Book Review: Christmas With The East End Angels by Rosie Hendry

It’s great to be welcoming Rosie Hendry to the blog today and the tour for her new novel, Christmas With The East End Angels. 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – and the East End Angels are working hard to keep Londoners safe.

Frankie is trying hard to keep everything together. She can count on the support of the East End Angels, even in the face of family trouble.

Winnie’s beloved husband, Mac, is putting himself at risk every day in the bomb disposal unit and she’s finding it hard while he’s away.

Bella is growing in confidence and happiness. Her friendship with Winnie’s brother, James, is getting closer all the time.

Christmas on the Home Front is a hard time with loved ones far away – but the women of the Auxiliary Ambulance service are making do and mending.

This is the latest in the East End Angels series and my introduction to Winnie, Frankie and Bella. This does work as a standalone novel. I didn’t feel like I was playing catch up at all. Rosie’s writing style has an ease to it that made me get fully involved very quickly.

The women are working at Station 75 during WWII. Even though the Blitz has abated, there is still a threat that something will happen especially as news from abroad seems to only get worse.

I could tell straight away that the three main characters had a close friendship – one that would survive many things and the kind that you want during a turbulent time. I loved the three of them together and in this novel, they are joined by Rose, originally from Austria (so you know from the offset that her story is going to be emotional and heartbreaking.)

It was nice reading about an element of war-time London that I was less familiar with. It’s inspirational seeing how these women rallied and did what they could to ‘keep calm and carry on.’

The atmosphere Rosie creates really pulled me in to the world of these women. Despite the fact that it’s a bleak time in Britain’s history, these characters bring hope warmth, love and laughter. For me, this book is very much about them. Each girl is facing their own personal battle. It just happens to be set in WWII which makes their efforts to keep going all the more poignant.

As they arrange events to raise the spirits of the people around them, I spent a lot of time reading this novel wanting to be a part of the gang.

As we get close to Christmas, this is the perfect book to read to remember what is important this time of year.

A wonderful book that should be added to any to be read pile. I am now off to get the other books in the series.

About Rosie:  

Rosie Hendry lives by the sea in Norfolk with her husband, two children, chickens and a snake. She’s worked in a variety of jobs from fruit picking, waitressing, teaching and as a research scientist but has always loving reading and writing. Starting off writing short stories for women’s magazines, her stories have gradually become longer as her children have grown bigger.

Listening to her father’s tales of life during the Second World War sparked Rosie’s interest in this period and she’s especially intrigued by how women’s lives changed during the war years. She loves researching further, searching out gems of real-life events which inspire her writing.

When she’s not working, Rosie enjoys walking along the beach, reading and is grateful for the fact that her husband is a much better cook than her.

For more information about Rosie and her novels, visit  www.rosiehendry.com

Say hi on Facebook– https://www.facebook.com/RosieHendrybooks and Twitter– https://twitter.com/hendry_rosie

Christmas with the East End Angels was released by Sphere on 1st November. Click to view on Amazon UK and Amazon US

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Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.