The Stars Are Fire

  In this blog post, I reviewed Anita Shreve’s The Stars Are Fire. This historical woman’s fiction novel is deeply heart-wrenching and powerfully moving read. In the late 1940s, Grace Holland is a young devoted mother of two and a wife in Hunts Beach, Maine. Her husband Gene is intolerable and her mother-in-law can’t stand her for some reason. Though Gene’s a good caring father, he has a funny way of showing it. Based on the true account of the wildfire that blazed that area in Maine, he helps the other fire fighters and hot spotters to contain it from spreading. Grace, and her neighbor Rosie, evacuate their homes to seek out shelter from the firestorm. After it ended, everything’s lost when she needs to find a place to call home and sought out her late mother-in-law’s home, and Gene is nowhere to be found and presumed missing if not dead. Grace would have to look for work and take care of her children with her mother’s help during this time. To make ends meets, she works at a clinic and meets new friend there. She also encountered a gifted pianist named Aidan Berne, who slummed in her home, and invited him to stay as a guest. They get to know each other better as his music enchanted her when he had stolen her heart. And when he left to play in Boston, Grace’s nightmare came to life when her husband Gene returned to his mother’s house with a frightful encounter that challenged Grace and pushed her to the limit. She discovered the real truth about her marriage as she seeks a way out of a loveless marriage to protect her children from him and to fight for her freedom to escape him.

This was a heartfelt and powerful woman’s fiction novel with a historical romance slant to it. I cared for Grace on how she cared about her children and tried her best to please Gene. She needed to support her family and do everything she could to avoid going into poverty. Before, during, and even after the fire, she had been dealt with some many life-challenging struggles, one too many she had to face alone. I’ve thought Gene had gotten what he deserved for his mistreatment to Grace and their children. I loved the dual locations of Hunts Beach and Biddesford Maine, which painted a vivid picture of how people lived during that time and what hardships they were dealt with. The scenic settings were picturesque and compelling to transplant yourselves over there. The theme of the story is that life can challenge you in the most difficult times, when you have to rely on yourself. The only nitpick was that there was no indication if Grace filed for divorce and gained primary custody of her children before she made her trips back home.

This historical woman’s fiction was so riveting, I enjoyed it completely to read it and be absorbed into Grace’s story. I couldn’t find anything to nitpick on from start to finish. I rated this book, four out of five stars for no specific reason. If you love historical romances and woman’s fiction novels with non-stop dramatic action, plenty of sparks of intrigue and a heap of heart-stopping moments,  check out The Stars Are Fire today. This book is recommended for those who love historical novels, both romance and fiction, and woman’s fiction novels as well.