The Bobby Girls' Secrets (The Bobby Girls #2) by Johanna Bell
Genre: Historical fiction, WW1, Sagas
Read: 27th October 2020
Published: 14th May 2020
★★★ 3 stars
DESCRIPTION:
As the Great War rages on, will the truth come out?
1915. Best friends Irene, Maggie and Annie are proud members of the newly renamed Women's Police Service. While Britain's men are away fighting in France, the girls are doing their bit by keeping the peace at home in London's East End.
But out of the blue, Irene is given the opportunity to be stationed near an army barracks in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Having recently experienced some heartbreak and keen for the adventure, she decides to go. What could possibly go wrong?
It turns out, plenty. One of the other WPS girls takes an immediate dislike to her and makes her life a misery. On top of that, the man she thinks could be the answer to all her problems isn't all he seems. And when she finds a psychologically disturbed deserter in hiding, she has a very difficult decision to make . . .
Can Irene overcome all these obstacles without Maggie and Annie by her side, and find true happiness at last?
MY REVIEW:
Having thoroughly enjoyed "The Bobby Girls", the first in this exciting new series, I was excited to read the second book THE BOBBY GIRLS' SECRETS by Johanna Bell. The series features three women who volunteered for WPS (Women Police Service) at the beginning of the Great War to aid the actual police in keeping an eye on women and dealing with them appropriately so they didn't have to. They were not looked upon favourably by their male counterparts, who thought they would only be adding to their work should they require their assistance at any time. They had no powers of arrest and they were unpaid for their service. Many women had to work in factories to subsidise their lives financially whilst working their shifts with the WPS.
As the first book focused on Maggie and her story, this second one was followed Irene, who was not my favourite out of the three girls in the first place. But I was eager to find out more about her and what her backstory was.
1915: The war is still raging while best friends Maggie, Irene and Annie still patrol their beat in Bethnal Green in London's East End. But when Irene's relationship with PC Frank Bird takes an unexpected turn, leaving her shattered and broken hearted, Irene decides she cannot stay to watch the outcome. Upon hearing about the WPS and their plights with the local women and the recent influx of soldiers in Grantham in Lincolnshire, Irene decides to apply for a position there knowing that she could really do some good for the women of Grantham, given her own history. Added to that, the Grantham position is a paid one so there was no need to subsidise her finances with factory work. Maggie and Annie are saddened that she is leaving them but promises to return just as soon her work is done.
When Irene arrives in Grantham she is greeted by Helen, a fellow WPS colleague, who is a lot older than she and the other girls...but a far wiser and experienced one. Irene is excited to meet her other colleagues, Ruby and Mary, but is shocked to find that Mary takes an instant dislike to her. Ruby, on the other hand, is quiet and seems happy to let Mary bully the women instead of stepping in, which is at odds with Irene who would rather help the women rather than have them arrested.
Then on the beat with Ruby one day Irene meets charismatic Charles Murphy, one of the richest men in Grantham running his own very successful business. Irene cannot believe someone of his stature would even look twice at someone like her, poor and penniless with only a couple of tatty dresses to her name. Aware of infatuation, Helen warns Irene about Charles without going into detail but Irene believes Helen just doesn't understand or know him like she does. But even when Charles makes a cruel remark and then rebounds with a compliment, Irene does not heed the red flags...or Helen's warning. But comment after comment, his obvious distaste at her tatty clothing, his views of the WPS, even when he steps in and takes over when she has a situation under control...she does not heed the warning signs.
By this time I was ready to toss the book as I was hoarse from screaming at Irene to wake up to herself. I was increasingly frustrated that she could be so stupidly naive and be taken in by someone and let him alienate her from her colleagues and even her best friends. Soon, all Irene had was Charles...which is exactly the way he wanted it. And by the time she did see him for who he really was, it was too late. She was trapped. Silly silly girl.
I found Irene's role in the WPS and helping the women, which is why she took the Grantham position in the first place, played a backseat to the blossoming romance between her and Charles. I was more interested in her job with WPS, her patrols, her friendships with her colleagues and those with her best friends Maggie and Annie back in London...than some fly by night romance with a controlling man like Charles. I felt this aspect spoilt the story and I found I didn't enjoy it near so much as the previous one because of it. It overtook every aspect of Irene's life and her story...and left me wondering if we could see through him, how could she not?
There were other aspects of the story that floated around in the background - such as the challenges they faced with the local women and the soldiers at the nearby army camp, prostitution and imposed curfews to help deal with the problem. There is also the attitudes to women police as opposed to the "real" police, being men. But there are also issues surrounding the soldiers who have been deemed "deserters" by fleeing their regiment and therefore their duty to serve their country and the consequences of war on both men and women alike. These are things that are of interest to the story along with the heartache that comes with that era.
Despite much of the story frustrating me endlessly, it does improve towards the end giving readers a hopeful conclusion. As Irene was not my favourite character in the first book anyway, her personality is probably one that just irritated me in this book. Needless to say, THE BOBBY GIRLS' SECRETS did have a relaxed easy pace to enjoy the story as it flowed, despite some of it frustrating me.
It was interesting to read the author's notes at the end, as well as the photos included, which gave a sense of reality to the subplot within THE BOBBY GIRLS' SECRETS.
I look forward to the next book in the series "Christmas with The Bobby Girls" and what I am guessing will then be Annie's story. She has a fiance fighting away so no doubt that aspect will feature somewhere there.
I would like to thank #JohannaBell, #NetGalley and #HodderAndStoughton for an ARC of #TheBobbyGirlsSecrets in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Johanna Bell cut her teeth on local newspapers in Essec, eventually branching into magazine journalism with stints as a features writer and then commissioning editor at 'Full House' magazine. She now has more than sixteen years' experience in print media. Her freelance life has seen her working on juicy real-life stories for the women's weekly magazine market, as well as hard-hitting news stories for national newspapers and prepping her case studies for TV interviews.
Her first book "The Bobby Girls" was published by Hodder in 2019 followed by its sequel "The Bobby Girls' Secrets" in May 2020. The third in the series "Christmas with The Bobby Girls" will be published in November 2020.
When she's not writing, Johanna can be found walking her dog with her husband or playing peek-a-boo with her daughter.
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