The Englishman [Kindle Edition]

If you love romance, this is the book for you. From page one you will be gripped, sharing all the emotions and anguish that this young woman is experiencing, also giving an insight into the different culture of a Nordic country. I particularly loved this book as I could totally identify with the characters involved and knowing that it is a true story, anything could happen.
I would highly recommend it, Helena Halme is a very talented writer who bares her soul, allowing you more than just a glimpse into one of the most romantic stories that I know.

As Shakespeare expressed it in the first scene of A Midsummer's Night Dream, 'the course of true love never did run smooth.' It certainly didn't for Kaisa, the young Finnish heroine of the story. From the moment she meets and falls for the Englishman of the novel's title, at a British Embassy reception in Helsinki at the very start of the tale, we suspect two things. One is that by the final page, location 4271 on the Kindle, she will have got him to the altar. The second is that Peter, the handsome naval officer whose hand during their first dance slips without hesitation from her waist to her butt, does not think in terms of marriage. The reader guesses that, in Peter's eyes, Kaisa is simply an easy lay in a Finnish port. The pages between start and finish are filled with misunderstandings, protestations of love, trysts, absences and reunions over the space of four years. An emotive strand running throughout is Kaisa's relationship with her divorced parents, particularly with her wildly unstable father. We can understand how this unsteady background intensifies the uncertainty of her relationship with Peter. She's at sea metaphorically, as much as he is literally. Does she truly love him? Does he truly love her?

'The Englishman' by Helena Halme is a love story, simply told. The style of writing appears to be without artifice. It is easy to believe that Kaisa's story closely reflects the author's own experience of long-distance love and cross-cultural courtship, despite the usual caveat added at the end asserting that the all the characters are fictitious. If it really is fiction, then the writer has been skilful in creating a story which reads as though it's written by the alter ego of the naïve heroine herself. Whatever the case, it will appeal to readers who like romances in which they are told exactly what the heroine is thinking, feeling and even wearing - yes, details of dress and appearance are very important to the narrator - moment by moment until she finally gets her man.

What I admired most about The Englishman was the way it so convincingly depicted the doubt and trust involved in a long-distance relationship at a time before the Internet existed. Peter and Kaisa inhabit a world where infrequent phone calls and letters must be treasured, rather than one where constant communication is available by mobile, skype and text.

Helena Halme brings Kaisa to life as a young woman setting out into adulthood against a background in Finland that's unknown to me. It's the details of daily life that make all the difference: what to wear to an Embassy cocktail party, or how awkward it feels not knowing what drink to order when in England. The novel is more than a romance, it's also a lament for Kaisa's fractured relationship with her father.