Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Nurse Annie Russell anxiously listens to the terrifying sounds of planes and gunfire overhead, worried about what the morning will bring for the patients in her care. The boys from the local airfield fly up in the skies each night, risking their lives to protect the people of Bramble Heath village, but they can’t stop every bombshell. Until a knock at the door makes her jump.
Awaiting Annie on the doorstep is a hatbox. Peeking under the lid, she gasps – inside is a whimpering newborn, round cheeks glistening with tears. The poor little thing may be all alone, but someone must truly love the baby… Tucked into a hand-knitted blanket, there’s a precious ration book, vital for food supplies in these darkest of days.
Her heart breaking, Annie does everything she can to care for her tiny charge. But, without a ration book, she knows that the frightened young mother could also be in dire need of help too. Then social services bring devastating news. If Annie can’t find the helpless child’s family soon, the authorities will have to take the little one away.
As the Nazi threat grows, more and more of the brave pilots at the local airbase don’t come home. Is one of the fallen the child’s father? And with her only clue leading nowhere, can Annie find the answers she needs, and reunite the innocent baby with its parents before it is too late?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Ration Book Baby to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Ration Book Baby is the first book in the A Village at War series by Ellie Curzon. Ellie in fact is two authors writing as one which I did not realise until the end of the book. Never would I have thought that two people co-wrote this book nor could I attempt to guess what parts they wrote as it flowed very well and was never disjointed nor did it come across as if there were two writing styles. This is a quick read and it’s definitely a traditional war time saga with a lovely, conversational and relaxed style to the writing. I would liken it to Lizzie Page’s Shilling Grange Children’s Home series in terms of its style. The plot is very easy to follow and in my mind the last quarter or so of the book was the best when everything started to come together. Right from the prologue, the reader is taken to the heart of the story and I really appreciated that there was no messing around and we got down to business. Sometimes, I find it boring to have endless backstory before we get down to the nitty gritty of things so I praise Ellie Curzon for just getting on with things. Anything we needed to know and learn about the characters and the setting could follow along at their own leisure.
Annie Russell lives in the village of Bramble Heath with her parents Norma and Henry. She is the district nurse for the area and has been kept very busy since an airbase was established at the edge of the village. One evening there is a knock at the door and Annie finds a hatbox on the step. She looks inside and there is a newborn baby. There is no sign of anyone in the street nearby and Annie surmises the baby has been abandoned. Could the mother be a resident of the village? A young girl who got into trouble and had nowhere else to turn to? Annie doesn’t have the answers but with the help of her parents she will do her best for the baby she names Clara - after the name of the shop on the hatbox - which I thought was a really nice touch. Inside the box Annie finds a ration book but all the necessary identification details have been crossed out so no clues can be gleaned from this. The baby is dressed well and has a little handmade stork as a toy but beyond that there is no further clues as to the identity of Clara’s mother.
Annie is such a selfless character right from the very beginning and why wouldn’t she possess such kind and caring qualities given that she is a nurse but whether she had been in this profession or not I feel she would have been like this anyway. She didn’t hesitate in taking baby Clara in and throughout her quest to find her mother she was just relentless and dogged in her determination. I loved how she knew herself that she couldn’t keep the baby but nor did she want to want social services to intervene. She knew a child’s place is first and foremost with their mother. With the war raging and daily and nightly air raids the world is a dangerous and hopeless place but when the residents of Bramble Heath come together they show that there is love, friendship and support in abundance when we need it the most.
The storyline of discovering who Clara’s mother was didn’t dominate the entire book. Instead it ebbed and flowed and in between we learnt more about Annie and her work in the village and the surrounding areas including the airbase and the hamlet where a Polish community has been established since many families fled the atrocities in their country. The Polish men flew with the RAF at the base and the women established homes in the hamlet. The issue of discrimination reared its ugly head when it came to the Polish community and I thought it was dealt with well although I did want to give the character in question a good hiding much earlier on than when they got their come uppance.
I’ll admit, I did ever so slightly lose interest coming up to the halfway point because I felt there was nothing really happening in that we just read about Annie travelling on her motorbike to tend to different people through her work. It became a little monotonous and the story needed something exciting to shake things up a bit. This came in the form of Wing Commander William Chambers sustaining injuries in a fighter plane crash which Annie is witness too. The pair had enjoyed an easy friendship and it was evident that things could develop into something more if given the chance but there was quite a stumbling block in the way only added to by William’s accident and subsequent injuries. I enjoyed how this aspect of the storyline was handled. It was sensitive and showed how many fighter pilots and soldiers had to cope with what they were experiencing daily and also the fallout of something going wrong.
Annie, above anyone else in the book, was always so encouraging, dedicated and supportive in her every thought, action, word and deed. She’s just an all-round generally nice person who deserves a happy ending seen as she always does so much for everyone else. I felt that she was the glue that held people together. She was always on the go and was so proud of her work and full of confidence. I will admit when it came to uncovering who Clara’s mother was that I guessed fairly early on and it was only by pure chance that I did as one little line/action stood out to me for some reason and I kept remembering it the further I read through the book. Knowing who it was didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story in fact I was quite chuffed that I had guessed correctly and wanted to know the finer details around Clara arriving on Annie’s doorstep.
Overall, The Ration Book Baby was an enjoyable and easy read with community and working together through the toughest of times being the main themes. Annie is a character whom you admire, encourage and root for all the way. The mystery of baby Clara’s origins kept the plot moving along nicely despite a bit of a lull at the midway point but the last quarter or so lots happened and it kept me turning the pages keen to see would things pan out successfully or not. This story offers something that little bit different from the usual WW2 historical fiction that I normally read and therefore I found it refreshing and a change from what I am used to. Given this is book one in the series and the war is nowhere near its conclusion I am sure there is a lot more to come for Annie, William and the residents of Bramble Heath and I look forward to seeing what Ellie Curzon has in store for them in the future.
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