Jasmine Nights [Hardcover]

Julia Gregson's third novel 'Jasmine Nights' is set in the Second World War and tells the story of Saba Tarcan, a beautiful half Turkish, half Welsh singer, and Dom Benson, a fighter pilot in the RAF. Saba meets Dom whilst she is performing in a hospital for recovering servicemen where Dom is convalescing after his plane has been shot down. Dom is very attracted to Saba, as she is to him and they meet up in London after Saba has auditioned for the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA); however a misunderstanding occurs between them and before Dom can put things right, Saba is sent off to North Africa to entertain the troops.

When Saba arrives in Cairo she is amazed at the colourful life around her and delighted to see the abundance and the variety of food that is available, especially the fresh fruit and the good coffee. This makes her feel almost guilty until she is told: "Enjoy it while you can; it'll be hard tack and bully beef once you get on the road." However before Saba goes on tour, she is interviewed by the mysterious Mr Cleeve, who, aware that she speaks Turkish, asks her to help the war effort and befriend a certain Zafer Ozan, a rich and powerful Turk who is very influential in North Africa. Cleeve wants Saba to get close to Ozan so that she can listen in on his conversations and then report back to him. Although a little worried, Saba is also excited and she agrees to do what she can to help, and when Cleeve tells Saba that he would prefer it if she does not get romantically entangled with any young men whilst she is working for him, she is happy to accept his conditions. That is until Dom makes a sudden reappearance in her life and she has to hold him at arm's length, which causes confusion for Dom and unhappiness for both of them. There is a lot more to their story of course - plenty of twists and turns, misunderstandings and misgivings, but I shall leave that for readers to discover for themselves.

This is the first of Julia Gregson's books that I have read and I must admit that, despite the seriousness of the wartime setting, I thought the story was going to be too light and sentimentally romantic - and yes, this is a romantic story and some of the characters and events are perhaps a little clichéd and predictable. However that said, the story does draw the reader in and is more than just a tale of romance between two people during a difficult time. It was interesting to see how, at the outset of the story, Saba is a rather naïve young woman who, as time moves on, becomes more aware of the situation around her - and not just immediately around her but the whole situation of war and of how each and every person's contribution is of importance. 'Jasmine Nights' is the story of two people who are striving to have a normal relationship at a time in history that is far from normal, but if we look beyond the romance we realize there is a lot more at stake, and it is this that our two protagonists have to struggle with and it is also what makes this book a rather interesting and entertaining read.

3.5 Stars.

I read this book in one go! It's a vivid and heartwarming story set in the middle east in World war 11. The heroine, Saba, is a singer who joins ENSA - the entertainment branch of the forces. She's a fiesty, determined, talented young girl from a poor part of Cardiff. Saba falls in love with Dom, a pilot, whose background is very different to hers. It's a book full of surprises with a wonderful sense of place. A beautifully told love story.

The story of a wartime romance between a young fighter pilot and a young woman in a military overseas entertainment troupe, set against the backdrop of Cairo and Istanbul in 1942, just the offensive is about to expand dramatically in that region, Jasmine Nights might sound like a light exotic romantic war novel, but don't be fooled. Inspired by the wartime background of her own parents, Julia Gregson understands the true nature of people trying to maintain normal relationships during the war, and manages to put across the essence of it brilliantly with the situation she develops from it.

"These men don't fight for democracy or freedom or any of that guff...", one of her characters tells Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) singer Saba Tarcan at one point in the book, "...they fight for their mum or for their girl, and as far as they are concerned, you're it for the ten minutes you're on the stage". There's an essential truth in this that the author recognizes and it makes the story of Saba and Dom, a fighter pilot she met recuperating from burns in a hospital back home, all the more vital. It's one thing to think of your loved ones back home while fighting to keep them safe, but it's quite another matter when the object of your affections - affections so freshly aroused - is out there on the front, tantalizingly close, but separated by potentially great danger.

The war dangers that separate Dom and Saba, bringing them together only for their respective duties to suddenly separate them is the strong hook that holds the story together. For Saba, the concerns about Dom in a war where a quarter of the fighter pilots have already died, including Dom's closest friend, are obvious, but for Dom, the potential dangers in the region are also more than his "girl" performing in front of hundreds of lusting, lonely troops - but little does he know about that the reconnaissance and listening in to foreign guests that Saba has been asked to be party to could lead her into an even more dangerous spying operation.

For all the flights of exoticism and romanticism that Jasmine Nights finds in this situation - caught on the wave of a song or in the pull of flying a Spitfire - it still manages to keep its feet on the ground and never allows you to forget that what they are involved in is important and has real meaning. The two main characters constantly think about their families back home, reflecting on who they are, where they come from, and - in these uncertain times - who they are likely to turn out to be, transformed by their new discoveries in a changing world that tantalizingly holds so much promise, but whose outcome is by no means certain. Julia Gregson's writing captures the immediacy of living in the moment, in the excitement of romantic attraction during a time of war, making this a thrilling and entertaining read, but one that has depths in its understanding of the true stakes involved.