What do readers think of The Lost English Girl by Julia Kelly? Write your own review.

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.

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.

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 will recommend this book to my book club when published.

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.

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.

The Lost English Girl was a detailed recap of Operation Pied Piper which followed the evacuation of children in WWII. The author focused on one family and we follow four year old Maggie to the countryside from Liverpool moving in with the Thompson family in 1939. I enjoyed the book as the author in addition to opening my eyes to the impact to families of children who were evacuated, added many challenges to Maggie's family life focusing on her parents Viv and Joshua. The story tied in the bombings in Liverpool, Viv's struggle to find a job, Joshua's experience in the RAF, and the overall dynamics of family during the war years. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy WWII history and learning more about the impact of the war on everyday British families in the 1940's.

A historical fiction which addresses sending children from cities like London and Liverpool to the country for safety to be away from German bombing during WWII. Liv becomes pregnant after only two dates with Joshua. Liv's family is Catholic, and Joshua's is Jewish. There are many characters to dislike in this book, but perhaps the worst is Liv's mother. Her family offers Joshua money so he can go to America to pursue his love of playing the Saxophone. Liv is left on her own to live in her parents' house. They have always considered her less than her sister Kate. Liv gets a job delivering posts after her daughter Maggie is sent to the country. She tries to visit Maggie, but the family harboring her aren't encouraging. They dress Maggie in fancy clothes, give her toys and horse lessons. The nicest people in the book are Joshua's parents who Liv meets when they are on her postal route. The story is good enough; however I was frustrated with so many characters just not being kind or smart. There is a mystery when Maggie is presumed dead and that kept me going to the end. I've read two other books by this author and will continue to read her books.
I received this book as are ARC from BookBrowse.

I did enjoy this book. I read it in a weekend, it was light and the subject matter was interesting. The reason I did not give 4 stars is because I didn't really feel there was a ton of depth to the characters. The story was engaging and I wanted to find out what happened but I felt it was a bit predictable. I don't want to give away the ending but I found it a little hard to believe.