Author: Annie Groves
Total Pages: 468
Total approximate words: 1,59,588
SYNOPSIS
The story is set during the World War 2 in England. The plot revolves around three families who are directly/indirectly related to each other, and their everyday lives with the war going on. Katie is born in London to parents who were in the showbiz business, but seeing her parent’s bitter relationship towards each other, she decides never to fall in love or joining the same line of work. Fate however, has different plans for her. As she moves to Liverpool to start her new job, she inadvertently falls in love with Luke who is a soldier and has recently come back from Dunkirk. He also happened to be the son of Jean, whose house Katie was residing temporarily for her work. Jean, a loving mother and wife, is gleefully excited to see Katie and Luke together, however is worried for her twins, Lou and Sasha who wants to join the showbiz business as dancers. The twins inspired from their aunt Fran, who tours the world, performing as a lead dancer and singer for the most renowned theatrics of England, meets Kieran who works under his uncle Con who runs a theatre. Kieran promises the twins a big break to start their dancing career, and the twins unaware of the uncle and nephew’s dubious plans trust Kieran with his words. Con is married to Emily, however that doesn’t stop him from being a womaniser. Emily unable to bear her own child but is the inherent of substantial wealth from her father, puts up with Con despite knowing his disloyalty to her. Vi is Jean’s twin sister, however has the opposite personality. She is superficial, crass, and considered Jean’s family below hers. Her own son, also a soldier, is set to marry Daphne who hails from a wealthy family herself, on the pretext that he was to be honored with a war medal because of trying to save Daphne’s brother in the war. The truth however was far from it. Vi’s daughter Bella, recently widowed didn’t care about her brother or her mother, as much as she cared about her allowance from her father, and the house that she got from him as her wedding gift. The story ends, while the war still goes on, and the families continue living their lives while dealing with the shenanigans of their individual existence entangled with the common web of the war.
Did I enjoy the read?
To an extent I did enjoy how the story gradually unfolded into events of love and hate, and further how it developed the individual characters in terms of temperament. The pace of writing is relaxed, and the style is easy, making the whole reading a laid-back one. For someone in their mid to late teens might find the story more appealing, specifically because the portrayal of characters is not complex. For mature readers, this might be a quick weekend read if one is into ‘low key’ fiction books. This book is a step up from Enid Blyton books, if you know what I mean.
A 5.5 star rating for this easy read!
Happy Reading!
