🎄Blog Tour ~ Christmas with the Teashop Girls by Elaine Everest

 

🎄Delighted to host one of today's stops on this festive Blog Tour🎄

Pan Macmillan
15 October 2020

My thanks to the publishers and ed public relations for my copy of the book
and the invitation to be part of this blog tour

The friends return in a moving story of love, bravery and hope set in 1940 – a guaranteed winter warmer full of festive spirit. Bestseller Elaine Everest is the author of the much loved Woolworths Girls saga series. 

It’s late 1940 and the war feels closer to home than ever for Rose Neville and her staff at the Lyon’s Teashop in Margate. The worry of rationing hangs overhead as the Nippies do their best to provide a happy smile and a hot cup of tea for their customers. When a bombing raid targets the Kent coastline, Lyon’s is badly hit, throwing the future of the cafe into jeopardy. The light in Rose’s life is her dashing fiancé Captain Ben Hargreaves and she’s busy planning their Christmas Eve wedding. But she must also plan to take two new stepdaughters into her life and get on the right side of her wealthy mother-in-law, Lady Diana. Is Rose ready to become a mother? When Rose’s half-sister Eileen makes contact, it seems that Rose’s dreams of having a sibling are coming true at long last. But her friends begin to suspect that she’s hiding something… As the wedding draws near, the bombings intensify, putting everything and everyone Rose loves in danger. Only one thing is for sure: it will be a Christmas she never forgets . . 

What did I think about it..

This is such a lovely story and it's not overly festive so that it can be read at any time of year and yet there is a lovely Christmas finale which warmed my heart. 

The story starts in 1940 with a dramatic prologue which had me pondering throughout the story just how Rose and her mother, Flora could have found themselves in such a dangerous situation but the author very cleverly fills in all the missing pieces as the story concludes. Meeting up with Rose, Lily, Katie, and of course the indomitable Flora has been a real treat as we pick up where the first book, The Teashop Girls, left off. These stoical young women who work at the Lyons Tea Room in Margate have more than their fair share of drama especially when the town is targeted by enemy bombardment and most of their time is spent hunkered down in the air raid shelters. 

Throughout it all there is a real sense of camaraderie and everyone just seems to pull together and gets on with what needs doing. I especially loved the introduction of Lady Diana, Rose's soon to be mother-in-law, who despite her posh status, is far from being standoffish and soon brings her own special charm to to the Sea View guesthouse. Whilst Rose features strongly in the story it's not all about her and the other characters soon get their moments to shine, it was especially lovely to catch up with Mildred and Anya again.

Christmas with the Teashop Girls is a really lovely continuation of this WW2 saga. There's a genuine feeling of love and empathy from all the characters and the overriding sense of wartime spirit comes across in a heart warming story about love, life and friendship.

Christmas with the Teashop Girls by Elaine Everest is out now, published by Pan Macmillan, priced £7.99 as paperback original.

About the Author

Elaine Everest is from North West Kent and she grew up listening to stories of the war years in her home town of Erith, which features in her bestselling Woolworths Girls series. A former journalist, and author of nonfiction books for dog owners, Elaine has written over sixty short stories for the women's magazine market. When she isn't writing, Elaine runs The Write Place creative writing school in Hextable, Kent. She lives with her husband, Michael and sheepdog Henry.

Twitter @ElaineEverest #TeashopGirlsChristmas

@panmacillan

@ed_pr