A Truly Splendid Adventure

 

Mrs. Endicott’s Splendid Adventure
By Rhys Bowen
Publisher:  Lake Union Publishing
Publication date:  August 5, 2025
Print length:  399 pages
ISBN-13:  978-1662527180
 

Publisher’s Blurb:

Blindsided by betrayal in pre-WWII England, a woman charts a daring new course in this captivating tale of resilience, friendship, and new love by the bestselling author of The Rose Arbor and The Venice Sketchbook.

 Surrey, England, 1938. After thirty devoted years of marriage, Ellie Endicott is blindsided by her husband’s appeal for divorce. It’s Ellie’s opportunity for change too. The unfaithful cad can have the house. She’s taking the Bentley. Ellie, her housekeeper Mavis, and her elderly friend Dora―each needing escape―impulsively head for parts unknown in the South of France.

 With the Rhône surging beside them, they have nowhere to be and everywhere to go. Until the Bentley breaks down in the inviting fishing hamlet of Saint Benet. Here, Ellie rents an abandoned villa in the hills, makes wonderful friends among the villagers, and finds herself drawn to Nico, a handsome and enigmatic fisherman. As for unexpected destinations, the simple paradis of Saint Benet is perfect. But fates soon change when the threat of war encroaches.

 Ellie’s second act in life is just beginning―and becoming an adventure she never expected.

 My Thoughts:

This book was charming. After being the picture-perfect wife, giving up her own identity to serve her family, Ellie is left reeling as her husband wants a divorce in order to marry his younger and shinier—and pregnant—affair partner.

 Ellie makes a bold move and decides to travel. She ends up inviting other women who are at loose ends to accompany her, and, along with a desperate young pregnant woman, ends up creating a new home and family in a tiny town on the French riviera.

 Watching Ellie and her friends come into their full potential was such a satisfying read. Their journeys are not without hiccups or disagreements, but they all develop in such wonderful ways.

 The hardships of WWII are also a part of the story, as is their work in helping Jews to escape the Nazis.

 There are so many layers to this book—belated coming of age, romance, a war story. It’s all wrapped up into a lovely package that I will definitely read again.

 Well-written, well-edited, well-researched. Well done!

 Possible objectionable material:

Divorce, an affair, unwed pregnancy. Ellie “steals” her ex-husband’s car. War and death—a couple of particularly sad ones. Same sex-couples. A (quite moving) declaration of faith in God; if you’re not into the mention of religion in your books, this might bother you.

 Who might like this book:

If you like women’s fiction that is more about growth than the romance, this will do the trick. Readers of WWII fiction, although WWII isn’t the true focus of the story.

 Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

 #NetGalley #BookReview #Biblioquacious #RhysBowen #WWII #WomensFiction #MrsEndicottsSplendidAdventure #LakeUnionPublishing