Tag: historical fiction

#BookReview V For Victory by Lissa Evans @DoubledayUK

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V For Victory BT Poster 2Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for V For Victory by Lissa Evans. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Doubleday for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

V For Victory CoverAbout the Book

It’s late 1944. Hitler’s rockets are slamming down on London with vicious regularity and it’s the coldest winter in living memory. Allied victory is on its way, but it’s bloody well dragging its feet.

In a large house next to Hampstead Heath, Vee Sedge is just about scraping by, with a herd of lodgers to feed, and her young charge Noel (almost fifteen ) to clothe and educate. When she witnesses a road accident and finds herself in court, the repercussions are both unexpectedly marvellous and potentially disastrous – disastrous because Vee is not actually the person she’s pretending to be, and neither is Noel.

The end of the war won’t just mean peace, but discovery…

Format: Hardcover (304 pages)         Publisher: Doubleday
Publication date: 27th August 2020 Genre: Historical fiction

Find V for Victory on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I very much enjoyed Lissa Evans’ Old Baggage when I read it back in 2018 and I’ve had the follow-up book, Crooked Heart, in my TBR pile ever since. Although V For Victory can be enjoyed as a standalone, it continues some of the storylines and features some of the characters from Crooked Heart. So I simply had to squeeze in reading Crooked Heart before starting V For Victory (although I haven’t yet managed to squeeze in writing my review).

The formidable Mattie who played such a starring role in Old Baggage doesn’t make a physical appearance in V For Victory but her influence is still felt through her precocious godson, Noel, and some of the girls who belonged to The Amazons but are now grown up. In particular, air raid warden Winnie Crowther steals many of the scenes in the latter part of the book. She’s a young woman Mattie would be proud of for her bravery and “gumption”. Winnie also represents many of the real life women who stepped in to perform unfamiliar and often dangerous roles during World War 2.

For those who have read Crooked Heart and had their heart stolen by Noel, prepare for a repeat experience. I also enjoyed getting to know the characters living in Green Shutters, the lodging house run by Vee Sedge – with help from Noel and his newfound culinary skills. Never one to miss an opportunity, Vee has enlisted some of the lodgers in tutoring Noel providing him with an eclectic pool of knowledge.

The author’s skill in combining humour, interesting characters and intriguing storylines whilst at the same time presenting a realistic picture of wartime London – “The dismal grind of London life, the V-2s still slamming down, the queues for fuel, the frozen rubble” – is in full evidence in V For Victory. By the end of the book, all the threads have been beautifully woven together to create a moving and satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.

In three words: Funny, moving, joyful

Try something similar: Dear Mrs. Bird by A J Pearce

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Lissa Evans Author PicAbout the Author

Lissa Evans has written books for both adults and children, including Their Finest Hour and a Half, longlisted for the Orange (now Women’s) Prize, Small Change for Stuart, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Costa Book Award, and Crooked Heart, longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Old Baggage was a sell-out Waterstone’s Book of the Month and Their Finest Hour and a Half was adapted into a star-studded film with Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy.

Connect with Lissa
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#BookReview The Night of the Flood by Zoë Somerville @HoZ_Books

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NightoftheFlood Blog TourWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Night of the Flood by Zoë Somerville, which will be published in hardback on 3rd September 2020. My thanks to Lauren at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my proof copy.

Somerville_The Night of the Flood_HBAbout the Book

Summer, 1952. Verity Frost, stranded on her family farm on the Norfolk coast, is caught between two worlds: the devotion of her childhood friend Arthur, just returned from National Service, and a strange new desire to escape it all. Arthur longs to escape too, but only with Verity by his side.

Into their world steps Jack, a charismatic American pilot flying secret reconnaissance missions off the North Sea coast. But where Verity sees adventure and glamour, Arthur sees only deception. As the water levels rise to breaking point, this tangled web of secrets, lies and passion will bring about a crime that will change all their lives.

Taking the epic real-life North Sea flood as its focus, The Night of the Flood is at once a passionate love story, an atmospheric thriller, and a portrait of a distinctive place in a time of radical social change.

Format: Hardcover (352 pages)              Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 3rd September 2020 Genre: Historical fiction

Find The Night of the Flood on Goodreads

Pre-order/Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Night of the Flood involves not one but several love triangles. And we all know that three into two doesn’t go, that there’s always one left over.

The four main characters all to some extent feel as if they are outsiders. Arthur arrived at Howe Farm, home of the Frost family, as a child evacuee but feels he no longer belongs there. Peter Frost feels isolated by his inability to express his true nature and his sister, Verity, finds the expectations that she will marry and start a family alien to her nature. The most obvious outsider is Jack Doherty, a pilot stationed at the nearby American air base. However, he exudes a confidence and easy charm that enables him to be absorbed into local society in a way someone like Arthur can only dream of. A fifth character, Muriel, floats on the periphery. Once a playmate of the Frost children, she now feels distanced from them by her family’s poverty and social status.

Many of the characters also share a sense of thwarted ambition. Arthur has returned from National Service disappointed with the experience. He has aspirations to be a writer or journalist but finds himself instead acting as delivery boy in his mother’s grocery shop. It doesn’t help that he harbours doubts about his relationship with Verity, his childhood sweetheart. His frustration at times manifests itself in violent thoughts. Peter finds himself landed with the task of trying to rescue the family farm from financial ruin caused by his father’s profligacy, unwillingness to embrace change and descent into despair following a family tragedy. Verity’s hopes of studying and travel seem likely to be thwarted at the first hurdle.

In creating such a complex web of relationships, the author has skilfully created the ingredients for a dramatic and enthralling story. At the centre of the web is Verity, although she seems unaware of this and the effect she has on men who, as one character puts it, circle her like dogs on heat.

Starting the story in the months before the flood creates a sense of tension and expectation. Added to this is the backdrop of fear of nuclear war and the beginnings of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. When the flood does finally occur it is both actual and metaphorical. There are dramatic scenes as people try to escape the rising seawater, rescue others and salvage homes and possessions. But the night of the flood also sees events that will have long-lasting repercussions. Like an ebb tide, it leaves Peter and others trying to piece together what, if anything, is left from the wreckage and come to terms with what has lost been forever.

The Night of the Flood is an absorbing story of secrets, obsession and thwarted desire.

In three words: Atmospheric, compelling, dramatic

Try something similar: Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

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Zoe SomervilleAbout the Author

Zoë Somerville is a writer and English teacher. Having lived all over the world – Japan, France, Washington – she now lives in Bath with her family. After completing a creative writing MA at Bath Spa, Zoë started writing her debut novel, which is inspired by her home county, Norfolk, and the devastating North Sea flood of the 1950s.

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