Grounded Hearts by Jeanne Dickson: Irish setting, predictable story and conclusion

In a nutshell – the setting is World War II, County Clare Ireland. As Ireland has declared their country neutral, any troops captured must be reported and interned. The story opens with a Canadian RAF bomber crashing, introducing us to a wounded flyer named Dutch Whitney. He doesn’t know where is but he needs to find his crew and make it to Northern Ireland so he can get back into the war.

He sees a light at a cottage and starts practicing his Irish accent so he won’t be mistaken for Canadian. (Ha!) Wounded, he makes his way toward the cottage. Twenty-eight year old midwife Nan O’Neil (a widow) answers the door and takes him in. She busts him right away on the fake brogue as it is soooo over the top. But so is her dialogue once you get into the book.

“Top of the morn….evening to ya. ‘Tis meself, “tis,” a muffled voice answered.
“Sit here, so”……she brought him water and surveyed his face. Ah, but he had altogether gorgeous blue eyes. His hand touched hers, sending a rush of heat over her skin. No, don’t be drawn to this fella. No good would come of it.

Nan will be sent to prison if she’s caught harboring a soldier but you can see that’s the way the story is going. It’s very predicable with her inward swooning over his eyes and muscular body.

C’mon, it’s so obvious she likes his looks and is attracted to him all the while telling herself to step back. It’s the template of other books where girl meets boy, girl tells herself she must not get involved, repeat this a few times and finally they get together. I thought it might be more Ireland-centic but that wasn’t the case.

I won this book from Goodreads in a Kindle format. Thank you Goodreads!

Linking up with Joy’s British Isles Friday