The Jilted Countess
Before the war, Roza Mészáros was a Hungarian countess and a ballerina at the Vienna State Opera. But years of bombing, deprivation, and Nazi occupation have taken all of that away. The Roza who arrives in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1948 is just another European refugee, destitute yet hopeful, with an engagement ring and the promise of marriage to the American GI who swept her off her feet in postwar Vienna.
But the GI is already married, and Roza is left heartbroken. With only two weeks left on her GI visa and no desire to return to Communist Hungary, Roza does something bold—she advertises in the local newspaper for a husband. Roza is overwhelmed to receive almost 1800 responses and has only days to sift through the letters. The man she chooses, quiet railroad engineer and former Army captain Finn Erickson, has experienced heartbreak himself. Both suffer nightmares from their wartime trauma, and both find safety in each other’s presence. But whether they are able to find love—and peace from their memories—is the heart of this quiet novel.
With this fascinating premise, Loretta Ellsworth pens a beautifully slow-burning love story that is about healing from the wreckage of war as much as from the wreckage of the heart. Finn’s patience is an excellent foil for Roza’s determination, but both are fallible, and both falter in their recovery. This just adds authenticity to their relationship and allows for a greater payoff at the end. The jacket copy and the title suggest a much lighter novel than the deep and tender one that Ellsworth delivers, so don’t sleep on The Jilted Countess. A moving and gentle romance full of yearning.
