A Wartime Marriage, aka Flight from Bucharest, by Mary Jane Staples

Captain Harry Phillips, a British officer, is a prisoner of war in a German-controlled hospital in Romania. It’s 1918 and while Germany has gone from near-victory to an unsuccessful Spring Offensive on the Western Front leading to eventual defeat, its army and military intelligence are still feared. Harry is recovering from being shot in the thigh but has been treated well, so is not worried when he is summoned to meet with the German officer in charge of the hospital, Captain Carlsen.

Captain Carlsen has a very unexpected plan: he will help Harry escape back to England if Harry agrees to take Princess Irina of Moldavia with him. The Princess is pro-German and has angered Romanian extremists who are determined to try her for treason. Captain Carlsen admires the Princess and fears for her life when the German army leaves Romania. He asks Harry to agree to marry the Princess on the understanding the marriage would be annulled once she is safe in England. Harry is engaged to Elisabeth, a childhood friend, but once he meets the Princess, who is beautiful, willful, and charming, he agrees to this undertaking.

The escape plan goes wrong from the beginning when someone is waiting for them at their getaway taxi. Harry’s ingenuity gets them to Chitila, then a train to Belgrade. Their journey is difficult and dangerous, as they are pursued by enemies and arouse suspicion, with the Princess posing as a war widow and Harry as a Russian. Her headstrong behavior infuriates Harry but he admires her spirit and determination. Their adventures include a perilous train ride to Zagreb, a kidnapping, another to Trieste. Will they be able to elude their pursuers? Will they make to England? And what about Elisabeth, waiting patiently at home for Harry?

This was a delightful, fast-paced book with appealing characters and several twists. When Croatian rebels try to seize the train going to Zagreb, Harry is forced to improvise and figure out how to drive the train to avoid capture, and the Princess shows her courage when they are attacked by shooting at the rebels, then by helping to fuel the engine:

In her position on the footplate Irena felt like a woman deceived as Harry muttered and fiddled. What was he doing there at all if he couldn’t drive the thing? And what was she doing here with him? She squeezed the trigger of the German rifle in a spasm of disgust. The bullet ricocheted off the rail into the arm of a Croat. That, she thought, was not bad for a shot aimed in temper, and hitting a man’s arm was better than killing him.

It is probably her bravery under attack that makes Harry realize that his feelings have changed from amused tolerance to deep admiration but he is determined to keep as much distance as he can.  The story is romantic but the drama comes from their perilous journey and knowing that capture would likely mean both their deaths.

This was a five-star read for me. I brought this book home from England in 2017. I have a vague recollection of finding it in a bus shelter on a shelf of second hand paperbacks. It bears a sticker from the Oxfordshire Library Service. Mary Jane Staples is a pseudonym used by British author Reginald Thomas Staples (1911-2005). She/he is best known for a long series about a Cockney family.

Title: A Wartime Marriage (also published as Flight From Bucharest)
Author: Mary Jane Staples
Publication: Corgi, paperback, originally published in 1977
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Personal copy

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2026

• Cloak and Dagger Challenge 2026

I, Spy, an impressive debut by L. M. Kemp

Kendal Carter is at a playground on the outskirts of Zurich with her four-year-old, Rosie, when she notices two men in suits lurking nearby who appear very out of place. She is instantly wary, especially because if the men are a threat, they are between her and the apartment where she has a “go bag.”

June 2026 Reading

I made good progress on my 20 Books of Summer in June: eight read and reviewed, and I am in the middle of the ninth. My favorite books this month were A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick, a historical set in England and Normandy during the 12th century, and I, Spy by L.M. Kemp, about an ex-spy who thought she had escaped from a lifetime of espionage, only to be dragged back in unexpectedly.

Suspense/Mystery

The Double Image by Helen MacInnes #20BOS26-8 and Paris in July

April in Paris, and a sprinkle of rain, a sudden whip of cool breeze, a greying sky to end the bright promise of the evening. John Craig decided that his saunter along Boulevard Sant-Germain might come to a quick end any moment now, and began looking in earnest for a place of retreat.

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Titles That Include the Word *Summer*

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.  This week the theme is Book Titles That Include the Word (add the word of your choice – and I chose) Summer:

Deep Summer by Gwen Bristow (1937). When Judith is swept off her feet by handsome Philip Larne, an adventurer and slave trader, he builds her a beautiful plantation in Louisiana, where they raise a family, despite joys and sorrows along the way.  Bristow is focused on the development of Louisiana and the role all its people played, affluent whites, poor whites, and slaves, in this compelling historical novel.  My review. 

Six Degrees of Separation – from Yesteryear to A Far-Flung Life

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. June’s starting point is Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, which has taken the book-reading world by storm. I started this bestseller about a tradwife but disliked the author’s characterization of Harvard and liked the heroine even less, so I gave it to my sister.

The Whirling Shapes by Joan North #20BOS26-7

I have always enjoyed the type of fantasy where strange things start happening to ordinary people, and there were some series like Narnia or the Edward Eager books that I reread multiple times. But when I discovered a new author at the library – especially one who had written more than one book, I was always pleased. I remember finding a British author called Joan North at a local branch of the Boston Public Library, although I never saw her books anywhere else. She had written just three books that landed somewhere between middle grade and YA fiction. A few weeks ago I came across a box of books I hadn’t opened recently and found The Whirling Shapes.

Sabriel by Garth Nix #20BOS26-6

There is nothing like an intrepid and self-aware heroine to take us lands away. Sabriel has attended Wyverley College, a boarding school for young ladies in Ancelstierre, since she was five and is now a graduating Sixth Form prefect, having excelled in all the expected coursework along with the less expected subject of magic. Her father is known as the Abhorsen, a powerful necromancer and, unusually, has just failed to appear for a visit to his daughter.