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As WWI rages on, three women are connected by the bold design of a Liberty of London scarf. Iris is tired of hand painting drab designs in an already gloomy world but struggles to get management to consider her ideas. Inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem, her Feathered Hope scarf eventually becomes an anchor for other women serving in the war. Geneviève, an immigrant from Quebec, leaves her job as a telephone operator in Maine to join the Signal Corps in France. As the war intensifies and her confidence grows, she starts to envision a brighter future. Clara is a shy nurse in Belgium who finds special purpose as she connects with a sick army musician. Runyan, Ciesielski, and McMillan (who previously collaborated on The Castle Keepers, 2023) tell each woman’s story in part through letters to and from the soldiers they’re falling in love with, culminating in a heartfelt epilogue. The scarf that unites them is a reminder that a thing of beauty, however small, can be an inspiration in dark times and a tangible symbol of the people and ideas we fight for.

Publishers Weekly
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More is less in this mawkish chronicle of three women’s love affairs during WWI from the authors of The Castle Keepers. It’s 1917, and Iris Braxton, a textile designer for fancy London department store Liberty & Co., longs to express herself with modern designs, but her supervisor won’t allow it. Her luck changes when combat veteran Rex Conrad takes a job at Liberty & Co. and passes along Iris’s scarf design, which features an Emily Dickinson quote, to the store’s new owner, who authorizes a test run of 25 scarves. Sparks fly between Iris and Rex, but their budding romance is disrupted when he’s recalled to the front. Meanwhile, Geneviève Tremblay is in London with the U.S. Army Signal Corps when French pilot Maxime Auvray gives her one of Iris’s scarves. Geneviève and Maxime also develop romantic feelings for each other before being separated by the war. Later, during a bombardment in France, Geneviève saves violinist Roman Allaire by binding his wound with her scarf. Afterward, Allaire forms an attachment with Belgian nurse Clara Janssens, who’s overseeing his recovery. A risible series of coincidences follow, and uninspired prose doesn’t help matters (“Though she wore gloves, it proved a weak barrier to the warmth of his fingers”). This one miss the mark. (Nov.)