Home Front Girls by Rosie Goodwin is published in hardback by Canvas, priced £18.99 (ebook £3.79). Available now.
As the end of 1939 approaches, the Second World War has just broken out, and Annabelle, Lucy and Dotty are three 20-year-old women whose personalities and lives couldn't be more different.
However, they all live in Coventry and find themselves taking on jobs in the town's department store, Owen Owen, which brings them together.
As the story unfolds, they discover they have more in common than they originally thought - each in turn coming to terms with painful secrets from their past, and suffering tragedies and heartache from the war. And while their hometown is torn apart, the women's friendship strengthens.
Home Front Girls proves once again Rosie Goodwin's ability to create a dramatic, emotional plot, while keeping the language simple, making this book an effortless but rewarding read.
The scenes and dialogue flow easily from one to the next. There is nothing complicated or challenging about the way Goodwin writes - yet her characters, and the events going on in and around their lives, pack a punch - and it's this which makes her popular to so many readers.
6/10
(Review by Abi Jackson)
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