The moving and gorgeously written 2005 novel from Jojo Moyes, author of the bestsellers Me Before You and The Girl You Left Behind. Based on a true story.

Why one star you ask? I think the author of The Girl you left behind and Me before you has found her niche market and is really milking it. The book was abundant in superfluous descriptions and the story plot was paper thin.

Australia, 1946. 650 brides are departing for England to meet the men they married in wartime. But instead of the luxury liner they were expecting, they find themselves aboard an aircraft carrier, alongside a thousand men.

On the sun-baked decks, old loves and past promises become distant memories, and tensions are stretched to the limit as brides and husbands change their minds. And for Frances Mackenzie, one bride in particular, it soon becomes clear that sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.

The book offers some unforgettable quotes like “the only people who still have all the answers are those who have never been faced with the questions” or “She abhorred a conversational vacuum” and “He was met by a collective shriek as the brides parted like biblical waves around him.“

I have never rolled my eyes as hard as I did with this book. Everything is a leviathan, a fearless survivor and a woman to be reckoned with but who hasn’t forgotten how to smile – because that’s what their mommas taught them.

The plot is non-existent. All the characters are interchangeable and there’s no plot twists (because there is no plot – see point 1). This really was the worst book I could have picked for a Sunday read.

Back to the charity box bin.