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Book Review – Julia Sleeps by Zoe Caryl @ZoeCarylTrakks2

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About the Book

Glasgow 1936. In the very heart of the city, Evie Jameson, the child of a poor tenement family is determined to follow her dreams of becoming a singer, but must persuade her loving family of where her vocation truly lies.

Her path is paved with triumphs and setbacks. ‘The world is bigger than Glasgow – do you want to see it?’ her agent challenges her, sparking excitement in her heart. ‘Yes! Yes, I do!’ she says, and her resolve only deepens when war breaks out and she is called on to serve her country.

The conflict thrusts Evie into dangers and adventures she could never have imagined, but amid the chaos, will she also find love?

From London in the Blitz to magical, mysterious India her courage and integrity are put to the test and she must draw on the strength forged by her proud Scottish heritage.

Format: ebook (354 pages) Publisher:
Publication date: 10th June 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Julia Sleeps on Goodreads

Purchase Julia Sleeps from Amazon (ebook free with Kindle Unlimited)

My Review

As I discovered when I chatted to Zoe in October last year (read the full Q&A here) the inspiration for the book’s main character, Evie Jameson, is Zoe’s own mother Celia. Sadly Celia did not live to see her fascinating life depicted in fictional form.

The book opens in 1936 and takes the reader through Evie’s eventful life up to the point where she makes an important decision which I’m going to say no more about except to say it may leave you slightly tearful. (Evie’s story will continue in the sequel to Julia Sleeps, entitled Julia Wakes.)

We first encounter eleven-year-old Evie Jameson living with her family in a Glasgow tenement. The Jamesons are a large family – Evie has six siblings – but her mother Maggie and father Johnny somehow manage to put food on the table even though it’s a struggle at times. Often Johnny is out of work and the family have to go through the demeaning process of claiming the dole. There’s brilliant detail about daily life for a family like Evie’s in the 1930s everything from the rota for cleaning the close (the tiled entrance to the tenement building) and the shared toilet, to trips to the ‘steamy’ to do the laundry.

From her youngest days Evie has been determined to become a singer and to share her beautiful singing voice with a wider audience than just her family. I really loved the relationship between Evie and her father who, despite the family’s financial struggles, is always eager to support her ambitions. Following success at a local ‘Go As You Please’ singing competition, Evie attracts the attention of theatrical agents. Soon she’s singing with dance bands, entering – and winning – regional competitions, appearing in variety shows and radio broadcasts. The book really captures the atmosphere of the theatres, cinemas and dance halls where Evie performs. Blossoming into a beautiful young woman, Evie attracts plenty of admirers but she’s focused on her career. Friendship, yes, but nothing more . . . for now.

The path to stardom seems clear until the war intervenes. Evie knows she needs to play her part in the war effort, especially as two of her brothers have joined up. Fortunately she’s accepted into ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association) travelling the country as part of a company entertaining the troops. It’s not a glamorous lifestyle, living in one set of digs after another, but for Evie the thrill she feels when she steps on stage never goes away. However this is wartime and you can’t expect everyone to come through it unscathed.

My favourite part of the book was the final section in which Evie, keen to spread her wings even further, travels to India as part of ENSA. There are wonderful descriptions of her travels around the country as part of a small company putting on shows in a variety of venues. As you might expect though, it’s not all plain sailing, ‘Because here was this strange thing called life, turning on the edge of a coin.’

Julia Sleeps is an engaging coming-of-age story full of colourful detail and vividly drawn characters.

Listen to Zoe reading an excerpt from Julia Sleeps here.

In three words: Heartwarming, authentic, fascinating

About the Author

Zoe writes: I’m a stage school educated girl from West London, UK and have sung professionally all my life. I have been fortunate enough to work in TV, film, radio and musical theatre, playing the title role in the musical Annie in the West End of London as a young girl, amongst other credits. After appearing in Starlight Express for five years I became a solo singer, following in my parents’ footsteps in taking engagements all over the world. In 2014 my husband Kenny and I moved to France where we continue to play concerts.

Connect with Zoe
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My Week in Books – 1st February 2026

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On the blog last week

Monday – I published my review of Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the Race That Will Change the World by Parmy Olson.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was New Authors I Discovered in 2025.

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading.

Saturday – I took part in the Six on Saturday meme, sharing six things from my garden this week. I also published my review of Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet.

New on my shelves

The Cut Line by Carolina Pihelgas, trans. by Darcy Hurford (World Editions via NetGalley)

In the dog days of an Estonian summer, Liine flees to the countryside to put a conclusive end to her toxic 14-year relationship. She undergoes every stage of separation in a lone farmstead amid forests. Physical labor and gardening help her withstand her ex-partner’s threats, the incredulity of friends and family, and her own anguish.

Dread is pervasive in this novel. Set in the near future, it is filled with vivid depictions of the threat of climate change. All around Liine, nature is facing acute drought and heat. No less menacing is the presence of an expanding NATO base close to the cottage at the Russian border. The world’s largest military alliance is practicing for an attack. Explosions and shots ring in the distance while Liine tries to recover from fourteen years of violence.

Yet she simply follows the rhythm of nature as summer unfolds. While her environment changes around her, Liine—always in the garden chopping wood, weeding, sowing—undergoes profound transformations, too. 

The Cut Line is a story of fear, self-blame, grief, numbness, and anger ultimately giving way to hope and healing, joy and lightness.

The Perfect Circle by Claudia Petrucci, trans. by Anne Milano Appel (World Editions via NetGalley)

Two women far apart in time, a mysterious unsellable mansion in Milan that connects two lives that start to overlap as impossible parallels are revealed in this story of passion, betrayal, and selfish desire.

In the round house on Via Saterna, its Palladian square exterior nothing but a trompe-l’oeil, the sun pierces through the central skylight. Its rays pass three floors unobstructed, before reaching the circle below at the heart of the four fingers of water filling a little silver basin.  It is here that young Lidia dies, setting an end to her clandestine love affair with the ambitious architect. It is this house that real-estate agent Irene is asked to sell, decades later, as the climate catastrophe escalates, cloaking the divided city in a permanent orange haze.

Returning to her native Milan for the sale, Irene feels the brunt of her father’s judgement. He is a proud Italian and prouder architect—how could his own daughter make a living selling cultural patrimony to the highest foreign bidder? As she faces this new Milan and the old family tensions she had avoided while living in Rome, Irene throws herself into the impossible sale, getting to know Via Saterna intimately—this space that is as unsettling as it is hostile, with the slowly emerging traces of Lidia’s interrupted life. In every room of the house, the burden of a mysterious, unresolved past can be felt, remnants of a selfish and manipulative love.  

Goodbye Chinatown by Kit Fan (World Editions via NetGalley)

As her native Hong Kong seethes, torn between two world powers, Amber Fan tries to build a career as a chef in London’s Chinatown.

Amber Fan, a young Oxford-educated chef, opens the first Chinese fusion joint in London’s Chinatown following the failure of her father’s traditional restaurant. When her parents decide to return to Hong Kong, taking with them their young son Bobby as well as the haunting secret surrounding his birth, Amber is left alone in London.

That is, until a woman called Celeste hires out the restaurant, coughing up three grand for a dinner for one. Who is this extravagant stranger, and how did she get so wealthy?

Invitation from a Dictator by Rory Clements (Viking via NetGalley)

On the eve of war, a royal guest is lured into Hitler’s deadly web . . .

Munich, 1937. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor have arrived in Germany, due at Hitler’s mountain retreat at any moment. But that night, a string of attacks devastate the city, soon claimed by the rising Communist group, Red Freedom. Brutal and bloody in their methods, there’s no doubt that Edward, Wallis and their host at the Berghof are their next target.

They are put in the urgent care of Detective Sebastian Wolff, but the choice between protecting the prince and fighting for his own politics becomes all the more complicated when Wolff realises who is behind Red Freedom: Ulrike, his first love and the mother of his son.

Words for Patty Jo by Jill Arlene Culiner (eARC, Wild Rose Press)

A passion for books creates a lasting bond between teenage Patty Jo and David, but small-town prejudice and social differences doom their romance. After a summer of reading and falling in love, David heads for university, foreign adventure, and a dazzling career; Patty Jo marries slick, over-confident Don Ried.

Yet plans can go horribly wrong. The victim of her violent husband, Patty Jo abandons her home and children to live on the streets of Toronto. David, a high-ranking executive in Paris, is dismayed by the superficiality of corporate success.

Forty years later, Patty Jo and David meet again. Both have defied society; both have fulfilled their dreams. And what if first love was the right one after all, and destiny has the last word?

What I’m currently reading

I’m reading Trial by Terror from my Classics Club list, The Shock of the Light from my NetGalley shelf and listening to the audiobook of Room 706.

Look out for…

  • Book Review: Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
  • Book Review: Julia Sleeps by Zoe Caryl