Wedding Bells on Victory Street (The Bryant Sisters #2) by Pam Howes
Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas, WW2
Read: 5th December 2020
Published: 11th December 2020
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
From Amazon bestseller Pam Howes comes a heartbreaking World War Two novel about a young woman trying to make the best of history’s darkest hour. Is a happy ever after impossible?
Liverpool, 1943. For Bella Rogers, life is looking up. She loves performing with The Bryant Sisters, the singing trio who have become the country’s sweethearts, putting a smile on the faces of the brave boys fighting the Nazis. But then tragedy strikes when a telegram arrives: Bella’s beloved father has been killed in France.
Unlike her poor Mam, Bella has someone to share her grief with. Her childhood love Bobby is home from the war. He lost a leg but she counts her blessings every day that he’s alive when so many young men haven’t made it back. Bella longs to give her heart to Bobby but she is hiding a secret that may change their lives forever. Will he still love her if she reveals the truth?
But when bombs screech down on Victory Street in the middle of the night, blowing houses apart, Bella may lose both the home she loves and the family who mean everything to her. With so much loss around her, will Bella be brave enough to snatch her chance of happiness? And when the war is finally over, will wedding bells ring out on Victory Street again?
An utterly unputdownable, heart-wrenching historical novel that will have you completely hooked from page one. You’ll lose yourself in this gorgeous wartime story of love, loss and family secrets. Perfect for fans of Wives of War, Nadine Dorries and Nancy Revell.
MY REVIEW:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Pam Howes' heartwarming tale WEDDNG BELLS ON VICTORY STREET.
My introduction to Pam Howes came with the fourth installment of the Lark Lane series and I absolutely fell in love with her easy style of writing and story-telling. Then she began the Bryant Sisters series with "The Girls of Victory Street" last July which was soon followed by this latest outing for the girls in WEDDING BELLS ON VICTORY STREET. And oh, how I just love this book! It has it all...love, loss, happiness, tragedy, heartache and basically, heart.
When we left "The Girls of Victory Street" last, Liverpool was under a dark cloud in the midst of WW2 and the Bryant Sisters - Bella, Edie and Fran - were quickly making a name for themselves on the variety circuit. It is now 1943 and Bella Rogers finds herself, alongside her friends Edie and Fran, in demand for their heartwarming performances touring up and down the UK entertaining the troops for ENSA. Bella loves her life with ENSA but it comes at something of a cost.
On Christmas Eve the year before, she gave birth to a little boy named Levi and has left him in the care of her mother while she toured...and Bella misses her little boy deeply, aware of how much she is missing out on while she is away. Unfortunately, this also means that Levi sees her mother as his mother and Bella is but a passing stranger to him. Only a handful of people know the truth surrounding Levi's parentage, and for now, it is best kept that way.
Romance was beginning to blossom for Bella and her childhood sweetheart Bobby Harrison at the end of the last book, and after being trapped into a rather disastrous but short lived marriage to the conniving Alicia, the couple are finally looking forward to a future together...just as soon as his divorce comes through. After being injured when his plane crashed killing his father, Bobby spent many months in hospital recuperating with the amputation of his leg. Bella is thrilled to have Bobby home and no longer in danger in the air and, despite his injuries, cannot wait to begin her life with him. Only a secret could stand in the way of their happiness...and Bella knows she must tell him if there is to be any chance of a future together. The couple love each other deeply but still Bella worries how Bobby will take the news that she has a son. And more to the point, how Bobby's mother Fenella will take the news.
The danger in Liverpool saw Bella's mother Mary join her younger sister Molly in Conwy in North Wales, as well as taking Levi out of harm's way and to the peaceful quiet of the farm on which they now find themselves. That is, until a telegram bringing devastating news for Mary arrives, prompting their return to Liverpool and the memories she has there.
A face from Fenella Harrison's past comes to visit bringing with him an air of trouble and uncertainty though she feels she has little choice in the matter. Despite being holed up in an attic room, her visitor cannot resist the urge to eavesdrop on conversations every now and then, seeking tidbits from which he can then benefit. But when Molly offers her services to Fenella as a maid after the death of her long-time housekeeper, danger is close at hand as Freddie sets his lecherous sights on the young girl.
With Edie and Fran's lads away fighting Hitler and his cronies and Bella's secret threatening to destroy her hopes of a future with Bobby, will the three women get their dream weddings once this war is over?
I cannot say how much I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Even more so than the first which I found frustrating many times at the countless events keeping Bella and Bobby apart. But this one was so heart-warming it was like coming home. While Bella and Bobby's relationship is continually put to the test, their love for each other is far stronger than either of them imagined. I loved reading about them. But for me the best part was the transformation of Bobby's snooty mother who was a thorn in Bella's side in the first book. I actually fell in love with the Fenella of this book and then in a heart-warming twist she opens her heart and her home to a family in need, which was completely at odds with the old snobbish Fenella.
Their story may have begun in "The Girls of Victory Street" but in WEDDING BELLS ON VICTORY STREET it is strengthened and enriched by the love and bond the two families, and their friends, develop in the face of tragedy.
I thoroughly enjoyed WEDDING BELLS ON VICTORY STREET and, while it is only second in the series, I hope their stories don't end where the war has as I would love to see where life takes the Bryant Sisters and their extended families in the future. Utterly unputdownable that will have you hooked from the first page.
If you loved the Lark Lane series, Nadine Dorries' Lovely Lane and Nancy Revell's Shipyard Girls, you will LOVE the Bryant Sisters.
I would like to thank #PamHowes, #NetGalley, #Bookouture for an ARC of #WeddingBellsOnVictoryStreet in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Pam Howes is an ex Interior Designer who loves creating stories, but only started writing seriously about twelve years ago. The idea for her first novel, set in the sixties, came from her time as a teenager, working in a local record store and hanging round with the musicians who frequented the business.
That first novel evolved into a series set in the fictional town of Pickford, based on her home town of Stockport. Three Steps to Heaven; 'Til I Kissed You; Always On My Mind; Not Fade Away, and That'll Be The Day, follow the lives and loves through the decades of fictional Rock'n'Roll band The Raiders.
Pam signed a second contract with the award winning publisher Bookouture with the first novel in her Lark Lane series, The Factory Girls of Lark Lane, published in July 2018. Her first series for Bookouture - The Mersey Trilogy featuring The Liverpool Girls, The Forgotten Family of Liverpool and The Lost Daughter of Liverpool - is also available in E book, paperback and as audio books.
Pam is a big fan of sixties music and it's this love and the support and encouragement of her musician partner that compelled her to write the series. Pam has three adult daughters and seven grandchildren. She lives in Cheshire and as well as writing novels, writes short stories, which have appeared in charity anthologies and online e-zines, and poems, many of which are published.
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