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Susan Meissner is such a fabulous storyteller, and Secrets of a Charmed Life shows her doing what she does best. The novel opens in modern-day Oxford, where young American scholar Kendra Van Zant interviews elderly Isabel McFarland, who is finally ready to share the truth she’s guarded for decades—starting with her real identity. What she passes on to Kendra is equal parts gift and weight, something that shakes Kendra’s tidy ideas about who she wants to be.
Then Meissner sweeps us back to 1940s England. Emmy Downtree, fifteen and fiercely ambitious, dreams of returning to London to work in fashion, while her little sister Julia just wants to stay close to the only family she has. The sisters are evacuated to the Cotswolds as the Blitz intensifies, but their clashing needs and one bold choice send them spiraling into completely different futures. Their separation is heartbreaking, and the fallout shapes everything that comes after.
The characters, places, and events feel so vivid you can almost smell the smoke in the air and hear the sirens echoing across London. Themes of reinvention and redemption run through every page, striking a deep chord. Meissner blends heart, history, and hope with such skill that this novel earns every one of its bright yellow stars.