Review: A Bridge Across The Ocean

A Bridge Across The Ocean

by Susan Meissner

Why did you choose this book? Beautiful cover and the synopsis pulled me in

When did you read this book? January 2017

Who should read this book? Anyone who enjoys WWII era stories or paranormal fiction

Source: Netgalley

My Rating: ✰✰✰✰½  4½ Stars

Here is a synopsis of A Bridge Across The Ocean from Goodreads

February, 1946. World War Two is over, but the recovery from the most intimate of its horrors has only just begun for Annaliese Lange, a German ballerina desperate to escape her past, and Simone Deveraux, the wronged daughter of a French Resistance spy.

Now the two women are joining hundreds of other European war brides aboard the renowned RMS Queen Mary to cross the Atlantic and be reunited with their American husbands. Their new lives in the United States brightly beckon until their tightly-held secrets are laid bare in their shared stateroom. When the voyage ends at New York Harbor, only one of them will disembark...

Present day. Facing a crossroads in her own life, Brette Caslake visits the famously haunted Queen Mary at the request of an old friend. What she finds will set her on a course to solve a seventy-year-old tragedy that will draw her into the heartaches and triumphs of the courageous war brides and will ultimately lead her to reconsider what she has to sacrifice to achieve her own deepest longings.

My Review

My eye was drawn to the cover of this one, so I read the synopsis and was pulled in immediately! One thing that this the synopsis did not mention was that this is a story involving ghosts. I’m pretty sure had I known that I would not have been so quick to pick it up. Stories involving the supernatural do not always work for me. I’m glad this wasn’t mentioned because I’m happy to say this one worked very well for me!

The story centers around three war brides who are traveling to the US after WWII to rejoin their American husbands, and Brette Caslake, a contemporary young woman who has inherited ‘the sight’ and struggles with her unusual ability. The story is told from different viewpoints, alternating between current day and the wartime experiences of two of the war brides. I found the background story of these women to be the most interesting part of the story, but I also enjoyed the mystery of what happened to the woman who did not get off the ship.

While I found the realistic events of the war years most interesting, I also enjoyed the current day ghost story much more than I expected I might when I found out ghosts were involved.. I often struggle with stories about the supernatural because I get distracted as I read and I try to figure how events could have happened. The ghost story in this book was so well written that I didn’t even stop to think about whether or not this was realistic! My only complaint about the story is that I felt like it ended a little abruptly. Whether or not you are normally a reader of supernatural fiction, I think you will enjoy this one!

The book comes with a ‘conversation guide’ but this was not present in my ARC. You can visit the author’s website or Facebook page to learn more..

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book for review purposes.