The House with the Blue Shutters - Lisa Hilton

The House with the Blue Shutters - Lisa Hilton (2010)

I'm always a bit of a sucker for a war drama and I stumbled on this one at the library.  Its premise was the tying together of two stories, the first about Claudia a young art lecturer who finds herself pregnant with her Parisian lovers child, and contemplating a marriage with a London banker that she doesn't love.  On holiday in a small French village at the home stay run by her bankers in laws, she finds herself involved with the locals.  One of them is Oriane, an elderly woman, who is the focus of the second story.

Oriane is left in charge of the farm and her special needs brother, and during the war finds herself involved with a young German officer.  This relationship however leaves her with a baby and unprotected from the  hatred of the locals when the Germans leave.

I found it a bit of a hard book to read, as it seemed to peppered with lots of characters, and there was a loss of focus of telling the two stories that somehow the sister-in law and the local resistance became the main storytellers for much of the book.  I wanted to hear more about Oriane, and found myself short changed, and waiting for the book to end - 2/5.