Reviewed by BookFluencer
Sea Books, 309 pages, $22.00 , 2021
Set in wartime Europe, the novel opens up with Eliza, Pete’s sister. She laments how cunning Charlotte is. ‘’She is always getting what she wants’’, in this case it is her brother exchanging vows with her. Charlotte and Eliza were once friends but the relationship soured when Eliza fell for Harry who is now Charlotte’s ex-husband. All this transpired around the time Charlotte was pregnant for Pete.
Afraid that people will label her baby a bastard child and scandal she decided to hang onto the marriage until the birth of her child Vivian. Kate Lance introduces characters whose lives are like a ripple in the water. So connected a single stone throw in it will have everyone feeling the effects. An illustration of this is how Pete and Charlottes union affect Billie, a female pilot whose source of income with the aerial circus is about to end. Billie and Pete were once an item and had plans to start their own aviation business but Pete got himself kicked out of Hamble and into Charlotte’s arms.
The novel takes us on a whirlwind of emotions such as grief, romance and has a modern appeal with queer characters Toby, Stefan, Klara, and Sofia. The book looks at what happens to relationships when thrown in the chaos of war. For some characters, it is either a time of self-discovery, which brings about change for the better or worse. A story about the have and have not’s where we find people like Billie and Charlotte having their tubes tied, not wanting any or more children, while Eliza and Klara yearn to be mothers. It is an ‘’All is fair in love and war.’’ situation that brings out the best and worst in characters like Klara, Stefan, Charlotte and Felix.
Felix’s arrogance and ignorance reaches an all time high when it comes to deliberately taking work away from Eliza because she is a woman. As if that is all he has the nerve to have sexual relations with a minor and her mother while cheating on his wife. A wife he likes to control like a director on set, who ironically follows his every whim but every dog has its day.
The pattern of certain characters in this book is ‘’if you are not afraid to destroy someone else’s relationship then you will never have one’’ Its every man for himself and God for us all. People destroy relationships to make relationships over the chaos, the chaos that mimics the war. The chaos and betrayal in the characters lives mirror or mimic the chaos of war that their lives are set in where one country can have a truce, sign a peace treaty but still go behind each other’s back to attack or betray. Women bear the brunt of being caught in the cross fire of war. They are raped as a sport, used as wet wipes, handkerchiefs by soldiers who feel defeated. Soldiers who fell short of the bravery they should have displayed by not absconding the war. Filled with regret and remorse they move around raping women to assert aspect of masculinity that not only leaves them with pleasure but an aching guilt that will haunt their victim and them forever. The author shows us that there is no respect for women in times of war.
Feminism is perhaps the biggest theme in the book besides culture, religion, and family. We find each female character emancipating themselves in their own different ways, like getting their tubes tied and having a right to their own body or finding purpose in life, being ambitious and forsaking relationships for lifelong dreams.
Embers at Midnight by Kate Lance reads smoothly but has a few grammatical errors, and though this is the second volume of the Tempo Trilogy, it is penned in such a way that the novel stands on its own. Other than this, found no negative aspects in the plot or elsewhere, the novel explores Toby’s ‘’Human condition’’ in a superb manner. Embers at Midnight gets a rating of 5 out of 5 stars.
However, this book is for readers of 16 years and above. It contains sexual scenes, vulgar language, and violent graphic scenes and may not be for sensitive readers. Recommend it to lovers of historical fiction who have a love for fast-paced novels.
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