Reviewed by Emma Crowley
By day, Betty works cheerfully with her best friend Sally, now the manager of the salvage depot. By night, they both do their bit for the war effort as Auxiliary Fire Service girls. But Betty wishes she could do more.
So when Samuel, a kind and gentle young bookseller, needs help sorting out novels to entertain the boys overseas, Betty volunteers. Anything for the troops! There might be a flashy, handsome stranger who keeps seeking her out at the depot, but she can’t help enjoying Samuel’s quiet humour as they work together during the blackouts.
But when the worst night-time air raid they’ve ever seen strikes, Sally’s home is destroyed. Even worse, any of Sally’s treasured possessions that did survive the blast are stolen by looters. Desperate to help her friend, Betty could never have expected the guilt when she uncovers what really happened… Was it all her fault?
Despite Samuel’s best efforts, Betty can’t forgive herself. Determined to set things right, Betty sets off to catch the thief, leaving Samuel in the dark. And then the sirens begin, warning of another bombing raid. Can Betty find the strength to finish what she started, despite the threat to everything she holds dear? Or will the smoke clear on heartbreak for the home front girls?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of Courage for the Home Front Girls to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Courage for the Homefront Girls is the second in a planned trilogy The Homefront Girls by Susanna Bavin. Both books can easily be read as standalone stories as there is plenty of background information provided as to what previously happened and it’s not a case of having to dig deep and read between the lines which I dislike having to do in books when I am dipping into a series rather than starting at the beginning. As it is only a few short weeks between publication dates for both books the characters and storyline were very much fresh in my mind when I started this second story and I have to say from the outset I really enjoyed this book and even more so than the first. I think this is partly because I was familiar with the characters and there were no what I felt were introductory chapters as there needed to be in the previous book. Things pick up more or less from where the previous book left off and then moved along at a good pace throughout. I felt this book really moved the series along as a whole and with the introduction of a new character it also made things feel fresh.
October 1940 and the war is in full swing with bombs falling nightly on Manchester where Sally and Betty live. They are two brave and strong women who at first you would never have put them together as friends but through circumstance they have come together and now have a solid friendship which is only strengthened throughout the course of the book. A change in both their work circumstances has lead to them both working at the salvage depot. To be honest I’ve never given the merest of thoughts to the topic of salvage but Susanna Bavin makes it interesting and informative and has clearly done a lot of research around her subject matter. All the little details surrounding the salvage work the girls do, what the salvage is used for, how it benefits the war effort and how it establishes a sense of self-worth and community spirit all add to the entire story. But apart from that it’s the personal lives amidst the backdrop of the war that make this an exciting, heart-warming and engaging read.
Sally is now happily married to Andrew and they live with his mother. She has stepped up to become manager of the depot although Mrs Lockwood from the WVS seems to think that she is the bee’s knees and is in charge of everything. Boy did she deserve to be put in her place and this has needed to occur since book one. She is an awful person who thinks she is above everyone else and can just boss them around without actually doing any work herself, be it voluntary or paid. I don’t know how Sally kept her anger under control because the way she was spoken to was abhorrent and it was so demeaning. She held her dignity and self-worth very well because she knew she needed the job and also the fact that she enjoyed working with Betty. I did find Sally ever so slightly took a back seat at some points in this book and Betty and the new character of Lorna came to the fore but when Sally was needed the most she really put her neck on the line and I admired how she dealt with one of the major plots of the book and it showed how friends are always there for each other through the good times and bad.
For me Betty as a character is still someone who is very vulnerable and gullible and she shows these characteristics very strongly here. She has gained some independence since a situation in the previous book but still has very much a rocky relationship with her stepmother Grace. She longs to keep the connection with her Dad but new events with her mean he very well may be disappointed with her. Grace takes every opportunity to get a dig in at Betty and keep her away from her father. It’s like she resents Betty in the first place. I just wish that Betty was strong enough to stand up to her but she doesn’t ever say what she is truly feeling for fear it would upset her father and create a big chasm between them.
Betty meets Samuel when he needs help in his bookshop sorting through books that have been donated for the troops and to be used to replenish stocks of libraries that have been bombed out. Samuel is an absolute sweetheart. So kind, gentle and unassuming and you could tell that he is very self-conscious of his stammer. It was plain to see that he was developing feelings for Betty but she has her head in the clouds and is obsessed with another man who comes to the depot-Eddie. Right from the start Eddie caught Betty’s attention and she was right under his spell. He seemed to be a charmer and too good to be true. There was just something about him that seemed very off to me and my suspicions grew the further I read and suffice to say Betty’s story took a very interesting turn in the last quarter or so of the book and I wondered would she find anyway to redeem herself.
Lorna was the new character who was introduced and it was a breath of fresh air to have someone new as I was expecting the story to continue to follow just Sally and Betty. Lorna comes from a totally different background to that of Sally and Betty but is brought royally back down to earth when a court case with her fiancée who had jilted her goes terribly wrong. Her parents are furious and it’s obvious that don’t particularly care for her feelings rather instead they favour the money they would have benefitted from had she married George who held a title. Lorna does have feelings and I genuinely think that she did love George but thanks to her parents she was caught up in a mess that was only going to turn out one way. As a means of escaping the publicity surrounding the court case Lorna is sent away by her father and he finds her a job at the savage yard where he hopes no one find her nor will anyone discover her story. To say Lorna experiences a fall from grace would be an under statement and when she first arrives at the depot she seems to be very stuck up and acts like the work is so far beneath her. No wonder Sally and Betty couldn’t warm to her and Sally had to exert her authority even though it wouldn’t have been her favourite thing to do.
Deep down Lorna is lonely and over time she comes to regret what she went through with George and wishes that things could have turned out differently. Still, as much of an addition as she was I didn’t 100% warm to her and I still feel more connected to Betty and Sally. Maybe that will change with the next book. She was very emotionally separate from both of the girls when she was working but when a big twist occurs in the story which I do admit I guessed at, she really did start to change and become more down to earth. I loved the twist and how all the girls had to come together as one in a time of great trouble. It showed how friendships really matter and that we all have to take care of one another especially with all the hardships and horrors that the war brings. I really enjoyed my return visit to the Homefront Girls. The character development has been very good and the storyline kept me engaged. I’m looking forward to seeing how everything pans out in the concluding instalment which I hope we won’t be kept waiting too long for.
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