#Review By Lou of The Guernsey Girls Go To War @AuthorMary @panmacmillan #HistoricalFiction #Saga #TheGuernseyGirlsGoToWar #TheGuernseyGirls #TheGuernseyGirlsTrilogy

The Guernsey Girls Go To War
By Mary Wood

After being enthralled by the first in the trilogy, The Guernsey Girls, today I have the privilege of kicking off the blog tour for the second The Guernsey Girls Go To War, thanks to Pan Macmillan. Pick it up and you may just have to have your tea ready and be prepared to enter Guernsey from your comfiest place and not emerge until the end, with a flawless look at smaller island life in war times that has a fresh perspective. Discover the blurb and my full review below and please join me in wishing the author,
Mary Wood a Happy Publication Day.

Blurb

From the bestselling author of The Jam Factory Girls, comes the second heartfelt installment in Mary Wood’s The Guernsey Girls trilogy.

War separates them, but it cannot dampen their spirits . . .

Spring, 1940. Annie’s new husband Ricky leaves to fight, but she soon discovers battles brewing closer to home. As her sister Janey begins to unravel, only Annie can pick up the pieces – and, with London’s police officers on the front line, she must also step up at work and do her bit for the country.

In Guernsey, Olivia finds herself without her husband and son just as Hitler’s forces invade the island. Trapped and heartbroken, she faces untold horrors as the Germans tighten their hold on the islanders.

How will Annie manage her responsibilities to her family and her country in the thick of the Blitz, while suffering the heartache of not knowing what is happening to her beloved Ricky? And can Olivia survive in Guernsey at the hands of the enemy?

Review

The Guernsey Girls Go To War is a welcome second book in the Guernsey Girls trilogy. Annie is coming into her own and showing strength of character to do her bit for her country and the world in the allied powers. She also has a lot to deal with personally, as does Olivia.
The writing throws readers into the midst of war and what it was like to be the members of the family left at home, whilst the men went out to war. It feels realistic and its easy to sympathise and empathise in a way that becomes thought-provoking. It makes you wonder how, in 2024, people would cope if the situation should arise again, after so many decades of relative peace.
The book shows the strength and courage of the women in such uncertain times, but not in a bullish way, it’s a kind, heart-warming book as they try to manage the best they can, even through the heart-breaking times.
As a reader, its all palpable and that’s due to the talent of Mary Wood’s fabulous writing skills. What also makes this interesting, is the setting, being Guernsey and seeing the war from a smaller island perspective, rather than the mainland. It gives it a fresh feel and seeing the characters develop in this second book has created more intrigue and a feeling of being trapped on an island, which brings a more closed-in, darker atmosphere in some ways, but also a stronger feeling of friendship in many others.
I am certainly looking forward to the third in this trilogy, that I am highly recommending.

#Review By Lou of D-Day – The Oral History By Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg @Octopus_Books @RandomTTours #DDay #OralHistory #DDay80 #NonFiction

D-Day – The Oral History
By Garrett M. Graff

This isn’t just another book about the second world war. This is different from any other book. This is a moving book that commemorates 80 years on from D-Day. D-Day, An oral history is poignant and a time we should never forget. We should never forget those who fought for our freedom. We should never forget those who died nor those who are still alive today. We may not know or have known them, personally, but we can still remember them and this book allows us to do that. Check out the blurb and my review below as today I am honoured to be on the Random T. Tours/Octopus Books blog tour, with pride in my heart for the men and families involved in all of the war and in-particular on D-Day.

Blurb

Eighty years on, D-Day The Oral History is a fresh and significant new history of arguably the most important day of the 20th Century.
On 6th June 1944, the Allied invasion began. For hours, wave after wave of soldiers, sailors, and airmen crossed the channel and stormed the Normandy coast, fighting to gain a foothold in Nazi-occupied Northwest Europe.
It was the largest combined air and seaborne invasion ever, involving over 150,000 Allied troops on the ground, and its eventual success became a critical turning point in the
war, spelling the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.
As the events of that day fade from living memory, it’s more important than ever to
understand what it felt like to be there and to live through it, on both sides. In this
definitive work, Garrett M. Graff, the bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11, compiles hundreds of US, Canadian, UK, French and
German voices to tell the full story of exactly how that historic day unfolded, in
visceral detail. From paratroopers to fighter pilots to nurses, generals, French
villagers, German Defenders to Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, this is the most intimate re-telling of D-Day published to date.

Review

Garrett M. Graff has created a moving and poignant book for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. I don’t know how long the research took, but it looks thorough and like a lot of care has been taken over this, that I felt marks D-Day as well as any written word could do it justice and show compassion and understanding. Many readers, I am sure, will come away with more knowledge than they had before first entering the book.

‘A World at War’, ‘The Landing’ and ‘The End of D-Day’ is how the book is separated, telling all about D-Day in letters and interviews, which are highly moving and intimate. It is set out well and is easy to dip in and out of or read in one go.
As less and less people who fought in the war are alive or can make it to any commemoration ceremonies, you can’t help but feel that it is important for others to know about D-Day and the sacrifices made and the pride that it evokes of those who wanted to defend their country and halt a war that could’ve had a very different outcome.
The interviews, diaries, speeches, letters all really bring it to life for people who did not live through those times and are able to live how we do now, in relative peace, without there being a world war. We may not all know who the people in the book are/were, but still, it gives this generation and future generations an insightful, real opportunity to learn and to remember them.

#Review By Lou of Homecoming Of The Chocolate Girls By Annie Murray @AnnieMurray085 @chlodavies97 @panmacmillan #HomecomingForTheChocolateGirls #FamilySaga

Homecoming for the Chocolate Girls
By Annie Murray

Annie Murray has written over 30 books and several series to date. I am delighted to write a review of the last in the Chocolate Girls Trilogy, set in the and around the Quaker Cadbury factory.
Thanks to Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy of the book.

Blurb

1946: The war might be over, but for the Gilby family there are still battles to be fought at home . . .

For Birmingham and the Gilby family the war years have been a time of great change. With husband Len having left her for another woman, Ann Gilby is finally free to follow her heart. While the neighbours may be scandalized by having a divorcee in their midst, Ann is determined to rise above the local gossip and make a happy home with her former sweetheart, the father of Ann’s youngest child.

Daughters Joy and Sheila are lucky enough to have their menfolk back home, but Joy’s husband has returned a broken man from his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. And Sheila’s husband is finding his wartime adventures and travels have made Birmingham feel small by comparison.

Then there’s Ann’s youngest child, Martin, who is still coming to terms with learning who his real father is, as well as having secrets of his own . . .

Homecoming for the Chocolate Girls is the heartfelt and dramatic conclusion to this gritty family saga about love, war and chocolate . . .

Review

Homecoming for the Chocolate Girls concludes the twisty family saga. 1946 sees the Gilby family have to deal with the aftermath of world war 2 and it isn’t plain-sailing as life is changing again. Husbands have returned from the war to try to settle into civilian, family life now the battle is won, but there are internal battles that now need to be fought. Mentally, the men are badly wounded and are breaking. Life isn’t as it was for them or the families involved.
This makes it a compelling, realistic story that feels well researched and thought about. You can see, in a changing landscape of peace, social attitudes are changing and how damaged those at war truly are after they return, when peace in their minds doesn’t mirror that of the physical world around them.

There’s also Martin, who’s story is fascinating. He has secrets that unfold and his own adventure of discovery as comes to terms with who his father is.
There are scandals afoot!

All in all, it’s a highly engaging story that unfolds the changing world in the immediate aftermath of the second world war.

#Extract from Chapter 4 of Whispers Through Time By Melanie Robertson-King @RobertsoKing #ReadingBetweenTheLines #BlogTour

Extract from Whispers Through Time
By Melanie Robertson-King

Today I am delighted to be able to present the blurb and an extract from chapter 4 of Whispers Through Time, thanks to Lynsey at Reading Between The Lines and the author, Melanie Robertson-King. It sounds mysteriously eerie to me.

Blurb

A historic Canadian property becomes the canvas for a tale that spans generations. In 1914, a tragedy unfolded, leaving scars that linger far beyond the passage of time. In 1947, a visionary purchases the haunted remnants, seeking a new beginning for his family, but his young daughter senses a ghost from the far past. In the present, urban explorers unlock the secrets of the past while running a web design company. Photographs and sketches capture the essence of the property, documenting the whispers of spirits from another era. As the explorers navigate the abandoned corridors and forgotten chambers, the photographs unveil subtle anomalies until supernatural phenomena manifest that defy explanation. Amidst the subtle changes in decor and the flickering candle flames frozen in time, the explorers find themselves entangled in a mystery transcending the boundaries of the living and the dead, forcing the urban explorers to confront the unresolved secrets that echo through the corridors of time. Is a structure just that, or can it house remnants of horror, pain and sin? The urban explorers find they must confront the unresolved secrets that echo through the corridors of time.

From Chapter 4

October 15, 2022 Nicole left the office room hurriedly. That chill. Was she the only one who felt it? The way Connor had spun around and checked the windows said that he did, too. Her sketch showed nothing untoward. The photos wouldn’t show anything either. Something in there was wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
She started up the staircase to the second level of the abandoned mansion. As she ascended the stairs, the air suddenly chilled, and something moved by, jostled her, pushing her against the wall and forcing a startled yelp from her.Nicole dropped onto the step closest and sketched out this bizarre encounter.
It wasn’t Mitch or either one of her brothers. It was a man dressed in a black suit and white shirt, black waistcoat, and black tie. Clothing styled from about one hundred years ago. None of them were dressed in that way. And none of them were transparent. It had to be the guys playing a trick on her. After all, they were pranksters. “Connor, Cooper, Mitch, not funny, guys.”

Nicole stared at the location where the apparition stood. “I mean it guys, this isn’t funny.” “What’s going on, sis?” Connor asked as he poked his head out of the room his sister had just vacated. The ghost or whatever it was faded away.

“Yesterday, upon the stair,” she whispered. “What are you talking about?” Cooper asked as he joined her in the corridor. Nicole’s eyes remained transfixed where the ghost-like being vanished into thin air.
Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there! He wasn’t there again today, I wish, I wish he’d go away! “What gibberish is that you’re spouting?”
“It’s not gibberish. It’s the first stanza of the poem Antigonish by William Hughes Mearns. Don’t you guys know nothin’?”

#CoverReveal Post by Lou of Leaving Fatherland @graydonwrites @CranthorpeBooks @Lovebookstours #HistoricalFiction #LeavingFatherland

Today I am delighted to be able to reveal the cover of new book to come:
Leaving Fatherland, thanks to Cranthorpe Milner Publishers and LoveBooksTours. It tells of a rather interesting and different Second World War 2 story. Check out the evocative cover and then the blurb below.

Blurb

Oskar Bachmann always imagined that giving his first lecture would be the defining moment of his life. It was, but not in the way he expected… Growing up a misfit in Nazi Germany, a victim of his father’s beatings, Oskar’s love of books is a constant comfort in a world turned upside-down by violence. As a student, as a pilot in the brutal Luftwaffe during the Second World War, in an unhappy marriage to an English bride, he finds himself returning over and over to the circumstances of his childhood. What was the source and cause of his father’s abuse? Could there have been more to it than he had once believed? Little did Oskar know that his first lecture at the University of Tübingen would ultimately lead to the end of a lifetime of searching… and finally reveal the figure who had been controlling his life from a distance.

#Review By Lou of Murder In The Blitz By F.L. Everett @fliceverett @bookouture #MurderInTheBlitz

Murder In The Blitz
By F.L. Everett

Today I am kicking off the Bookouture blog tour for – Murder In The Blitz is interesting and compelling in that it mixes crime and war times. Find out more in the blurb and then my review below.

Blurb

Murder in the Blitz: A completely addictive historical cozy mystery (An Edie York Mystery Book 1)

England, 1940. Newspaper secretary Edie York wants nothing more than to be a real wartime reporter. But when she stumbles upon the death of a Home Guard soldier she must turn her investigative skills to sleuthing…

Rookie reporter Edie York dreams of being out in the field, instead of being stuck writing up the wartime headlines, transcribing Churchill’s rousing speeches on her cranky typewriter. So when her first real assignment one misty morning ends with the crack of a pistol shot and the sudden death of a Home Guard soldier, she’s determined to take her chance and investigate.

With the local police force, under the utterly irritating but outrageously handsome DCI Louis Brennan, stretched to the limit as bombs rain down, Edie strikes out alone. And she quickly discovers more than she’d ever hoped – or feared. From undercover spies to priceless stolen artwork, Edie is plunged headlong into a mystery that stretches from Manchester to Berlin.

But when she finds another body in the blackout, Edie realises she’s bitten off more than she can chew. With an exasperated Louis finally lending a hand, can Edie unveil the murderer and make headline news, her name in print at last? Or will she be next…?

A brilliantly addictive and totally twist-packed cozy historical mystery perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Agatha Christie. This is the first book in the Edie York Mystery series.

Review

Investigative journalism turns to sleuthing in a twisty cosy mystery!

Historical mysteries either grab me or they don’t and this one does. The scene is set well and I liked that Edie York is a newspaper secretary dreaming of being out there on the ground. It has that feel of wants and desires of getting on in life. She wants a part of the action and has the bravery to go with her desire along with a curious and inquisitive nature.
It’s an interesting time for a book as the war is going on. As if deaths as a result of war isn’t enough, there is a murder and Edie is the one to uncover it, especially since DCI Louis Brennan has lots to deal with, yet ends up eventually on the case in Manchester. You really get to know the characters and it sets up the main ones, who may well be recurring characters well as well as getting on with the mystery to be solved.

It’s a twisty book, more so than I expected, yet keeps the cosy mystery book feel. It’s a strong book 1 in what will become a series and one surely to read!

About the Author

Flic Everett is a Mancunian writer who now lives in a cottage in the beautiful West Highlands with her patient husband and two deranged cocker spaniels. She still misses Manchester, and returns like a homing pigeon every month to see family and friends. She spends a lot of time writing on trains.

Flic has owned an award-winning vintage shop, guest-presented Woman’s Hour and was once a part-time tarot reader. She has a grown up son who makes her laugh more than anyone on earth, and she likes reading, painting, cooking, clothes, animals, Art Deco and rummaging in charity shops for bargains. Her greatest fear is being stranded without a book. She has spent many years as a freelance journalist and editor for national newspapers and magazines and can’t believe she’s finally allowed to make up stories from the comfort of her own home.

Author social media

Website

Www.fliceverett.com

Facebook URL

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551319733773

Instagram URL @fliceverett

Twitter URL @fliceverett

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