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Secrets of a Charmed Life

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Plot Summary

Secrets of a Charmed Life

Susan Meissner

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015

Plot Summary
Susan Meissner’s World War II novel, Secrets of a Charmed Life (2015), centers on the choices two sisters make when they are evacuated from London and sent to live in a small English village. Receiving a warm response from critics and readers alike, the book was nominated for a 2015 Goodreads Choice Award. A historical fiction writer, Meissner teaches creative writing and directs church ministries in San Diego. Her husband, who served in the US Air Force Reserves as a pastor and chaplain, helps inform her writing.

Secrets of a Charmed Life begins in present-day Oxford, England. Kendra Van Zant is an American scholar at the University of Oxford. Her history professor plans to publish several student essays in a prestigious newspaper; Kendra hopes the professor will select her World War II essay.

Kendra knows that to stand out, she must write an authentic essay that generates an emotional response from her readers. She decides to interview a World War II survivor to write an essay about the woman’s experiences. She reaches out to ninety-two-year-old Isabel McFarland. Isabel is happy to share her wartime experiences, giving a voice to people who can’t tell their own stories anymore.



Isabel’s story begins before war breaks out in 1939. She lives in London with her younger sister, Julia, and their single mother. Her birth name is “Emmy.” Their mother is not home much because she works all the time, and so Emmy raises Julia almost entirely on her own. The girls never meet their father, which is a source of distress for them both. Emmy wants nothing more than to meet her father.

While their mother struggles to make ends meet, Emmy develops a talent for design and sewing. She dreams about making and selling her own wedding gowns, but this means leaving both her mother and Julia behind one day. For now, Emmy settles for working in a local bridal shop. She helps her mother put food on the table, sketching her own bridal designs in her spare time.

One day, war breaks out, and evacuation notices spread across the country. Emmy and Julia must leave London for a safe home in the countryside. Emmy resents losing her job in the bridal shop, but she knows that she cannot stay in London on her own. Together with Julia, she moves to the small town Stow-on-the-Wold, where they live with a kind-hearted elderly woman.



Life should be easy in the countryside, but Emmy can’t settle. No one knows how long the war will last, and Emmy cannot stay away from London forever. She tries to be a good big sister and look after Julia, but it is not enough for her. She decides that, when the opportunity arises, she will run away to move back to London.

One night, Emmy seizes her opportunity. She leaves the woman’s house under cover of darkness and hurries back to the city. Julia can’t stay away for long, and she follows Emmy. Emmy lets Julia come along with her, and they find a flat in London to live in. Emmy goes looking for a dressmaking apprenticeship to support them while she works on her designs.

Finally, someone agrees to interview Emmy for an apprenticeship. However, when she comes home from the meeting, Julia is not home; she is gone. Emmy wonders if Julia ran back to their childhood home, but she is not there, either. Their mother organizes a search for Julia, but she is killed in the bombing that night; Emmy never sees her again.



Alone in the world, Emmy changes her name to Isabel. Now that she is eighteen, Isabel goes looking for Julia on her own. There is no need to worry now about the authorities sending her to a new foster family because she is a legal adult. Unfortunately, Julia could be anywhere by now because she is still legally a child. She could easily be with a foster family halfway across the country; or, she could be dead. Not finding Julia, Emmy expects that they will never see each other again.

Meanwhile, Julia is alive and well. Determined to find Emmy, she returns to the old foster home to find Emmy’s secret stash of dress designs. She hopes to track Emmy down by finding her dresses in a shop somewhere. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know about Emmy’s name change, which makes the search more difficult. Julia eventually finds Emmy, and it is the happiest moment of their lives.

In the present day, Kendra carefully documents Emmy’s story. She finds it very moving and hopes the professor will publish the story for the right reasons. It is no longer about Kendra’s personal success; it’s about sharing Emmy’s story with the world to shed light on the real people affected by war.

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