The Sweetheart Locket
by Jen Gilroy
This gripping dual-timeline novel traces the emotional trajectory of two women separated by generations. Willow, an American writer and researcher visiting present-day London for work, discovers that her oh-so-proper British grandmother Maggie lived a much more adventuresome life in World War Two than her family has ever known. In scenes alternating between Willow “now” and Maggie “then,” the novel shows that living means making choices, and choices have consequences that may reverberate beyond those anticipated at the time.
When World War Two breaks out, Maggie, a Canadian girl who’s been sent to private school in England, defies her family’s expectation that she return to Canada, deciding instead to stay in England to “do her bit” in the war. Along the way she faces danger, experiences love and grief, and draws on courage she never knew she had. But after the war, much about this part of her life stays hidden, kept secret even from her own daughter.
Meanwhile, in the present day, a DNA test reveals that Willow’s family history is more complicated than she’s known. Willow is at a crossroads herself: she’s been a single mother since she was young, but her daughter is now grown. Willow, still in her early forties, needs to give new shape to her future. In the search to uncover her grandmother’s secrets, she finds new openings and possibilities for her own life.
The author paints a vivid picture of second-world-war Britain and the ways that war upended longstanding traditions and social expectations of the time. But life in the twenty-first century has its own complications. Despite the decades separating these two women’s lives, they face parallel emotional challenges and choices which lead to personal growth. By the end, the novel finally reveals all secrets and comes to a satisfying, forward-looking conclusion.
Jen Gilroy grew up in Winnipeg, spent summers in small-town Ontario, and lived in London UK for a number of years: all settings that are reflected in her writing. She’s the author of six romance novels—five of them in two series set in fictional small-town settings, and the sixth, Montana Reunion, is the first in a new series taking place in rural Montana.
The Sweetheart Locket is Gilroy’s first venture into women’s fiction, and is also her first historical fiction. Her initial research for the book was undertaken on a trip to London in 2019. She had planned at least one more research trip to the UK, but travel restrictions during the covid pandemic prevented that, so she ended up using written sources that she could access from Canada.
Jen lives in a small town south of Ottawa with her husband and floppy-eared dog; they have one daughter who is away at university. Jen is working on a sequel to Montana Reunion, and is also planning another WWII-era novel.
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