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There are currently 38 member reviews
for The Lost English Girl
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Ellie B. (Mount Airy, MD)
Resilient young woman
I enjoyed this compelling love story, focusing on a very young woman's reactions to a difficult situation presented to her at the age of 18. Set in London during World War Two, her responses to the variety of decisions she was required to make, as well as her interesting relationship with her own parents, contribute to a book that is difficult to put down. Add in the lack of support from her priest, the anxiety of separation, and her opportunity to prove that she was capable beyond the expectations of society, this book contains many avenues worthy of thought and discussion.
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Sherry R. (Denver, CO)
The Lost English Girl
I enjoyed the author's use of the two main characters to unfold the overall storyline. Alternating perspectives gave me a greater depth of feeling and empathy for the characters. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an overview of events that happened on the home front in England during WWII. I have read a lot of books based in the WWII era, but had not previously read any about this particular subject. Overall, a light read and a spurring to explore the subject in further depth.
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Barbara R. (Lander, WY)
The Lost English Child
The Lost English Child revolves around the evacuation of children from English cities during WWII. Having grown up in a repressive Catholic environment, Viv meets Joshua, a Jewish musician, and ends up pregnant. They marry out of necessity. Bribed by Viv's mother, a perfectly hateful woman, Joshua chooses to leave Viv and go to the US to follow his dream of a music career. Viv's entire life is about her love for her daughter, Maggie. As WWII begins, Viv works for the postal department. Joshua returns to enlist in the RAF, but Viv wants nothing to do with him. She is pressured by her mother and her priest to send Maggie away to the "safety" of the countryside. Instead of being safe, Maggie's foster home is bombed, and she is believed to have died.
What I enjoyed most about the book was the different points of view and the growth of the main characters. During the war years, Viv and Joshua mature quite a bit, Viv becoming more independent and Joshua more responsible.
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Connie L. (Bartlesville, OK)
Love and Loss in WWII England
I enjoyed this book for the story itself, as well as the quality of the writing. The characters are well-drawn and respond in a realistically human way to the conflicts and decisions they face.
The chapters flip back and forth in time between the two main characters
but are fairly easy to keep up with because they are clearly dated.
This is a story of a young man and woman who are confronted with unexpected challenges and the consequences of their decisions. This is a great choice for those who enjoy reading about what is was like to live through World War II London and who will want to root for a woman who is on her own.
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Sandy F. (Davis, CA)
Moving book that led me to understand another impact of WWII
I enjoyed this book very much - finding it difficult to do anything else but keep reading. I was unaware of young children being evacuated for their safety in England - the cost of that to the children and families involved was deftly drawn. I cared about the characters and their challenges. I ended feeling a great empathy and new understanding of that time. I received a free copy to review - thank you. I suggest more editing of the first 75 pages. This book becomes more alive after that. I assume the many misspellings in this draft will be corrected. I will recommend this book to my book club when published.
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Gail B
More than a War Story
Some years ago I met a woman -- a woman cold, self-protective, unreachable. How much of her personality was the result of her experience as an early childhood evacuee from London to the West Country?
The is the story of a girl, Viv Byrne, who wants to escape her home; a boy, Joshua Levinson, who dreams of a career of a jazz musician; two controlling women married to weak men; strict Catholics disapproving of intermarriage with Jews; and the damage done to children separated from their mothers in WWII England. Even though their new homes may have been pleasant, even luxurious compared to their city digs, often the children felt they had been thrown away, unwanted by their mothers. Viv's daughter Maggie was told her mother was dead; Viv was led to believe Maggie had been killed in the Blitz, even though she supposedly was safer in the country.
Some of the story has been told in other books, but Julia Kelly puts her own twist in The Lost English Girl.
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Lois B. (Craftsbury, VT)
Just okay
I'm an outlier here and I did not finish this book. It's more me than the book itself; I've read too many with this type of story line so I couldn't really connect with the characters.
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