The jilted countess A novel

Roza Meszaro lost much in her home country of Hungary during WWII. Lost to her are her family's aristocratic lifestyle, her father, and her career as a ballerina. When she meets Joe, an American GI, her hope is renewed. Writing and promising marriage after two years, Roza arrives in Minnesota to finally marry Joe, only to find he has married someone else. Brokenhearted but determined, Roza reaches out to a newspaper columnist to publish her photo and a request for marriage. With only two weeks to spare and well over 1,000 responses to sort through, Roza and her new friends narrow down the interested parties, and she agrees to meet five men. After some comical and disappointing meetings, Roza finds Finn Erickson, and they create a life together. Ellsworth based this book loosely on a true story but uses her creativity to fill in the details of how Roza's story may have played out. This is a curious tale of love, loss, and resilience in the face of heartbreak.

Inspired by a true story, the engrossing latest from Ellsworth (The French Winemaker's Daughter) centers a Hungarian émigré left in the lurch by her American soldier fiancé in post-WWII Minnesota. Roza Mészáros, a countess and former ballerina, arrives in St. Paul from Vienna to be reunited with and marry her fiancé, Joe Harbeck. However, she soon discovers that in the two years they have been apart, Joe moved on and married someone else. Determined to stay in the U.S., Roza places an ad for a man who will marry her before her visa expires in a little over two weeks. Of the more than 1,700 proposals she receives, she chooses railroad engineer Finn Erickson, who hails from small-town Red Wing. However, the rocky start to their marriage is complicated by Roza's struggle to fit in with the other residents of Red Wing, and by Finn's frequent absences for his job. She's attracted to Finn, but she becomes conflicted when Joe arranges to meet her in Red Wing and expresses how unhappy he is in his own marriage. The author enriches the drama with frequent contrasts between war-torn Europe and the idyllic Midwest. Readers will find it easy to root for Ellsworth's strong-willed protagonist. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff & Assoc. (Jan.)