📖 Blog Tour ~ The Shipyard Girls Under the Mistletoe by Nancy Revell

 

Thrilled to host today's concluding stop on this blog tour

Arrow
28 October 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book
and the invitation to the blog tour

Sunderland, 1944

As the promise of victory draws closer, this Christmas will surely be one to remember.

It should be a magical time for Dorothy, who has just been proposed to by her sweetheart Toby. But with each day that passes, Dorothy's feelings for someone else are growing stronger. Now she has an impossible choice to make.

Gloria is thrilled that her sweetheart Jack is finally home after more than two years away. But his past is continuing to catch up with them both - creating untold heartache for Gloria and everyone she holds dear.

Meanwhile Helen must contend with the fall-out of a shocking family secret that has repercussions for all the Shipyard Girls, while holding out hope for her own happy ending...

Can a little festive magic help them win the day?

📖 My thoughts..

I can think of nothing better as we head into winter than settling down with the latest book in the Shipyard Girls series. The Shipyard Girls under the Mistletoe is now the eleventh book in the series and as each story gets more complicated so the fascinating lives of this intrepid group of women just gets more, and more, interesting. Even at Christmas time their lives are not without drama!

The story takes us back into the heart of this hard working community as they go about their daily lives and with trouble never far away from them we get back into the trials and tribulations which affect them deeply. As we discover, each of the Shipyard Girls have something going on in their lives but none more so than Dorothy, Gloria and Helen who are each facing personal heartache and it is the strength of friendship between these wonderful characters which gives the story its lively wit and warm understanding. 

There is no doubt that this series of books about the female ship working community in Sunderland has been a triumph. Beautifully written, and well researched, with wonderful characters who are now so familiar that it is an absolute joy to meet up with them in each successive story. Of course, as always, there are those characters you love to hate, and in this story, there are a couple of truly despicable characters who really will stop at nothing to get what they want. I only hope that they will get their comeuppance eventually.

There's a lovely festive glow to this story which makes it just perfect to read in the run up to Christmas and whilst it can be read as a stand alone I do think that this is one of those series which must be read from the beginning.

I am excited that there is to be another book in the series in 2022, but also really sad as this will be the last in the series.

About the Author

Nancy Revell is the pen name of writer and journalist Amanda Revell Walton, who has worked for the national press for the past 25 years, providing them with hard-hitting news stories and in-depth features. She has also worked for just about every woman’s magazine, writing amazing and inspirational true life stories.

Nancy Revell is spearheading a campaign to honour the real women of the Sunderland shipyards in her home town with a new public statue that will be displayed within the historic Sunderland Shipyards. Nancy has worked closely with the Sunderland City Council and the Sunderland Soroptimists, a worldwide volunteer service organization for women, and after putting out a call on her own social media channels, Nancy was approached by local artist Rosanne Robertson who has been commissioned to create the statue that will be unveiled later this year.

Sunderland boasted the largest shipyard in Europe during WWII, and produced a quarter of Britain's merchant shipping at the time. When the men went away to war, the courageous Shipyard Girls took up the back breaking work building ships for the British Navy. Due to its size, the Sunderland Shipyards were a key target of Hitler’s Blitzkreig, making the work not only backbreaking but incredibly dangerous. Historians have estimated that without the courageous women working in Sunderlands’ shipyards during the war, WWII could very likely have been lost due to lack of ability to transport troops, provisions and ammunition.

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