The Second World War was a time of turmoil for the men who fought and for their women. Death or separation were always present and life —while it lasted — exaggerated or destroyed moral values.
Suzanne Goodwin's latest novel, To Love a Hero, opens in 1942 when Sorrel, in the WRNS, learns that her widowed mother has been killed in a London bombing. Her death leads Sorrel into a web of mystery. Why did a Sir George Martyn, unknown to Sorrel, pay her mother money? Determined to learn more, Sorrel visits the Martyns' mansion in Hampshire, a decision which will transform her life.
There she meets Toby, Sir George's son, a regular soldier, a true hero, brave and physically exciting. They fall deeply in love and, before his regiment is sent to the Italian front, they marry. When he is reported missing, overwhelmed by grief and the violent aphrodisiac of war, Sorrel has a passionate affair.
This moving novel shows the violence that war does to the heart and the passions and contradictions that trap a girl who believes she can love a hero.