Blog Tour ~ Hope on the Waterways by Milly Adams

📖 Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on the Hope on the Waterways Blog Tour 📖

Arrow
20 September 2018

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

What's it all about...

January 1945, West London

Sylvia Simpson is flourishing in her role aboard the Marigold and has quickly established herself as an invaluable member of the crew. But as the V-I and V-2 rockets draw closer, someone from her past is about to burst into their lives. Now Sylvia must choose between keeping the promises she has made, and remaining loyal to the people she loves the most. 

Polly and Verity are still waiting for their sweethearts’ safe return, and soon find they have their own battles to fight on the home front. It will take all their resolve to keep their heads above water, but as long as they stick together there will always be hope.

Here's what I thought about it...

Hope on the Waterways sees a welcome return to the feisty group of young women who work the British canal system during the Second World War. It's now 1945 and Polly, Verity, Sylvia and their beloved, Dog, put their lives on the line as they attempt to move goods along the Grand Union Canal. With the added danger of V-1 and V-2 rockets exploding all around them, there is no doubt that there is never a moment when they at not at risk.

Filled with the usual blend of excitement and camaraderie, the boating community plays a very strong role in the story and the love and affection which is shown to the girls as they face their toughest challenge is written so beautifully that there were moments when I had a little tear in my eye. As always, the characters really make the story come alive, not just in the way they all interact and pull together, but also in the emotional attachment of the girls to each other. The way they support each other through all their individual troubles is portrayed realistically with humour and a great deal of affection.

I've followed this story from the beginning, which started in 1943, when the three girls were first introduced to each other, and it's been really lovely to have been on an exciting journey with them through the latter years of the war. There's a certain amount of tying up of loose ends, as this book sees the conclusion to the trilogy, it's been interesting to see how the author brings everything to a lovely, natural ending.

In The Waterway Girls series the author has created a really lovely set of stories which are all perfectly possible to read as standalone and yet, like all trilogies they really should, for greater enjoyment, be read from the very start with book one.

  

About the Author

Milly Adams lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband, dog and cat. Her children live nearby. Her grandchildren are fun, and lead her astray. She insists that it is that way round.

Website

Twitter @Milly_Author #HopeOnTheWaterways

@arrowpublishing

Blog Tour ~ The Waterway Girls by Milly Adams

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting today's stop on The Waterway Girls Blog Tour

Arrow
7 September 2017

October 1943, West London

Nineteen-year-old Polly Holmes is leaving poor bombed London behind to join the war effort on Britain’s canals.

Stepping aboard the Marigold amid pouring rain, there’s lots for Polly to get to grips with. Not least her fellow crew: strong and impetuous Verity, whose bark is worse than her bite, and seasoned skipper Bet.

With her sweetheart away fighting in the RAF and her beloved brother killed in action, there’s plenty of heartache to be healed on the waterway. And as Polly rolls up her sleeves and gets stuck into life on board the narrow boat – making the gruelling journey London up to Birmingham – she will soon discover that a world of new beginnings awaits amid the anguish of the war.

My thoughts

When nineteen year old Polly Holmes leaves her home in bombed out London and joins a female crew of canal boat operatives in October 1943, she is little prepared for the changes that this decision will bring to her life. At first, due to an uncomfortable feud with Verity, a fellow crew member, Polly struggles to become accustomed to life on the canal. But gradually, under the watchful eye of skipper, Bet, the young crew members start to work together as a team and the arduous journey of taking the narrow boat from London to Birmingham is filled with excitement and adventure.

In The Waterway Girls the author brings together a group of feisty young women and describes vividly the hardships and trepidation that accompanied them on their canal journey. Life was tough, not just for the women who were recruited by the Ministry of Transport’s waterways training scheme, but also for the established canal folk who had, for so long, made the canal systems their home. Tensions run high and for Polly, Bet and Verity life on the canal is never without its complications.

Before reading this novel, I was unaware of the WW2 initiative of training women to crew canal boats in order to keep freight and other cargo on the move during the worst of the war years. Rather as the Land Girls kept the agricultural side of things going, so the Waterway Girls ensured that cargo and merchandise travelled safely from depot to destination, often in hazardous conditions.

I think that the author captures time and place really well and combines the descriptions of eventful life on the canals with the personal stories of the crew members. There is heartache a plenty ahead of them, but there is also a sense of hopefulness, as they each become accustomed to a new way of life.

The Waterway Girls is the start of a new saga series by this author and I am sure it will appeal to her many fans.

More about the author can be found on her website by clicking here

Milly Adams lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband, dog and cat. Her children live nearby. Her grandchildren are fun, and lead her astray. She insists that it is that way round.

Milly Adams is also the author of Above Us The Sky and Sisters At War.

Follow the tour on Twitter #TheWaterwayGirls 

@arrowpublishing

Do visit the other blog tour stops

My thanks to Becky at Penguin Random House for the invitation to be part of this blog tour and also for my review copy of The Waterway Girls.

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