A Private Affair - Lesley Lokko (2011)

This delves into the lives of army wives and the hardships they face being shipped to bases all over the world while their men go off fighting. There's Meaghan, the runaway, who fell for Tom and the security he provides. He transfers from Australia to the British Army and rises quickly through the ranks. Capable Abby has learnt to be the perfect army wife from her parents and is more than happy to stand by her man, commanding officer Ralph. Dani runs a refuge for pregnant girls in Sierra Leone and knows only too well what it's like to be in their shoes. Sam is an entertainment lawyer who meets soldier Nick while on holiday in Morocco. He quickly claims her as his girlfriend but he's unlikely to be perfect boyfriend material. You need to be paying close attention as the time periods switch rapidly, from the early 1990s through to 2009, and the locations from Germany, Australia and England to Bosnia, Belize, Cyprus and Sierra Leone. Not for the faint-hearted.

Lesley Lokko's latest tale, A Private Affair, shows that no matter who you are, love comes at a price... The summary says: "Sam is the ugly duckling who grew into a swan. Now beautiful and wealthy, with a glittering career, no one can understand why she's still on her own. When she meets a handsome stranger on holiday, things finally seem to be falling into place. Meagan's a true survivor. The teenage runaway who worked her way off the streets was swept off her feet by Tom, a young army officer, to live on the other side of the world, finally escaping the family she loathed. Dani, the beautiful misfit, desperately looking for daddy in all the wrong places, finds instead a man who will teach her everything that is wrong and corrupt about love. And Abby, the model wife, is everything her husband and family could want and more but is never being herself. Until a dark secret threatens to pull her well-ordered life apart."

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