I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley. I loved this book. I am not big on historical fiction but this one was particularly good. Fabulous characters and setting that took me back to 1940's North Carolina. The author is a really impressive writer and can really tell a story well. I almost felt like I was there. There were a some surprises in this book but they really made the story and I also really liked the ending. Tess is a very strong character and I love how she handled her problems herself which was not the norm back then I will definitely look for more books from this author! Thanks so much for the chance to read it!!!

This was such a satisfying book! The main character is so clearly drawn - her motivations and rationale for her actions. I couldn't believe the polio hospital was based in reality! I enjoyed the story very much.

THE STOLEN MARRIAGE WRITTEN BY DIANE CHAMBERLAIN

This is the second novel I have read and thoroughly enjoyed by Diane Chamberlain. This story was so addictive that I read it in two sittings. I was pulled into the character's lives from the very beginning and hated to put it down to get some sleep. Again Diane Chamberlain has done a terrific job in researching Hickory, North Carolina in 1944 during America's polio epidemic. The author renders this atmospheric multi-layered narrative with the racial tensions and prejudices that existed between inter-racial marriage. An African American that married a white person could find themselves placed in prison for ten years. This page turning story covers different themes on many different subjects.

Beginning in Baltimore, Maryland, Theresa also known as Tess is the main protagonist who grows up with her fiance Vincent in the same neighborhood. Tess and Vincent were childhood friend's who turn into adult sweethearts. Tess is studying to become a registered nurse with just her licensing exam to be taken. Vincent is a doctor and he gets called to Chicago to help volunteer with the polio outbreak occurring there. As Tess awaits Vincent's return he keeps extending his stay for more time working in Chicago.

Tess and her best friend Gina decide out of boredom to visit Washington DC. While in Washington Tess makes a huge mistake that will change the course of her life. Tess and Gina go out to dinner with two gentlemen who keep the alcohol coming. Henry Kraft is a man of wealthy means but also many hidden secrets.

Some of the lingering thoughts I have about the book is how painful it is to be in a loveless marriage. Do we ever get the happier ever after with our soulmates or the love of our lives? Tess and Vincent's future is altered because of Tess's encounter with Henry. How does Henry Kraft figure into the story? Vincent's parents were husband and wife by an arranged marriage which turns out to be a marriage of profound love. Can entering in a marriage because of life's circumstances ever turn out to be the right decision and can love grow?

I don't want to give away any spoilers about how and why Tess's life is altered. I really enjoyed this novel but I think it will appeal to women in particular. In 1944 in North Carolina I was surprised would handle different ethnic races so severely. Also this book reminded me what it was like for women and the hardships they faced having children without being married. I applaud Diane Chamberlain for tackling ethical issues while weaving a totally realistic narrative. The dialogue was immersive and entertaining and I highly recommend this book for women who love historical fiction that is based on factual events and places.

Huge Thanks to Net Galley, Diane Chamberlain and St. Martins Publishing for providing me with my digital copy for an honest and fair review.

It's 1944 and Tess DeMello is 23 years old, studying to be a nurse, and in love with Vincent. Life in Baltimore's Little Italy is perfect, except for the hardships imposed by the war. Vincent is studying to be a doctor and leaves town for an extended period. When Tess's friend, Gina, proposes a weekend trip out of town to Washington, DC, Tess can't imagine how accepting is going to change her well ordered life and future plans! Less than a few months later, Tess is in Hickory, North Carolina living a sham life due to a series of poorly conceived choices -- she's made her bed and she must lie in it.

This is the 15th book I've read by the author and they are usually hit or miss with me. I think I enjoyed this one more because Tess is a nurse and the details about the polio epidemic and the "Miracle of Hickory" hospital were a fascinating glimpse into history. As usual, the basic plot involves a love story, but this had a few twists that made its predictability more interesting. Definitely there is a difference during this time period between the North and the South as well as with how women's roles have changed since then. I realize that I'm meant to admire Tess as she is portrayed as kind and self-punishing until she becomes stronger and achieves her dreams. Henry and Vincent are just props and I never developed any feelings for them although I did feel a degree of sympathy for Henry -- no spoilers! Some pretty amazing coincidences just happen to make the happy ending that fans of Diane Chamberlain expect.

**I won the ARC lottery from NetGalley for Diane Chamberlain's October 2017 release of THE STOLEN MARRIAGE in exchange for my honest review**

In 1944, Tess future is bright. She's finishing her nursing degree and about to marry her childhood sweetheart Vince. A drunken night with Henry Kraft changes the course of her future when she becomes pregnant. Ashamed to tell Vince, Tess finds Henry who agrees to marry her beginning a series of secrets and lies. Not everyone will survive.

Diane Chamberlain has been one of my favorite writers for decades. I love how she tackles topical issues as organic parts of characters and storylines. Henry's childhood friend is on trial for being in an interracial marriage, illegal and punishable with jail time in North Carolina during the 1940s. Tess doesn't agree with the mixing of races, a very common attitude back then, particularly in the south.

Tess has more faults than many of Chamberlain's protagonists, she doesn't trust Vince enough to tell him the truth about her pregnancy, ending the relationship with a note simply saying she was in love with someone else. She marries a man she doesn't love. While she treats black people kindly, she has prejudice beliefs. She also never stops trying to ingratiate herself to Henry and his family. Most of the secondary characters are unique, interesting and complex.

Chamberlain is a fantastic storyteller has with such a relatable style of writing. Her words jump off the pages. I never felt like I was reading; THE STOLEN MARRIAGE just appeared in my head as I glanced at my kindle. The medium pace was consistent from the first to last page.

I rarely read historical fiction but Chamberlain is a must read writer, no matter what genre. THE STOLEN MARRIAGE is a must add for fall reading lists.

I was given an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review of it. This book was absolutely amazing and I could not put it down! I loved the time that it took place in and there were so many things going on in the story that kept my interest! Wonderful job!!

Great book! Looking forward to reading more by this author! Highly recommend!

Wow absolutely loved this book. I have read all of Diane Chamberlains books and they just get better and better. Excellent how Diane intertwined true life with fictional characters. I cannot wait for her next book.

"The Stolen Marriage" by Diane Chamberlain is an historical fiction, taking place on the East Coast of the United States in the mid 1940’s, during the polio epidemic. The characters are interesting and complex, making you cheer for some and want to throttle others. And with some of them, you’ll want to do both. They are so rich in their complexities that you won’t want to put down the book.

Tess DeMello is engaged to her lifelong friend and love when, after some shocking news, she hastily abandons her home in Baltimore’s Little Italy for a small town in North Carolina and marries a man she barely knows. She is quickly immersed into an unfamiliar world that includes wealth and deception. She tries to make the most of her situation, but becomes overwhelmed with grief and loneliness. Suddenly, polio strikes the small town, devastating their inadequate health care resources. The entire town pulls together to fight the disease, giving Tess purpose back to her life. As she reverts to the strong woman you meet at the start of the book, she begins to untangle the messy life she has created for herself.

Many accurate historic topics are incorporated into the story, including racial bigotry as well as the terror that accompanied polio outbreaks. The fascinating way that the author describes those events makes for an incredibly interesting story.

"The Stolen Marriage" is my new favorite book by Chamberlain. Of course, I might say that after each of her books! She is an extraordinary writer whose characters you will quickly take into your heart and hold them there for a long time to come.

I was so exciting and could not wait to read another Diane Chamberlain book and even with this self inflicted hype, I was not disappointed!!! Diane has done it again. She has delivered a story that grabs you from the beginning and holds you tight until the end. An extra plus is that the story is based on fact. I love learning a little bit of history in such a pleasant manner.

The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain is an historical fiction, taking place on the East Coast of the United States in the mid 1940’s, during the polio epidemic. The characters are interesting and complex, making you cheer for some and want to throttle others. And with some of them, you’ll want to do both. They are so rich in their complexities that you won’t want to put down the book.

Tess DeMello is engaged to her lifelong friend and love when, after some shocking news, she hastily abandons her home in Baltimore’s Little Italy for a small town in North Carolina and marries a man she barely knows. She is quickly immersed into an unfamiliar world that includes wealth and deception. She tries to make the most of her situation, but becomes overwhelmed with grief and loneliness. Suddenly, polio strikes the small town, devastating their inadequate health care resources. The entire town pulls together to fight the disease, giving Tess purpose back to her life. As she reverts to the strong woman you meet at the start of the book, she begins to untangle the messy life she has created for herself.

Many accurate historic topics are incorporated into the story, including racial bigotry as well as the terror that accompanied polio outbreaks. The fascinating way that the author describes those events makes for an incredibly interesting story.

The Stolen Marriage is my new favorite book by this author. Of course, I might say that after each of her books! She is an extraordinary writer whose characters you will quickly take into your heart and hold them there for a long time to come.

*Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.* Diane Chamberlain has done it again - she has produced another excellent novel that will tug at readers' heartstrings and glued to the page. 'The Stolen Marriage' tells the story of a young Italian-American woman, Tess DeMello who is training to be a nurse, during World War Two and the height of the polio epidemic in the United States. As with all of Chamberlain's historical novels, 'The Stolen Marriage' is carefully researched and quite detailed about what occurred during the epidemic, as well as race relations in the 1940s. Tess' journey is not an easy one and readers will connect with her struggles against restrictions of the society in which she lives.

I have only read one other book by Diane Chamberlain (The Silent Sister which also got 4 stars) but I was excited to read this one based on the premise. I will be honest, at about 30% of the way in I wanted to quit reading this book because it was so sad! Tess DeMello, is engaged to the love of her life, but gets drunk with a friend and has a one night stand that results in pregnancy. Now the fact that it's 1944 seriously complicates ALL of this. She's supposed to be a virgin, a good Catholic girl! There's no way she can get married to her fiance, so instead she runs off and ultimately marries the man she slept with who lives in small town North Carolina, very different from her upbringing in Philadelphia. By setting the story in NC at this time there was some wonderful atmospheric things happening and great plot points as a result, such as Tess wanting to work as a nurse when that wasn't "necessary" for a well-married woman of that time, the idea of keeping women feminine if they had to work, lots of great matters involving race, morality, the war and polio.

Once I made it past the beginning of Tess' marriage the story started the fly by and I couldn't put it down when I had 150 pages left. I wish the characters of Ruth and Lucy had a been a bit more developed but I appreciated how Chamberlain tried to give them more depth through Tess' POV. That's just nit-picking though. I thought this was a good story, and could see it being a hit with book clubs. I also like <spoiler> a neat ending as well as a happy one so this wins for that too.</spoiler> Recommended for those who want an engaging read!

This book sucked me in and I couldn't put it down. I loved the characters and the details of the time period. I highly recommend this book, and have already recommended it to several people!

This book was granted to me as an advance read by Net Galley and St. Martin's Press. I'll admit I love Diane Chamberlain, but this was even better than anticipated. I'll admit at the beginning, I was angry at Tess, the main character, but then I loved the way she took matters into her own hands at a time it was difficult for a woman to do that. There were many surprises, and I loved the resolution. I highly recommend this title.

I started a neighborhood book club a little over two years ago, not sure it would work out. The first book we read was Diane Chamberlain’s Necessary Lies, and it was a great choice: it was set in a small Southern town fifty or so years ago, it included social issues (mental illness, forced sterilizations, the “appropriate” role of women in marriage) and it was filled with characters who stayed with the reader long after the last page was read. It also had the added EEEK! factor that occurs when you find out a novel is based on reality: in this case, forced sterilizations and racism. It made for some good discussions! So, with all that, I was happy to receive a copy of Ms. Chamberlain’s new book The Stolen Marriage, from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This new book is also set primarily in a small town in the South, 50+ years ago. The protagonist, Tess DeMello, ends her engagement to a man she loves dearly, quickly marries a stranger, and moves to Hickory, North Carolina. Hickory is a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess finds out her new husband, an extremely successful furniture manufacturer, is quite mysterious: he often stays out all night, hides money, and is totally uninterested in any physical contact with his new wife. Although her new husband tries to give her everything she might want, Tess feels trapped and desperately wants out of the unhappy situation: “I hadn’t been happy in so long, I doubted a new house was going to fix what was wrong with me.”

The people of Hickory love and respect her husband, and see her as an outsider. When Tess is blamed for the death of a prominent citizen in an accident, she is treated with scorn and derision. She begins to feel like she is being followed, and becomes more and more unhappy. The town is a classic racist town, and even the “nice people” have stereotypical views of the times, reflected in Tess’s feeling that “…it was crazy that any state in the country allowed colored and white to get married in the first place. It only created problems for everyone.”

When a sudden polio epidemic strikes the town, the townspeople band together and build a polio hospital in just a few days (!). Tess begins to work at the hospital, finding a rewarding sense of identity in caring for the young victims. But the whole mess with her husband and his horrific mother and sister continues to make her life as a married woman completely NOT what she had dreamed of. It has suspense, drama, and a surprise ending that I loved.

This will be a good choice for book clubs, with the issues of women’s rights and roles in their marriages, interracial marriage, medical ethics (as an epidemic breaks out among people of all races and religions), honesty and trust. It is an easy read, but has a lot of depth. I read it a week ago, and keep thinking about the town, the people, the situation…so it’s an easy five stars for me…and a good future choice for our book club, still going strong.

BTW, the true story of a town that built a hospital from the ground up in just a few days in order to deal with the polio epidemic is awesome!

Diane Chamberlain does it to me every time. She writes stories that are so amazingly compelling that I find myself rushing through them while at the same time savoring the brilliance of the story. Her latest is even better than that.

Tess has everything she’s ever wanted. She’s surrounded by family and friends, close to graduating from nursing school, and engaged to the love of her life. Then one mistake, one night, changes everything. A drunken encounter with a strange man leaves her pregnant. Suddenly her entire life is in upheaval. Having a child out of wedlock in 1944 is out of the question. So she does the only thing she knows to do. She leaves the life she knows behind without much of an explanation to anyone.

When she settles in North Carolina with the father of her child, things definitely don’t go as expected. She’s seen as an outsider by almost everyone in the small town. Her new mother-in-law doesn’t care for her, and neither does her sister-in-law Lucy. Although Henry’s kind to her and she wants for nothing, he doesn’t really act like a husband. And then there’s the accident. Lucy’s dead, and everybody blames Tess.

But as her outsider status grows, so does her suspicion that something’s going on with Henry. Not only is he increasingly distant, he’s gone for long periods of time during the night. Oh and there’s that stash of hidden money she comes across…

I loved this book. That’s not really surprising because I love this author. But this one’s a bit different. The historical fiction element was wonderfully written and made for one heck of a story. This story will likely go down as one of my favorites from Diane Chamberlain.

I LOVED this! I felt so awful for Tess throughout the novel and I am so glad she got a happy ending! I thought I had figured out where the story was going once the polio hospital opened in Hickory but there were still some good surprises at the end! Definitely recommend!

Another really good read from Diane Chamberlain. I really like that some parts of the book are based on factual events/laws.

I have to say I really enjoyed this book. It harks back to a very different time and set of values. Great characters with a sad story alleviated by hope and new beginnings at the end of the book.