Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye by Marius Gabriel @Scribbler4Bread

In a period of irreversible change, the Redcliffe sisters face monumental love and loss that will stretch the bounds of sisterhood to their limits…

As the perils of World War II loom ever closer, Chiara is more interested in the joyful whirl of the season than matters of faith or ideology. But even her breezy innocence cannot survive the harsh lessons of heartbreak and war. Meanwhile older sister Isobel is forced to face her misguided Fascist political beliefs in Nazi Germany as the shocking realities of the regime hit home. And then there’s Felicity, the youngest and most introverted of the Redcliffe sisters, who is about to take her vows and enter the convent against her sisters’ wishes. But a chance meeting with an American soldier threatens the very foundations of her decision.

As each sister follows her own path, will their differences force them apart and take them beyond the realms of forgiveness?

Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye is the first book in the Redcliffe Sisters series, but can also be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel.

Wish You Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye by Marius Gabriel was published in paperback by Lake Union Publishing on 4 August 2015 and is the first book in the Redcliffe Sisters series. Back in April 2014 I read and reviewed The House of Many Rooms by this author and enjoyed it.

This book has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for far too long. I took it away to Corfu with me and was absolutely entranced by the story of the three Redcliffe sisters. This is wonderfully written, with expertly imagined characters, set against the horrors of both the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War.

Beginning in Spain as the fighting gets fiercer, Isabel and Felicity find themselves holed up in a cottage. These two sisters are as different as chalk and cheese, with differing views and ideals, but their sisterly bond is as strong as iron. Felicity intends to join a convent and devote her life to God. Isabel is a feisty Fascist sympathiser who cannot understand why Felicity would do such a thing. Isabel has led a life of danger and glamour, meeting Hitler and writing controversial pieces for the press.

Meanwhile, in London, the other Redcliffe sister, Chiara continues to enjoy hectic social life, barely recognising that the the rest of the world is in turmoil.

The story follows the lives of the three sisters over the next few years and Marius Gabriel expertly brings each one of them to life. Each girl has their flaws, but these add to their personalities, and whilst the reader can, at times, disagree wholeheartedly with things they do, and say, they are all so cleverly crafted and incredibly realistic, that their mistakes can be forgiven, and understood.

Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye is a haunting and wonderful read, a story to lose yourself in. Sweeping and engrossing, this author is a very talented storyteller. I loved it and am very much looking forward to number two in the series; Take Me To Your Heart Again which was published in July this year.

My thanks to the author who sent my copy for review.



Marius Gabriel served his author apprenticeship as a student at Newcastle University, where, to finance his postgraduate research, he wrote thirty-three Mills & Boon romances under a pseudonym. 

His identity as a man had to be kept secret until he turned to longer fiction under his own name. Gabriel is the author of eight sagas and historical novels, including the bestsellers The Mask Of Time, The Original Sin and The Seventh Moon, and was once accused by Cosmopolitan magazine of ‘keeping you reading while your dinner burns’. 

He very seldom burns his own, however, being an enthusiastic cook, as well as an artist and a musician. Born in South Africa in 1954, he has lived and worked in many countries, and now divides his time between London and Cairo. He has three grown-up children.







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