Book Review: Darrel Nelson's The Anniversary Waltz

Adam is returning home from his duty in World War 2, and Elizabeth is currently seeing Nathan, and working at a dry cleaners. These two people who are on two different paths cross each other one night changing the course of their lives forever. An incident occurs that may affect whether Adam, and Elizabeth may still be able to remain together through the difficulties this tragedy will give them.

At first I was actually going to review this book a little lower until I read the Author's Note at the end of the book. The fact this story is pieced together from real stories in the author's family makes this book 100% better. There is really nothing like people who value the stories in their own family enough to convey them in a novel even if they have changed it up a bit.

One thing this story did put me a lot in mind of was The Notebook though. I felt like the fair, the soldier returning from war, the 40s setting, and even the woman being engaged to someone else was way too much similar to that one. Sadly, it never even reaches the romantic volume of The Notebook, which is even more disappointing since I never remember finding The Notebook that romantic in the first place.

The story has enough twist and turns to keep you reading, but since the author started out in the beginning already conveying that the couple was together by them sharing their anniversary story with their children, we don't have the suspense of whether Elizabeth and Adam will make it. We already know that from the beginning. For a while the book seemed quite pointless till I read the author's note at the end.

If you're looking for a clean, simple, romance then you'll probably like this novel. Maybe you are just looking for something to quickly remind you of The Notebook again. Personally, I was still looking for the bigger impact I didn't get till after finishing the novel. You can check it out at Amazon.

Rating 3 of 5.

This book was provided by Glass Road Publications for a review.