It’s honestly a mess of a book and the only value I got from reading it was that now I ignore recommendations from people who cite it as a favorite. I’ve gone deep into WWII set fiction and this ain’t it. I desperately want to recommend something like The Invisible Bridge or even Lovely War (which I hate the title but it’s because it’s dealing with god and goddesses too) that pull it off so much better.

Thank you so much! I really like the concept of the WWII set fiction so I will definitely check these out :)

I’ll give my take on it. The overarching answer is trauma. Starting with Vianne, for me the most interesting aspect was her relationship with Beck. Of course he was the enemy but he was actively helping her. Not excusing his behavior at all but things are generally not so black and white and her attraction to him was interesting to see. But make no mistake she had no qualms about killing him.

She pretended the baby was Antoine’s from trauma. It was one more aspect of a mountain of suffering. What should she have done? Antoine knew the baby wasn’t his but didn’t care. They just wanted to go back to their lives. One thing that did bother me was that Antoine escaped prison and made it all the way home without being spotted but, oh well.

I fully expected Isabelle to die honestly. Just like Antoine’s return, Gaetans appearance right before she died didn’t sit well for me. The starvation, physical and mental exhaustion from the camp was bound to take its toll. I’d rather her have just died in the hospital.

In a situation like that, no one is really making rational decisions. They’re doing what they can to survive and protect their loved ones, whether by ensuring their child survives or by ensuring allied soldiers can escape and help them in the end. Just my opinion.

I think this is a good take! I liked Vianne’s storyline and understood everything she did until the pregnancy. I couldn’t understand how she spent the whole book praising Antoine and then lied to him (and her son) and acted like the only thing that could repair their marriage was a baby that wasn’t his.

I would have preferred almost any storyline - Vianne not getting pregnant, Vianne miscarrying since she lost 3 babies that way already, Vianne telling Antoine and him supporting her, Antoine not coming home and Vianne raising the baby alone, or even Vianne trying to miscarry (I know this sounds terrible but I think it’s what I, or Isabelle, would have done in the situation 😭). I’m guessing abortion wasn’t an option, but what about adoption or giving the baby to the Mother at the church? I just hated that she had no negative thoughts about the pregnancy at all besides, “I’ve prayed for this but not now” once.

I expected Isabelle to die too. I just thought it was such a lame ending for such a strong woman. It felt like everything she did didn’t matter, only that Gaetan still thought she was pretty and he loved her.

so I read this a long time ago and tbh don't even remember any of that happening so I can't speak on that part. I remember really liking it and then I tried rereading it and couldn't get into it again?

BUT. I really enjoyed "The Great Alone", as well as "The Home Front" by her. The Nightingale got me into her as an author and I've enjoyed most of them, but those two are my favorite. The Great Alone especially is a really hard emotional read, so if you are someone who needs trigger warnings, look them up before starting.

I've read the Nightingale and enjoyed it but my fave of hers was Wild. Cried buckets.

The Great Alone is my absolute favorite Kristin Hannah book.

I totally get your point on the Nightingale, especially Sophie ending kills me.

This book is well-known for relying on cliches and melodrama.

I read The Nightingale in 2020 and just read The Great Alone a few months ago. Based on these two books, I get the sense that Kristin Hannah likes to throw unintentional pregnancies into the mix to really shake things up.

I feel like the baby was a kind of replacement for Ari. I think it was implied Antoine knew and it was kind of like why add more stress on top of the situation. Vianne even says how she and Sophie didn’t mention that time of their lives again because it was too painful. I also felt Vianne was kind of a jerk to her son. She really seemed to think lowly of him. It was a book which had a lot of sad moments and events. Strangely I didn’t really like the relationship with Isabelle and Gaetan. It felt forced and during the moment they really bonded, it got skipped in favor of just having them stumble upon Viannes home

I found The Nightingale to be too slow for me. I shelved it as DNF. That said, I studied WWII in college and went on a bit of a WWII historical fiction tear soon after, and I think it burned me out on the genre by the time I got to this book.

I otherwise enjoy most KH books. The Great Alone is one of my all time favorite novels, and I loved The Four Winds. However, The Winter Garden was on par with The Nightingale for me, another DNF for being boring.

Thank you! I’m glad to hear this about The Great Alone because I already bought it!

I already bought The Great Alone a while ago so I’m glad to see people saying it’s better

Granted I read The Nightingale last year, so I may have misremembered things, but I don't remember Vianne thinking the pregnancy was a blessing. In fact I remember her being worried when she realised she was pregnant.

I was like what the heck is this book, I've never heard it and I've read a lot. Then I realized they renamed Magic Hour to that...