Dear Miss Lake by AJ Pearce: a WWII story

In the fourth – and equally delightful as its predecessors – book about Emmy Lake, it is 1944, the war seems endless, and even the upbeat staff of Women’s Friend magazine are exhausted by the need for nonstop positive messaging:

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci - a WWII Novel

With a title like this, I was expecting time travel but, in fact, this is a historical novel set during WWII that brings together three individuals into a found family. It is London 1944, and Molly, 15, has lived in the country as an evacuee for five years and is finally returning home. She is worried that she hasn’t heard directly from her mother for years and, with no warning, her father has stopped paying a stipend to the family that housed her. When Molly reaches her house, appalled by the devastation she finds in London, only the housekeeper is there to greet her.

The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods - Paris in July

After years of nursing her mother through a final illness in Dublin, Edie Lane realizes she needs to challenge herself by doing something different. Searching online, she finds a job as the Assistant Manager of a bakery in Paris, which seems perfect – her parents had honeymooned in Paris and always talked about visiting as a family and her father is a pastry chef. But when Edie reaches La Boulangerie sur la Rue De Compiègne in Paris, she learns her mistake: her new employer is La Boulangerie sur la Rue de Paris in Compiègne, an hour north of Paris!

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan – a WWII historical novel from my 20 Books of Summer

Unexpected friendships and a cooking contest bring together four women in an English village during WWII in this enjoyable historical novel. The story begins with in 1942 with Audrey Landon, a widowed mother of three boys whose husband was shot down by the Germans.

Desperate not to lose their home, Audrey has eking out her pension with baking for the neighborhood, as well as humbling herself by asking for a loan from her affluent but unsympathetic sister and brother-in-law.

The Heart Speaks Many Ways by Madeleine A. Polland – Reading Ireland Month 2025

In this coming of age story, with an admittedly sappy title, a lovely young woman learns to have confidence in herself and her decision-making rather than reacting to stronger personalities or tragedy.

Emily McRoss has been living in Spain for two years, being “finished” with family friends, Don Rafael and Dona Serafina, and their daughter Remedios, her own age. In the background of the relaxed life of the upper classes in Andalusia there is increasing unrest that will result in civil war.

The Denehurst Secret Service by Gwendoline Courtney

A school story that contains a mystery and is also an evacuation story – who could ask for anything more, as my friend Fred Astaire would say . . .

Mrs. Sherbourne has news for her two teenage daughters, Elaine and Moira. She is sending them to Denehurst, a boarding school in Cornwall, because London in war time is dangerous and their father needs to concentrate on his Foreign Office work. The girls are mildly indignant because they want to do their bit but cheer up when their cousin, Captain Deryk Holroyd, says he might need their help from school. He asks them to conceal their fluency in German, where the family spent three years.

Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans

For those of us who read a lot of WWII historical fiction, it is a natural progression to contemplate what happened after the war ended. Perhaps this is why I loved the television show Homefront, set in a Midwest town where everyone is excited to welcome back their menfolk but do not realize how their lives will be affected, especially women who worked outside the home doing war work but are now displaced in favor of the men. 

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

In this historical novel, two determined teen siblings play a role in winning the war for the Allies.  Everyone tells fourteen-year-old Lizzie Novis that her mother was killed in a bombing but she refuses to believe it. Now that Britain is at war with Germany, her American grandmother wants Lizzie to come to Cleveland for the duration but Lizzie escapes from the ship and heads back to London to find her older brother, Jakob. 

Some Sunny Day by Helen Carey, a Lavender Road novel

It’s 1940, and the women of Lavender Road are trying to cope with bombing, rationing, and other stressful situations as the war continues in the second installment of this appealing six book series but even at the most dangerous times their resilience shines through. Katy Parsons, whose father runs a busy pub, is tired of being treated as an invalid because of her asthma. Now that she is 18, she is applying to be a nurse. 

Abigail by Magda Szabó, for the #1970Club

This is an unusual school story set in Hungary during the Second World War, with an ominous political background. It particularly interested me, not only because of my love of school stories but also because I am a quarter Hungarian and have read very little fiction from that country. I chose it for the 1970 Club, which is hosted this week by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, featuring books published in that year.

Good Night, Irene by Luis Aleberto Urrea - 17/20 of Books of Summer

Title: Good Night, Irene
Author: Luis Aleberto Urrea
Publication: Little, Brown & Co., hardcover, 2023
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: WWII

There are books about wartime nurses and an abundance (at least, recently) of stories about female spies and even a few aviators, but this was the first book I came across about Donut Dollies!

Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie #ReadChristie2024

Gordon Cloade’s family has always relied on his wealth and generosity so they are appalled when he marries an attractive widow less than half his age. Weeks later, he dies tragically in the London Blitz and his new bride, Rosaleen, inherits everything. 

The Secret Stealers by Jane Healey - Review

In this historical novel set during World War II in the United States, England, and France, a lovely young widow from Boston is determined to show she can contribute meaningfully to war effort, using her language skills and experience living in Paris.

Since Anna’s doctor husband died near Pearl Harbor, she has taught French in Washington, DC and resisted her family’s efforts to get her back to Boston.

The Ration Book Baby by Ellie Curzon

Title: The Ration Book Baby
Author: Ellie Curzon
Publication: Paperback, 2023
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: WWII Britain

Description: It is a dark night in West Sussex, 1940, when nurse Annie Russell hears a knock on her front door and finds a newborn baby girl in a hat box on the front steps, with a ration book tucked beneath her.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

Title: The Diamond Eye
Author: Kate Quinn
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication: HarperAudio, 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: Soviet Union and United States

Description: When Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko is sent to the United States during WWII to join Eleanor Roosevelt’s international student conference, Stalin’s goal is to showcase a military sniper whose skill has earned her the nickname Lady Death, hoping she and the rest of Russian delegation can generate American support on the Eastern Front.

The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Title: The Night War
Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Maps: Juliet Percival
Publication: Dial Books, hardcover, 2024
Genre: Juvenile Historical Fiction (with a little fantasy)
Setting: 1942 France

Description: Miri and her parents fled Germany for Paris after Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass), when the Nazis accelerated their persecution of German and Austrian Jews in November 1938. They have settled in a Paris neighborhood that welcomed many Jews and have made friends.

My December 2023 Reads

Holiday shopping and planning prevented me from as many December reviews as I had planned but I read some good books, although none that made my top ten for the year.  The two best were The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena and Babbacombe's by Noel Streatfeild, writing as Susan Scarlett:

Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Title: Love in the Library
Author: Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Illustrator: Yas Imamura
Publication: Candlewick, hardcover, 2022
Genre: Picture book, historical fiction
Setting: Idaho, 20th century

Description: Tama, a young woman who would normally be in college, works at the library at the Minidoka internment camp, where she and more than 13,000 other Japanese Americans were imprisoned during WWII.

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson - set in an underground library in Bethnal Green

Title: The Little Wartime Library
Author: Kate Thompson
Publication: Hachette, audiobook, 2023
Narrator: Sarah Durham
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: WWII London

Description: When a bomb destroyed the Bethnal Green Library on the first night of the Blitz in 1940, thousands of books were lost.  However, there was a half-completed Tube station nearby and, over the next year, it was transformed into an underground shelter, built over the boarded-up subway tracks, complete with a small library for East Enders needing distraction from war worries.

Spam Tomorrow by Verily Anderson #DeanStreetDecember23

Title: Spam Tomorrow
Author: Verily Anderson (1915-2010)
Publication: Dean Street Press/Furrowed Middlebrow, 

paperback, originally published in 1956
Genre: Memoir
Setting: WWII England

Description: Verily grew up in a slightly eccentric family in southern England, one of five children of a well-born vicar. His skill as a breeder of fox terriers paid for boarding school and other necessities for a large family not covered by a clergyman’s salary.