Tag: WW2

#BlogTour #BookReview The Sweetheart Locket by Jen Gilroy

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The Sweetheart LocketWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Sweetheart Locket by Jen Gilroy. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Orion Dash for my digital review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the posts by my four tour buddies for today, Kylie at Kitty-Kat Chronicles, Marg at The Intrepid Reader, Linn at Ellesea Loves Reading and Faye at imreadingmybook.

WinThere’s also a giveaway with a chance to win one of two Kindle copies of The Sweetheart Locket. Enter via Rafflecopter here.

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The Sweetheart LocketAbout the Book

What if the key to your present lies in the past?

London, 1939. On the eve of the Second World War, Canadian Maggie Wyndham defies her family and stays in England to do her bit for the war effort. Torn between two countries, two men and living a life of lies working for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), Maggie’s RAF sweetheart locket is part of who she is…and who she isn’t.

San Francisco, 2019. Over twenty years after Maggie’s death, her daughter Millie and granddaughter Willow take a DNA test that’s supposed to be a bit of fun but instead yields unexpected results. Willow has always treasured her grandmother’s sweetheart locket, both family heirloom and a symbol of her grandparents’ love story. But now she doesn’t know what to believe. She embarks on a search for the truth, one she doesn’t know will reveal far more about herself…

Format: ebook (358 pages)             Publisher: Orion Dash
Publication date: 17th March 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Sweetheart Locket on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

The book alternates between Maggie’s story starting at the outbreak of the Second World War and Willow’s in the present day (2019) as she searches for information about her grandmother’s life. It’s a search that initially will raise just as many questions as answers but possibly serve to lessen the distance that has developed between Willow and her mother, Camilla.

I found Maggie’s story particularly compelling, especially as it shines a light on the vitally important contribution women made to the war effort both at home and abroad, a contribution that often placed them in great personal danger. Willow’s research into her grandmother’s life allows the author to provide the reader with information about a secret wartime role performed by women not fully known about until recently. Inevitably, because of the book’s structure, the tension surrounding Maggie’s wartime experiences is lessened because we know she will survive the war. However, that’s not the same for other characters, injecting a welcome sense of jeopardy.

I liked the way the author brought out connections between the two women, despite the many decades that divide them. Both Maggie and Willow change over time, becoming more independent and determined to forge their own direction in life, even if that involves making a life in a new country. They become more willing to take risks in other ways too. There is a romantic aspect to both storylines although I thought Maggie’s was more believable, reflecting the fact that in wartime people have to live in the moment and snatch any chance of happiness.

I thought it was clever of the author to reflect the differences between then and now. For us, London at night with a sky bright with stars might be magical but for Maggie and others who lived through the Second World War it meant ‘bombing weather’, something to be feared rather than enjoyed. And for Maggie, clear skies has an additional significance linked to her wartime work.

Those who enjoy a mixture of tears of sadness and of joy in their historical fiction will find themselves well rewarded. There are also poignant, bittersweet moments and a few surprises, some more foreseeable than others, but given the fog of war not completely implausible. And after all, this is fiction. A neat touch is the epilogue which acts as a ‘what happened next’ for many of the secondary characters featured in the book.

The Sweetheart Locket is an absorbing dual timeline novel combining wartime drama, the uncovering of family secrets and new beginnings.

In three words: Romantic, engaging, heartwarming

Try something similar: The Girl From Bletchley Park by Kathleen McGurl

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Jen Gilroy Author Photo Spencer Studio Website Square 1080pxAbout the Author

Jen Gilroy writes sweet contemporary romance and dual timeline historical women’s fiction – warm, feel-good stories to bring readers’ hearts home. A Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart® finalist and shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association Joan Hessayon award, Amazon named her third book, Back Home at Firefly Lake, a ‘Best Book of the Month: Romance’ in December 2017.

A dual British-Canadian citizen, Jen lived in England for many years and earned a doctorate (with a focus on British cultural studies and social history) from University College London. Returning to where her Irish family roots run deep, she now lives with her husband, teenage daughter and floppy-eared rescue hound in small-town Eastern Ontario, Canada. When not writing, she enjoys reading, ice cream, ballet and paddling her purple kayak.

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#BlogTour #BookReview Mailed Fist by John Foley @RandomTTours

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thumbnail_mailed fistWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Mailed Fist by John Foley. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to the Imperial War Museum for my advance review copy.

Mailed_Fist_CoverAbout the Book

In April 1943, newly commissioned John Foley is posted to command Five Troop and their trusty Churchill tanks Avenger, Alert, and Angler – thus begins his initiation into the Royal Armoured Corps. Covering the trials of training, embarkation to France and battle experience through Normandy, the Netherlands, the Ardennes campaign and into Germany, Foley’s intimate and detailed account follows the fate of this group of men in the latter stages of the Second World War.

‘If this book can be said to be a history of anything, it is a history of Five Troop. Not of the squadron, or of the regiment. If anybody wants to know what happened in other troops, or in other squadrons, it’s all recorded painstakingly in the War Diaries and lodged in a Records Office somewhere.’

Format: Paperback (176 pages)    Publisher: Imperial War Museum
Publication date: 21st April 2022 Genre: Modern Classics

Find Mailed Fist on Goodreads

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Bookshop.org
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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

Mailed Fist is the latest in the Imperial War Museum’s excellent Wartime Classics series comprising new editions of books from the Second World War. All the books in the series have an introduction putting the work into its historical context.

Mailed Fist is a fictionalised memoir closely based on the author’s own experience as a troop commander from April 1943 until the end of the Second World War.  The author gives us a ‘fly on the wall’ insight into what it was like to command a troop of three Churchill tanks, as well as what it was like for the five-man crews who operated them in cramped, dirty and very basic living conditions.

There’s a lot of humour in the book such as Foley and his fellow officers’ attempts to scupper the daily orderly report they’re required to complete, his attempts at doing his own laundry and how the ‘Love Affairs of Trooper Cooper’ lighten the task of censoring his troop’s letters home.

Periods of inactivity are punctuated by hours of intense fighting, attempting to destroy German artillery, support infantry attacks or take up defensive positions in towns vacated by the retreating enemy. When it comes to the serious business of battle, based on firepower alone the Churchill tanks are no match for the German Tiger tanks but sometimes ingenuity can overcome seemingly impossible odds. Often Five Troop are literally in the ‘fog of war’ as smoke bombs confuse not just the enemy but their own side. Unfortunately, not all of Five Troop will come out of these encounters unscathed. Besides physical wounds, there are psychological ones as well. An episode I found particularly chilling is when, bivouaced for the night, Foley overhears tank crew members talking in their sleep, reliving episodes from the battle they’ve just fought.

Foley comes across as a dedicated, level-headed and steadfast leader of his troop, prepared to muck in where required and aware of his responsibility for keeping up morale (sometimes at the expense of his own dignity). I really enjoyed seeing the camaraderie between the members of the troop, each with their nickname.

The story is peppered with army slang. For example, we learn that a ‘brew up’ is something more deadly than stopping to make a pot of tea (although a more heartwarming occasion involving tea occurs when Five Troop reach Eindhoven).

At the end of the book Foley muses to a comrade, ‘I was just thinking… Do you think anybody would want to read a book about what we’ve done?’ The answer to that is an unequivocal yes.

In three words: Authentic, immersive, fascinating

Try something similar: Warriors for the Working Day by Peter Elstob

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About the Author

John Foley (1917–1974) served in the British Army from 1936 until 1954. He attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and passed out from officer training in 1943. Foley became a troop commander in the 107th Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps (King’s Own), and was awarded an MBE for his service in North-West Europe. Later Foley worked in public relations and was an author, broadcaster and scriptwriter. He died in 1974.