Tess, Tess, Tess, what did you do? Is that the only decision you could have made?

Tess was engaged to her childhood sweetheart, Vincent, and to be married within the year, but she went on a weekend trip that she didn’t want to go on with her friend and something awful happened that changed her life and her plans.

Tess found out she was pregnant from the weekend away and broke her engagement to the love of her life, found the man who raped her, and married him.

She was moved from Baltimore, Maryland, to Hickory, North Carolina, had to change her religion, and had to live in Hank’s family home with his mother and sister who both disliked her along with the entire town. She ruined her life and Vincent’s life, but it was 1943, and did she have any other choice?

We follow Tess through her days of actually being an outcast and in a loveless marriage.

There were a lot of secrets in the Kraft family and especially with her husband, Hank. He would leave and not come home at night or not come home for days. I didn't like any of the Krafts and felt awful for Tess. She was an innocent, unassuming girl whose life was ruined.

Despite the unlikable characters, the writing and story line of THE STOLEN MARRIAGE are marvelous as always with the backdrop being the South during WWII with all their proper, Southern ways and the polio epidemic.

Ms. Chamberlain includes the history of Hickory's Emergency Infantile Paralysis Hospital that took care of polio victims.

The book smoothly moved from page to page pulling you into the story and consuming you with the intrigue and tension as everything unfolded making it difficult to put down.

THE STOLEN MARRIAGE can only be described as addictive, amazing, and fantastic.

A MUST READ - my favorite of her books. 5/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

In 1944, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina, a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows no interest in making love. Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.

The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain. It is also the time of summer polio epidemics and as one strikes the town the townspeople band together to build a hospital.

I would rate this a 4-4.5. I do enjoy this author immensely. I do agree with some of the constructive criticism - a lot going on between interracial relationships, women's rights, life during the war, polio epidemics , and maybe a bit overdramatic. however it did not impede my understanding of the story which i thought was quite good. I enjoyed the charters and enjoyed the twists at the end.