The Home Front Nurses by Rachel Brimble

 

"...if nothing else, this war had taught her how important human beings were to one another. How everyone needed someone else to rely on, to trust."

"It was time to forget the past and concentrate on creating a different kind of drea. A different kind of future".

The Home Front Nurses by Rachel Brimble is a stirring tale of friendship and loyalty, trauma and challenges, fulfilment and inner strength.

This is a character-driven historical fiction with strong female protagonists. Rachel Brimble portrays the home front nurses and the challenges they face with compassion and sensitivity.

Blurb:

September 1941, Bath - three friends are about to find that some of the biggest battles are to be found on the home front...

As war rages and brave soldiers returning home from the frontline need nurses more than ever, fiercely proud redhead Sylvia Roberts is determined to help in any way she can. In spite of her mother's belief she isn't good enough, Sylvia believes that becoming a home front nurse is her calling.

Together with the two friends she makes on her first day in the job - Freda and Veronica - she knows she can help save lives. And, as the devastation of war shows no signs of ceasing, their work becomes even more vital.

Then Sylvia's life is thrown into the path of a man who might just be able to capture her heart. Even though he is somebody who everyone - except her best friends - seems prejudiced against. Can love really conquer all, in times of war?

One thing she knows is that - in the dangerous days that will follow - she and her friends will all need to support each other right to the end.

Sylvia, Freda and Veronica are newly qualified nurses, working in one of the hospitals in Bath. Their friendship is helping them through difficult times.

The nurses' personalities are quite different, what they have in common is their desire to help save lives.

Sylvia Roberts lives with her mother, who has told her countless times she would fail to become a nurse.

"Having stood firm and determined in her work and mind - not to mention remaining stalwart in the face of the daily physical strain - from today, she was a fully registered nurse. The world was her oyster..."

Sylvia is trying to prove to people that she is nothing like her brass mother who's got quite a reputation locally.

"I might not have been enough for certain people in my life, but I am good enough for Bath hospital and I'm determined to become one of the best nurses this city has ever seen".

Freda is trying to be "a good girl", while cherishing a dream of using her writing skills in the future. Her parents don't mind her being a nurse, as they think it is a good opportunity of finding a decent husband. 

Freda, however, has ideas of her own. "She could not waste her life adhering to her mother's well-meant but wholly domestic plans for her and Dorothy [younger sister]. She was made of tougher stuff than to serve and pander to a husband, see to a brood of kids and cook something - to quote her mother - "delectable" every night". While determined to do her job diligently, Freda knows that nursing is not for her, not by a log shot.

Veronica is the complete opposite of self-assertive Sylvia. She is shy and vulnerable, and is hiding a dark secret. Friendship with Sylvia and Freda helps her face her fears and believe in herself. "Sylvia's confidence and humour and Freda's quiet strength and kindness had begun to break down her self-imposed boundaries".

Three friends have to deal with their own personal issues. Sharing their secrets and hopes, they offer advice and support to each other. 

"It was time women took control of their lives and openly declared what was best for them once and for all in this stupid messed up world".

The Home Front Nurses will appeal to the fans of historical fiction, set during WWII. 

It is a gripping story, that transports you back in time. An unforgettable page-turner of love and hope, grief and resilience, drama and romance.

The book ends slightly abruptly, on a cliffhanger, and some of the plotlines will hopefully be explored further in the next instalments of the series.

Many thanks to Rachel Brimble, Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/homefrontsocial

Author Bio –

Rachel Brimble is the bestselling author of over thirty works of historical romance and saga fiction. The first book in her series, The Home Front Nurses, is set in Bath.

 

Social Media Links –  

 

Facebook: @rachelbrimbleauthor

Twitter: @RachelBrimble

Instagram: @rachelbrimbleauthor

Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/RachelBrimbleNews

A Stepney Girl's Secret by Jean Fullerton ( review + #giveaway )

 

"...she could have told him to sod off when he asked her name, but she didn't. Well, perhaps she wouldn't have used those actual words. Young women named Prudence, who dressed in expensive suits and spoke with a country lilt instead of a cockney twang, didn't as a rule tell people to sod off so... Jack's smile widened. Who says an oil-covered engineer with a daughter, an ex-wife and a less-than-spotless past couldn't win a fair lady?"

A Stepney Girl's Secret by Jean Fullerton is a moving and evocative saga, set in East London during WWII. It follows lives of several women who have moved to live in a rectory in Stepney, their aspirations, hopes and heartbreak.

Blurb:

East London, 1940.

At the outbreak of war, hopeless romantic Prue Carmichael and her sister must leave their rural parish behind when their father is posted to a church in Stepney. To Prue, the blitz-ravaged streets of London seem an unlikely place for love to bloom - until a chance encounter throws rakish engineer Jack Quinn into her path. But as their connection deepens, his troubled past begins to emerge, and Prue realises Jack has secrets to hide...

Luckily, in between starting work at a railway yard and helping her mother house Jewish refugees in the parish, Prue manages to keep her mind off love and on the wartime effort. However, Jack isn't the only man who's fallen for Prue - and when he is recruited into Churchill's secret underground army, an unexpected suitor offers a fresh distraction.

As air raid sirens sound and the Battle of Britain rages overhead, Prue Carmichael must face some of the greatest horrors of her young life. Meanwhile, she is waging her own battle - the fight between her heart and her head.

Amidst the ruins of war, will Prue and Jack's love find a way to flourish?

Prue's family arrive to London from a quiet country parish. Prue wants to help with the war effort and finds a job at the Shunting Yard, working on the trains. Her snobbish mother is not happy for her daughter to work among "the sort of people" she deems lower in status. Her father Hugh, a placid man, seems to be under his wife's heel.

Prue is a determined young woman, who knows her mind. She ignores her mother's complaints, insisting that it is a crucial work, and she will be doing her bit, like thousands of other women

She first encounters Jack accidentally in the street, and is immediately drawn to his cheeky grin and likeable personality. Jack is an engineer at the railway station, who is desperate to be enlisted. However, the railway workers are a reserved occupation, and his boss says he cannot let him go.

The mutual attraction is almost instantaneous. An unlikely romance blossoms. Jack's past catches up with him, and Prue discovers he has secrets to hide. 

Jack is not the only suitor to vie for her attention. Handsome but rather shallow Father David believes he finds a perfect future wife in Prue. 

Will Prue follow her heart? 

Prue is an admirable strong protagonist. She could have easily followed her mother's footsteps and found herself a respectable husband who would provide for her and offer her a stable home to run. Instead she actively seeks employment, and doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. At first her social standing provides grounds for mockery among the working class girls. Soon, however, she proves her mettle. You cannot but admire her determination and stamina.

Prue's character represents the great changes in the society, when women applied for work, helping with the war effort, while the men went fighting. Not everyone was happy about it. Many men who stayed behind, were resenting women working among them.

Fullerton creates an authentic, believable background. The class division, and the inverted snobbery, rings true.

There is a plethora of colourful supporting characters. Alongside the main plotline, there are moving stories of the refugees who are invited to live at the rectory with the Carmichaels.

A Stepney Girl's Secret will appeal to the fans of historical fiction, set during WWII. It is an engaging story, that transports you back in time. It's a memorable page-turner of love and hope, grief and resilience.

There is a romance, suspence and drama aplenty.

This is not the first book by Jean Fullerton that I've read. I have enjoyed The Ration Book series, set in London during the WWII, in the past. The new series promises to be as absorbing and riveting.

This book review is part of the blog tour for A Stepney Girl's Secret.

Many thanks to Jean Fullerton, Corvus and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Purchase Links

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BLRB2481/

US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BLRB2481/

Author Bio – Born and bred in East London Jean was a District Nurse by trade and ended her thirty-year career in health care as a senior lecture in Health and Nursing Studies in London Southbank University.

She had published twenty sagas all set in East London with both Orion and Atlantic the most recent of which is the highly successful Ration Book series. She has also recently released her autobiography A Child of the East End.

Social Media Links –

Website: http://jeanfullerton.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jean-Fullerton-202631736433230/?ref=bookmarks

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/JeanFullerton_

 

Giveaway to Win 5 x Copies of A Stepney Girl’s Secret (Open to UK & Ireland Only)

*Terms and Conditions –

UK & Ireland entries welcome.  

Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  

The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email.

 If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner.

 Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  

Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. 

This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  

Please note that this giveaway is being promoted as part of the book blog tour through several blogs.

Chez Maximka is hosting the Rafflecopter gadget for free as part of the book promotion.

I have no access to the data collected, don't choose the winner and am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

Good luck!

 

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The Railway Girls by Maisie Thomas

"But look at them now. Their railway jobs had brought them together and the determination of their group of railway girls to stick like glue and support each other had overcome their differences of class. Never mind Hitler and the war. Never mind rationing. Right here, right now, her world was a good place, because she had made a true friend".

The Railway Girls by Maisie Thomas is the first novel in the Railway Girls series. It has strong female protagonists - from different social backgrounds and age groups. It is a timeless tale of friendship and loyalty, loss and challenges, fulfilment and courage.

This is a character-driven historical fiction at its best. Thomas portrays the railway girls and the challenges they face as women in the men's workplace.

Thomas's historical yarn follows a group of women who will become the eponymous "railway girls". We meet them in March 1940, standing in front of the war memorial. 

"They are of varying ages and backgrounds and come from different social classes - a solicitor's wife, a factory owner's daughter, a sewing machinist, a debutante, a working-class housewife, a clerk, a young wife who has been wrapped in cotton wool, and a girl who wasn't tall enough for the switchboard. On the surface, they form a diverse group, but they have one thing in common: their willingness and determination, under threat of invasion, to do their bit in this new world war by rising to the challenge of working as railway girls.

Unity, strength, courage and sacrifice".

We follow the lives and fortunes of several characters, each of whom has their own distinctive voice.

Mabel Brawdshaw is the heiress to Bradshaw's Ball Bearings, who is "widely expected to bag herself a penniless lordling, or at the very least an honourable, and become the mother of an unutterably respectable family". Instead, she wants to join the war effort and "do her bit". Her parents are shocked and even forbid her to leave home, but relent under pressure, and her Pops announces, "I can't have it said that my daughter tried to dodge doing her duty". 

At first Mabel appears as aloof and overindulged, but she is hiding a tragic secret which nearly destroyed her presence of mind.

Joan is always in the shadow of her more glamorous, self-assured sister who can never do wrong in their grandma's eyes. A new job as a station clerk might be just the thing to bring her out of her shell and gain confidence. She might be slightly disheartened to be appointed to work in the admin, but realises that clerking is more relevant than she had imagined. "When you thought about it, there must be masses of admin involved in keeping the railways running, and anything that kept trains moving was essential work".

Dot is in her forties, and is taken for granted by everyone in her big family. She is maternal and warm, and so wonderful, you just want to have a Dot in your life. Her sons are fighting, and she is constantly worried about them. Her husband is unsupportive and enjoys deriding her for everything. For him she is the continual source of awful jokes and taunts. 

The job gives her a new purpose in life.

"Ah. Yes. A wonderful mother. That was the trouble, wasn't it? She was everybody's mum... She was mum to anyone and everyone who needed help, advice or a slice of toast. 

But she didn't want to be mum at work. She wanted to be... herself. Dot. Dorothy Green... Capable, reliable, hard-working. Not a mother hen. Just a railway girl".

These are our three main protaginists, with a whole gallery of supportive characters, each adding a realistic backstory or detail to the plotline.

As the story progresses, we watch the railway girls gaining confidence and strength from their circle of friendship and reliance on each other, their pride in the job they are doing and great unity. Working at the railway gives them a sharper sense of who they are.

Maisie Thomas's voice is compelling, her writing is perceptive and insightful. Certain pages in the book made me think of my own friendships. When Mabel visits the elderly Mrs Kennedy, she ponders that her "company has taught her an important lesson; namely, that friendship wasn't necessarily something that occurred only between people of the same age." I kept nodding my head and thinking of my dearest friend Anne, who was also old enough to be my grandmother. She was a remarkable lady and a wonderful friend, and I enjoyed her company very much. She's been gone for the last five years, and I miss her. We shared love of books and food, and she was the kindest, generous person. 

Good books have this power to make you think beyond the book.

The second and third books in the series are already out, and I believe the fourth one is going to be published in November. I bought the second book recently, and am looking forward to meeting Mabel and the other railways girls again.

If you know someone who enjoys family sagas and fiction set during the WWII, then you can't go wrong with this book. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to Maisie Thomas for my copy of the book!