painter. He proves a good soldier and rises in rank, but immersed in daily traumas, sinks into disillusionment and then worse after a part of his face is shot off. Meanwhile, Riley's battle-scarred commanding officer, Peter Locke, is consumed by alcohol. Back home, while Nadine works as a volunteer nurse for returning soldiers, Peter's wife Julia obsesses over her looks after being rebuffed by him during a short leave. She risks a very different kind of plastic surgery than a devoted doctor performs on Riley to reconstruct his jaw. While following the conventions of Victorian-era fiction (unbeknownst to him, Riley's caregiver is Peter's cousin), Young brings a modern, frill-free sensibility to the material. There's considerably less sentimentality than you usually encounter in such stories. Young, a graceful and light-handed writer, offers a powerful account of war, and her detailed descriptions of the experimental reconstructive surgery add a compelling element to the story.

A literate, moving wartime tale in which love triumphs over despair.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2011
Its 1907, and 11-year-old Riley Purefoy leaves his working-class home to become the benefactor of Sir Alfred Waveney. He meets Nadine, Sir Alfreds daughter, and a relationship begins that will span both personal and global uncertainties. When the chaos of WWI erupts, Riley enlists in the army, in which he is transformed by the nightmare of war and the resulting physical and emotional scars. As Riley and his commanding officer, Peter Locke, fight for their country in the trenches, their families await their return. When a horrific injury sidelines Riley, he finds himself on a new kind of battlefield, where a lengthy and complicated rehabilitation leaves him uncertain of his and his countrys futures. Moving between the battlefields of Europe and the lives of those working and waiting at home, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You is the story of people torn apart literally and figuratively by war. Through it all, Riley Purefoy is an irresistible, deeply memorable character, whose travails bring the Great War and those who suffered from it to life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)