I had no expectations for this book, the author being unknown to me. To discover that this was her first novel was a surprise as it is a beautifully written book, tastefully and delicately handling the intimacies of the main characters. I knew how badly London, indeed many places, suffered during the First World War, poverty, rationing, unemployment, inadequate housing, air raids, and health. This book illustrates it all, but mostly the loneliness and despair of families split apart when husbands and fathers went away to war for months or years. Once I got into this book I found it hard to put down. A lovely read. ( )

A really good story about love, hope and despair set during ww1.
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Hannah’s husband has gone to war leaving her with their two children. She’s not happy when she has to move in with her mother, sister, and brother-in-law. Hoping to earn some extra money, Hannah takes a job at a café where she meets Daniel Blake. Working as a ship worker exempts him from war, which isn’t to everyone’s liking.

I had read a lot of good reviews about this and I had high hopes for this one. It wasn’t bad but not as good as I wanted it to be. I didn’t quite connect with any of the characters and even the ending didn’t really move me. Especially Daniel felt very distant which wasn’t helped that Hannah’s narrative was in the first person while Daniel’s was in 3rd person.

It moved too slow at times to keep my interest. But on the positive side, it did give a realistic feeling about the time. ( )

I enjoyed - whilst not being entirely blown away by - this novel of WWI in the East End. It taught me that bombing took place on the British mainland during that war - I had previously thought it all took place down a trench in Belgium, so I have learned something and that's always good. Interesting too was the incidental information about fashion and make-up during a time of "make do and mend". In the story, the central characters face a dilemma which develops gradually to a crescendo very close to the end. It was all resolved within a page or two - and given that this was where much of the real drama was to be found, it was perhaps a shame more time and space wasn't given to it. It left me with an interesting puzzle concerning the character Daniel: is the reader supposed to consider him culpable for the events? My instinct would be yes, but the book felt studiously neutral on this point. ( )

First let me start by saying I do not like what passes for modern romance. That is the uber handsome, chisel chinned, smooth chested stallion drivel. I’ve reviewed a few of those and do not wish to ever read another. Each to their own.
Before the Fall is none of that, not even close. Set in London’s docklands during the First World War it is the last place you’d want to find Mr Tall Dark and Handsome. What we do have is a real world populated by real people. The story is based on true events from the time. Our hero is not a hero he’s a welder. The heroine is mother of two whose husband is at war. Their romance should never have been, but it was and it tore families apart.
This a work of craftsmanship. A first novel to be proud of. Beautifully written and well told. So much so it was the only romance novel I have wanted to sit and read. It has been well researched not just fragments from postcards joined hastily together. There are copies of police statements, witness accounts and letters from the family all of which build upon the reality of a truly desperate love.
I will not speak of the plot as it is so tight any clues would just spoil it. Juliet West wastes no words, there are no needless side stories just the plain facts all woven together in a rich tapestry of old London. This is not a war story, it is about those left behind: the mothers, the children, the unfit and few white feathers. To read this novel is to see how romance should be coloured in anything else is just shades of grey.
A truly brilliant book and a well-deserved 5 stars.
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