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The Clarks Factory Girls At War by May Ellis

Fabulous New Series

The Clarks Factory Girls At Work by May Ellis is a fabulous new series which focuses on the Clarks family in Street, Somerset during 1914 and 1915.

We follow three young girls who work at the factory. They come from three very different families but are firm friends who support each other.

The plight of women was very different a hundred years ago. Women were definitely inferior to men. They earnt less, were not in positions of responsibility and were supposed to submit to men. There were snippets of talk about suffragettes. A young girl has to hand her wages over to her father until she is twenty one.

The plight of a widow with young children was precarious as they lived hand to mouth.

In another household, the father is cruel. He drinks his wages away and is handy with his fists.

We drop in on discussions about the various denominations. The Clarks family were Quakers as were many of the community but some were Church Of England. The community was divided, no one wanting inter-marriage between the denominations. It seems alien to the modern reader.

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Aunt Violet’s Locket by Kristin Harper

A Lasting Legacy

Aunt Violet’s Locket by Kristin Harper is a most delightful contemporary novel. It is the sixth book in the Dune Island series but can be read as a stand-alone.

An unexpected inheritance sees the lead character travel to a remote island in order to claim an isolated property. It is everything she doesn’t want, but a summer spent preparing to sell sees more changes than in just the building.

Links to the past are unearthed as a character seeks out the truth behind the stories of her late ninety nine year old great aunt whom she never met. It has all been smoke and mirrors as there was so much more to her than the alleged wilting wallflower.

Secrets, stories and lies from World War II have been buried but are unearthed unexpectedly. This causes a dilemma – what to do with the knowledge?

Within the novel society has put an emphasis on women marrying young and not ending up on the shelf! Women are to be homemakers. Much is made of a showy engagement and wedding, without much thought to the actual marriage.

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The Intruders by Louise Jensen

Wow! Just Wow!

The Intruders by Louise Jensen is a simply marvellous psychological suspense that I just could not put down. This is a book that will make your heart race and the hairs on the back of your neck rise. It is definitely more than a little creepy.

Louise Jensen has constructed an intricate plotline that grabbed me from the start – we know that a family was murdered thirty years ago as the book opens but we do not know why or what was being sought.

The action weaves this way and that as we alternate between present day and thirty years in the past. We hear different voices in both the third and first person. Just as I thought I was piecing it all together – wham! The action veered off piste again! I clung on for dear life – after several twists and turns we sped towards the conclusion and all I can say is … Wow! Just wow! How Louise Jensen comes up with these fabulous stories time and time again is amazing.

I loved the literary device that the author used where the words at the end of one chapter were uttered at the beginning of the next but in a different context. This linked the past and present seamlessly.

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The Christmas Book Club by Sarah Morgan

Deliciously Wonderful

The Christmas Book Club by Sarah Morgan is an absolutely charming, contemporary feel-good novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. Although there is the word ‘Christmas’ in the title, this is a book that can be enjoyed all year round. The action is set in early December but the focus of the book is on friends and family.

We drop in on three lifelong friends who are taking a vacation in a quaint inn in Vermont for a week discussing books. We hear of the background of the three – the workaholic, the broken-hearted and the soon-to-be empty nester. All three are facing challenges but are united by their love and support.

We also meet the innkeeper who is struggling with sudden loss and is a young widow with a five year old daughter. “Grief never leaves you.” Grief paralyses, there is no end as she tries to fulfill her husband’s dreams for the inn. “She was the caretaker of his dreams.” But his dreams and his way are not the only way. The young widow needs to find her way.

Our upbringings shape us. A character has never known her father. This has made her ultra independent and afraid to show her emotions. No one has penetrated her hard outer shell until… an encounter with a delightful five year old.

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