A Hungarian countess arrives in the U.S. after World War II to marry the American soldier she met after the war. But when she gets to his Midwestern town, she discovers he’s already married. With the help of a newspaper columnist, she embarks on a quest to find a husband before her visa expires in two weeks. This true story provides the inspiration for Loretta Ellsworth’s book, The Jilted Countess.

While the details of the actual countess and her eventual beau are unknown, Ellsworth has created a story that is richly imagined for her protagonist, Roza Mészáros. Through Roza’s memories, we learn about her life in Hungary and as a ballerina in Austria until the war stopped dancing. Roza’s tale is one of hardship and survival, but also of love and hope for a new beginning. When her fiancé rejects her, she has to call upon her emotional strength to find a new option in the place where she wants to begin again. She wonders, though, how she can learn to live with and possibly even love, another man.

Roza struggles to fit in to her new community, especially as some people interpret her formal manners as an affront, but she is determined to make friends and carve a place for herself where she feels like she belongs. When an unexpected visitor arrives, bringing an offer of a different path, she has to decide where her heart truly lies.

The Jilted Countess brings the time period to life while taking readers on a journey to imagine what the real life woman behind it faced when she decided to stay in the U.S. rather than return to Hungary, where she would have faced continued hardship. Books clubs would find lots to discuss about the story.

The publisher provided a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.