Book Review: Love, Loss and Honor by Herbert Wiens

Genre(s): Historical fiction, women’s fiction

Content warning: There is are some violent scenes in this book that depict torture and rape.

Karen is a career-driven college student seeking to become a medical doctor. During her first year of college, she hooks up with three different boyfriends—one is rich but obviously bad news, one is a temporary fling, and the third is hard-working and brilliant but comes from a poor background. She falls in love with one and thinks she’s in love with another, but during her second semester of classes, she learns she’s pregnant. She doesn’t immediately know who the father is.

Mariken is a woman suffering from severe amnesia who finds herself in the midst of 16^th century Antwerp. She is literate and has skills akin to that of a physician, but unusual for a woman of the time. A family of Mennists offers to help her uncover her identity, at great risk to themselves. They are being persecuted for their religious beliefs and must be very careful about who they associate with.

The first part of the book (excepting the prologue) was focused on Karen. I’ll admit I had some difficulty relating to her character and her decisions. There were several times while reading those early chapters I almost set the book aside – but I am SO glad that I didn’t. After getting to the end, she definitely redeemed herself. As a note to other readers, if you’re struggling with the first half of the book, stick with it—the second half makes up for it.

The second half of the book focused on Mariken’s story. It becomes clear pretty quickly that the two stories are somehow related, although how that is takes a while to explain. I liked Mariken’s character so much more than I did Karen’s. Her story was tragic, but the final few chapters explained her connection with Karen, and also helped to redeem Karen in my eyes.

While the ending left me with a few questions, it was a good read with an interesting concept.

Author website: herbwiens.wordpress.com

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