1Ellie.Thorel
Hello,
I hope this is where I post my review. I am going to try now. I gave the book The Jilted Countess 4 stars. Unfortunately, it is not letting me attach the review. I am finding this quite frustrating. So I will copy and paste. Ellie Thorel
The Jilted Countess
Roza Mészàros is a young Hungarian woman who has survived the horrors of war and has crossed an ocean from Europe and travelled by train to Minnesota to meet her fiancé, a soldier she met during the war. She is a countess and a ballerina from Vienna; used to living well. That is, until the Nazis took everything including her father who disappeared. She met Joe, a soldier in Vienna where he was stationed and they had a three-month “whirlwind courtship”. Joe apparently had returned to America, but sent Roza a visa, some American money and love letters. When the time comes for Roza to meet her fiancé at the train station at the St. Paul depot, Joe is nowhere to be found. Instead, a kindly Hungarian couple; Jakab and Mariska Katz are there to meet her instead and tell her that Mr. Harbeck (Joe) has instructed them to take Roza to their home for the night.
Roza is wondering why Joe or his family hasn’t come for her after a two-year separation. She had hoped to get to know his family before the wedding and see his property, the pictures he had sent her instead of this odd state of affairs. When Joe arrives, the next morning he tells her he married his childhood sweetheart months prior and that Joe only knew Roza for just three months. Roza is shattered. She accuses him of leading her on, why did he let her come all this way, why did he make love to her, promise to marry her, just to toss her aside?
Initially, I felt the character Roza to be immature and two-dimensional. Had the author intended her to be this way? Had this person not learned anything during the war? This young woman was to have experienced real hardship which I thought the author had skimmed over to get to the story. Roza seemed petulant and spoiled and didn’t seem to have much insight after losing her father to the Nazis which would be traumatic enough. She had left her mother and brother behind to go to a completely different way of life and all she could think about was this soldier she barely knew that had jilted her.
This was how I felt early on in the story. Apparently, this is loosely based on a true story. Loretta Ellsworth said she found the article of this woman’s story in The Minneapolis Star Tribune and was so taken with it; she had to write about it. I have since changed my opinion of Roza since reading further on. She is tenacious. She is a ballerina that has been disappointed that her career had been cut short by the war. She had lost her father, lost her way of life and gave herself to this soldier she only knew for three months and hung on to his promises for two years, while she faced fear, loss and poverty.
She leaves her country, language and way of life to travel over completely different continents to be with someone she barely knows and start a new life; only to be abandoned at the train station and find out later that her fiancé, has gone and “married his childhood sweetheart!” Although Roza is shattered, she is determined to remain in America and find a husband. So, with barely two weeks under her belt as her GI visa is due to expire, she does just that. Roza does what any countess would do and finds the press and tells her story to a kindly editor, Cecil Anders who is taken with her story and prints it.
Roza finds out that she has within the span of five days, acquired over 1700 proposals from all over America! Not only proposals, but chocolate, flowers and money! She is the poor countess no longer!
With the help from her friends Mariska, Katz and Cecil, Roza manages to narrow down the letters of proposal to five and agrees to meet three of the candidates. The time crunch is on and Roza feels the pressure to make a decision and so within the week, decides to marry a reserved engineer Finn Erickson from Red Wing Minnesota. As time goes on Roza will learn more about this taciturn man she has married and wonder about her choices.
I could relate to feeling like an outsider and trying to fit in. I could sympathize with Roza’s challenges in the small town of Red Wing. The town ladies raised eyebrows at Roza’s manners and cultured behaviour, and not being accepted by Finn’s parents, thinking Roza “fancy and “highfalutin”.
I found this book an interesting and enjoyable read. I think Loretta Ellsworth did a fine job trying to piece together this woman’s life from the articles in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I thank Library Thing and MB Communications for providing me a copy of this book in exchange to give an honest review.
I hope this is where I post my review. I am going to try now. I gave the book The Jilted Countess 4 stars. Unfortunately, it is not letting me attach the review. I am finding this quite frustrating. So I will copy and paste. Ellie Thorel
The Jilted Countess
Roza Mészàros is a young Hungarian woman who has survived the horrors of war and has crossed an ocean from Europe and travelled by train to Minnesota to meet her fiancé, a soldier she met during the war. She is a countess and a ballerina from Vienna; used to living well. That is, until the Nazis took everything including her father who disappeared. She met Joe, a soldier in Vienna where he was stationed and they had a three-month “whirlwind courtship”. Joe apparently had returned to America, but sent Roza a visa, some American money and love letters. When the time comes for Roza to meet her fiancé at the train station at the St. Paul depot, Joe is nowhere to be found. Instead, a kindly Hungarian couple; Jakab and Mariska Katz are there to meet her instead and tell her that Mr. Harbeck (Joe) has instructed them to take Roza to their home for the night.
Roza is wondering why Joe or his family hasn’t come for her after a two-year separation. She had hoped to get to know his family before the wedding and see his property, the pictures he had sent her instead of this odd state of affairs. When Joe arrives, the next morning he tells her he married his childhood sweetheart months prior and that Joe only knew Roza for just three months. Roza is shattered. She accuses him of leading her on, why did he let her come all this way, why did he make love to her, promise to marry her, just to toss her aside?
Initially, I felt the character Roza to be immature and two-dimensional. Had the author intended her to be this way? Had this person not learned anything during the war? This young woman was to have experienced real hardship which I thought the author had skimmed over to get to the story. Roza seemed petulant and spoiled and didn’t seem to have much insight after losing her father to the Nazis which would be traumatic enough. She had left her mother and brother behind to go to a completely different way of life and all she could think about was this soldier she barely knew that had jilted her.
This was how I felt early on in the story. Apparently, this is loosely based on a true story. Loretta Ellsworth said she found the article of this woman’s story in The Minneapolis Star Tribune and was so taken with it; she had to write about it. I have since changed my opinion of Roza since reading further on. She is tenacious. She is a ballerina that has been disappointed that her career had been cut short by the war. She had lost her father, lost her way of life and gave herself to this soldier she only knew for three months and hung on to his promises for two years, while she faced fear, loss and poverty.
She leaves her country, language and way of life to travel over completely different continents to be with someone she barely knows and start a new life; only to be abandoned at the train station and find out later that her fiancé, has gone and “married his childhood sweetheart!” Although Roza is shattered, she is determined to remain in America and find a husband. So, with barely two weeks under her belt as her GI visa is due to expire, she does just that. Roza does what any countess would do and finds the press and tells her story to a kindly editor, Cecil Anders who is taken with her story and prints it.
Roza finds out that she has within the span of five days, acquired over 1700 proposals from all over America! Not only proposals, but chocolate, flowers and money! She is the poor countess no longer!
With the help from her friends Mariska, Katz and Cecil, Roza manages to narrow down the letters of proposal to five and agrees to meet three of the candidates. The time crunch is on and Roza feels the pressure to make a decision and so within the week, decides to marry a reserved engineer Finn Erickson from Red Wing Minnesota. As time goes on Roza will learn more about this taciturn man she has married and wonder about her choices.
I could relate to feeling like an outsider and trying to fit in. I could sympathize with Roza’s challenges in the small town of Red Wing. The town ladies raised eyebrows at Roza’s manners and cultured behaviour, and not being accepted by Finn’s parents, thinking Roza “fancy and “highfalutin”.
I found this book an interesting and enjoyable read. I think Loretta Ellsworth did a fine job trying to piece together this woman’s life from the articles in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I thank Library Thing and MB Communications for providing me a copy of this book in exchange to give an honest review.
2AnnieMod
Nope, you need to add the book to your library and add the review in the book record there.
I do not see any books OR reviews in your account (which is why you cannot attach it). Do you have another account? If not, then maybe you misunderstood how Attach Review works - it allows you to attach to a post a review you posted in one of the books you had added to your library.
I do not see any books OR reviews in your account (which is why you cannot attach it). Do you have another account? If not, then maybe you misunderstood how Attach Review works - it allows you to attach to a post a review you posted in one of the books you had added to your library.
3Ellie.Thorel
Hi I tried to add the book and wasn't able to. Will keep trying. I'm new at this and thanks.
4AnnieMod
Amazon.com finds it just fine. :)
Are you trying the big green plus on the book page? If so, that's the problem - too many people added manually early on most likely and that button is just a shortcut to Add Books. So go to https://www.librarything.com/addbooks and use the title or the ISBN and Amazon.com as a source and it will allow you to add it.
PS: I just tried - the green button also works. So how exactly are you trying to add it when it fails?
PS: And seems like you managed to add it, the review has the ER symbol so you are all set :)
Are you trying the big green plus on the book page? If so, that's the problem - too many people added manually early on most likely and that button is just a shortcut to Add Books. So go to https://www.librarything.com/addbooks and use the title or the ISBN and Amazon.com as a source and it will allow you to add it.
PS: I just tried - the green button also works. So how exactly are you trying to add it when it fails?
PS: And seems like you managed to add it, the review has the ER symbol so you are all set :)
