The portrait of wartime Bermuda and the awful Windsors, observed and reported by Lulu, is original and fascinating. I’m working on an article for School Library Journal on mental health depictions in middle grade fiction. She finds a world full of intrigue, WWII spies, a botched murder investigation, and strained race relations on the island. It’s a bit slow to start and I became weary of “Believe me” and “Let me tell you” but mercifully those particular repetitions tapered off. In fact, Windsor-era Nassau roils with spies, financial swindles, and racial tension, and in the middle stands Benedict Thorpe: a scientist of magnetic charm and murky national loyalties.

I’m intentionally introducing them by their first names only, so you can discover everything about them by the surnames they collect and add and/or subtract to their names. In fact, Windsor-era Nassau seethes with spies, financial swindles, and racial tension, and in the middle of it all stands Benedict Thorpe: a scientist of tremendous charm and murky national loyalties.

Overall, the story was characterized by a silence and gentleness that did not need a big climax or resolution and the no-drama budding romance between Manuel and Sebastian was so sweet. Forty years early Elfriede is living in Switzerland, in a former mountain top monastery turned sanatorium, recovering from what we know is post-partum depression.

The other reason is because I’m fascinated with anything to do with the very intriguing Duchess of Windsor, less so the Duke, and they are minor characters in the novel, with one of the main narratives of the story weaving around their lives.As someone who suffered from postpartum depression three times, I appreciated that element of the story since I think it’s not touched on often enough, and I related to Elfriede. The Golden Hour is a wonderful work of historical fiction; it blends many historical events with fiction to create a lovely read. There is an attention to light and shadows that extract the idea of golden hour photography and replicates it to jaw dropping glory. The Bahamas, 1941: Newly-widowed Lulu Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the new Governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. B. The pov changes also include first person and third person different narratives; it works to keep the two women drivers of their own stories but I can see how this could affect the flow of the story for some.

We, the innocent bystander, aka reader, are paralyzed into flipping pages until we discover the truth, or what’s left of it, or what’s masquerading as the truth.

In both time periods I really got a sense for the landscape and what these women were seeing and going through. The Thorpes are no less dedicated to the women they love, although war and duty are of critical importance too. Even the ends was a surprise, something I wasn’t expecting and it made the book all the more enjoyable. One thing I love about Williams' writing is the sort of detached, lyrical style, but my experience of this book was that it kept me quite seperate from the story.

But swallowing all of that (fiction indeed), the book itself, its author's "eyes" to how she created these two women leads! I had read and enjoyed a book by this author awhile back and when I saw the gorgeous cover for this one, I immediately put it on my to be read list without even bothering to look at the synopsis. That's a given with Williams; her novels are packed with complex, daring and intriguingly human women.Luckily, he is paired with two friendly, enthusiastic students for a group project who end up pulling him along into their Ag-club.