Title: The Last Waltz
Author: G.G. Vandagriff
Summary: In December 1913, the city of Vienna glitters with promises of the future for sought-after debutante Amalia Faulhaber. But life takes a dramatic turn when simmering political unrest escalates into the most deadly war the world has ever known. Amalia is devastated when her fiance, Baron Eberhard von Waldburg, breaks off their engagement to return to his native Germany and obligatory military service. But she soon discovers that her passion for democracy in an increasingly fascist world has put everything she loves in danger. Her family torn apart and improvished by the war, Amalia must now choose between an idealistic young Polish doctor, who shares her political views, and the wealthy Baron von Schoenenburg, an Austrian Cabinet minister who promises to provide safety and security in a violent, tumultuous time. Reminiscent of Gone with the Wind, this epic novel explores the nature of human character and the elusive search for love and peace.
Review: The Last Waltz by Vandagriff begins in the world of Amalia a young almost twenty year old upper middle class debutante living in Austria right before the start of World War I, in the beginning of the story I was a little worried because Amalia's character seemed very shallow and did not seem to have any depth to her but as the her story unfolds and the young heroine must deal with heartbreak, death, illness, and disease, caused by the war, those she loves, and her supposed "friends." Her character transforms into a very noble and wise person who I really enjoyed getting to know as I turned each page.
The main plot line follows Amalia's different twist and turns with her family, and how World Wars I and II would affect them and their views on life as well as her ongoing love story with a certain young doctor that in different seasons of her life send her into very light and very dark places. It also follows other love interests that she turns to when things go badly with the doctor, and the plot outlines how sometimes the most lonely and horrific moments in our lives can be made into something that was for the better as far as our personal growth and character were concerned; Amalia discovers that maybe the one she really loved was standing right there beside her through the storms of life all along.
