Berkshire, 1944
When Will Bates offers to take ATA pilot Lilian Miles to the dance, he sends her heart into a flutter. But as their relationship progresses, Lilian can’t help but get cold feet. Deep down she’s always known that the secrets locked in her past would weigh heavily on her future happiness…
London, 2018
Helena Miles loves nothing more than digging into the back stories of celebrity families, making her perfectly suited for her job as a researcher on the hit show Where Did You Come From?. But when handsome superstar Jack Jones sweeps into her life, she unexpectedly finds herself trawling through her own family history.
As she explores her family’s past, she discovers that there are far more secrets hidden there than she ever expected… What really happened to her aunt Lilian during the war, and why can’t she open up about it now?
Many thanks to HQ Digital via NetGalley for my copy of The Hidden Women to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Kerry Barrett is back with another dual time-line story called The Hidden Women. Slipping back and forth between the war years and the present day it follows Helena Miles as she attempts to uncover a family secret kept hidden for many years and as the surprises and revelations come thick and fast in the first half of the book she comes to realise a woman she already has the utmost of respect and admiration for just gained even more in the eyes of Helena and her family.
The chapters throughout the story alternate between Helena and her Great Aunt Lillian. I presumed the majority of Lillian's chapters would be set during the years of service she gave during the war but they also focused on several years before and gave us a glimpse into her teenage years in a quite sleepy English village. It did take me a little while to settle into the rhythm of the story as it did jump around a bit. Having chapter headings telling us what character said chapter would focus on proved to be very helpful as we didn't always return to the period we had been reading of before. But once I found my bearings with regard to the overall picture I really did enjoy this story as my love of history really was piqued and a lot of the aspects that were being explored and dealt with were new and interesting to me.
We first met Helena as she makes a huge decision with regard to the next stage of her life. Having received no support from her boyfriend Greg when she imparts some life changing news she decides to go it alone and what a brave and admirable decision she made. Fast forward three years later to 2018 and Helena works on a television programme who research the family tree of celebrities. Yes this idea may have been exactly like the programme Who Do You Think You Are? but that didn't bother me at all as the author gave a truly fascinating insight into what research is undertaken and how they go about uncovering little nuggets of information that may have been kept hidden for numerous years.
It was evident from that the character of Helena was so passionate about her job and she adored every aspect of it. I really loved Helena as a character, she loved her job but was also really trying to make a go of her personal life in raising her young daughter Dora on her own. She knew when she needed the support of her family and wasn't afraid to ask for it, even though said family were an eclectic bunch. But it's when actor Jack Jones becomes the latest celebrity to feature on the show that Helena's life becomes turned upside down as connections become apparent between Jack and Helena's family history.
Helena must wrestle with her conscious and her code of discipline at work when it comes to researching personal family matters. But also her loyalty to her Aunt becomes severely tested when faced with a predicament that if Helena forges ahead with a more detailed investigation than the apple cart could be forever upset and the dynamics of her family changed. Maybe for the better but who knows, Helena was faced with an impossible situation. Her father wished to know more, and her sister urged her on too, but Helena always stopped and thought about the consequences of her actions but would her inquisitive nature be too much to quash and will she go ahead and click that all important button that could lead to numerous shocks or would it bring many pleasant surprises?
I enjoyed that things weren't straight forward for her and that she grappled with her decision because really nothing in life is ever that clear cut and straight forward. I enjoyed the interactions between Helena and her family and how they coped with what was being discovered but I think the situation with regard to Jack and Helena was fairly rushed and was mentioned every now and again just to add some romance to the story. If I'm being perfectly honest it really didn't need it as the other storylines were more than strong enough to carry the entire book through to its conclusion. Yes it was nice to see Helena find some happiness, and Jack was needed at the beginning as the catalyst to fuel Helena's investigative fire, but after that the relationship felt too forced and it all developed rather quickly and then aspects of it were mentioned in one paragraph, glossed over and then forgotten about. Helena and Jack weren't the sole focus here and their relationship could have easily been omitted.
For me by far the strongest aspect of the book was Lillian's story as it took me back in time to the war years but the author provided a totally different slant to all the WW2 books I had read before. It was fresh and innovative and had me hooked. Yes the topic may be a divisive one depending on your viewpoint in relation to the subject matter but I felt it was dealt with such sensitivity and tact and the women involved were courageous even if it came about through previous real life experiences. We meet Lillian as she works for ATA (Air Transport Auxillary). She transports planes recently made in factories to airfields and bases all over Britain. She is a woman amidst a few others working in a man's world but it is a role she relishes and enjoys. She feels she was made for this, yet the reader can sense a hardness surrounding her, a wall she has built up, a secret she is hiding and one she would not like to come to light for fear of the repercussions. Lillian is harbouring two big secrets and over the course of the story as we learn more about her and her background, my respect and admiration for her grew and grew.
Countless times she places herself in danger in order to help others. If her manoeuvres alongside two others had been discovered it would have meant a very serious outcome for all involved. As Helena in the present digs deeper into Lillian's past the reader does become aware as to what happened during the war years and an incredible story unfolds. Some aspects were kept secret until the later stages of the book but I guessed fairly early on what had happened and why the need to cover it up. Lillian proved to be selfless person and a young woman with a strong and clear head on her shoulders. She suffered loss and heartbreak but sacrificed her emotions to help others. I would never have given any thought in the slightest as to the subject matter the story focused on and in some ways things like that still go on today and have little changed. The respect the various characters had for Lillian will inspire respect in the reader too and that makes her someone you won't forget in a hurry. I felt her initial situation before the war was awful and certainly not of her own making but it is how she handles this and moves forward with her life and attempts to help others that makes her a stand out character.
Overall I enjoyed The Hidden Women. It is a quick read, partly because of the short and snappy chapters moving back and forth through time, and also because you become engrossed in the storyline and as keen as Helena to reconcile the past with the present and to find the answers to so many questions. The reader wants to know what motivates Helena and Lillian and that is revealed with the help of present day situations. We also want to know how it affected Lillian for the rest of her life. Saying that I would have liked a little bit more mystery as I felt things came to light a little too quickly. I would have loved a little more investigation and not for things to be so apparent fairly early on. That big moment of jaw dropping, shock and surprise didn't materialise for me which I normally look for towards the end. If things had been saved for the last quarter or so then that would have happened and I would have been left deeply satisfied. Still The Hidden Women is well worth a read as it has brilliantly written characters and a plot that is interesting and informative.
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