The Mother's Day Club (Mother's Day Club #1) by Rosie Hendry
Genre: Historical fiction, Saga, WW2
Read: 17th February 2021
Published: 18th February 2021
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Meet the women on the home front . . .
1939. When the residents of Great Plumstead offer to open up their homes to evacuees from London, they’re preparing to care for children. So when a train carrying expectant mothers pulls into the station, the town must come together to accommodate their unexpected new arrivals . . .
Sisters Prue and Thea welcome the mothers with open arms, while others fear their peaceful community will be disrupted. But all pregnant Marianne seeks is a fresh start for herself and her unborn child. Though she knows that is only possible as long as her new neighbours don’t discover the truth about her situation.
The women of Great Plumstead, old and new, are fighting their own battles on the home front. Can the community come together in a time of need to do their bit for the war effort?
MY REVIEW:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BlogTour for Rosie Hendry's heartwarming new saga THE MOTHER'S DAY CLUB.
I love historical fiction particularly sagas set around this era and although Rosie Hendry is a new-to-me author I knew I would thoroughly enjoy THE MOTHER'S DAY CLUB. And I did. I really didn't want it to end and found myself completely immersed within Marianne's story from the beginning.
September 1939, London: With the threat of war looming, women and children are being evacuated to the country in an effort to keep them safe. This time it's the expectant mothers and their infants as they find themselves on a train away from the familiar and into the unknown. One their way to the station, the air raid siren sounds but instead of taking shelter the women are urged to continue by the WVS evacuation officers. It is the 3rd September 1939, the day that changed the course of history for Britain and her people when war was declared on Germany.
Expectant mother Marianne Archer is one of many women from the East End being evacuated but unlike the others, she has a secret. One which she hopes to maintain as she welcomes this relocation to the country as something of a new start for her and her unborn child. Having fallen in love with someone above her class, Marianne found herself pregnant and when her employer discovered her condition promptly sacked her from her prominent position. Marianne had grown up as an illegitimate child herself and she does not want that for her child so fabricates a marriage to a merchant seaman in the Navy. She meets an effervescent woman with auburn hair who introduces herself as Sally Parker and chatters away happily to her throughout their journey.
Great Plumstead, Norfolk: At Rookery House, Thea Thornton prepares one of her spare rooms for an evacuee that was expected later that day. As a child she fell in love with the house she now owns and vowed one day to buy it. When the Great War came in 1914, Thea's betrothed went off to fight while she joined the war effort by driving ambulances at the front line. Sadly the war claimed her fiance, but Thea returned home and set up a business in London where she lived for a number of years before her sister informed her that Rookery House was up for sale. Without another, Thea sold up her business and bought the house she had long been in love with and now lives there with her brother Reuben, who lives in a converted railway carriage on her property, and dear friend Hettie, a retired cook from "the big house".
Prue Wilson, Thea's sister and WI vice-president, thrives on activity. As billeting officer for the community, she has organised billets for each of the evacuees who will meet their hosts at the village hall after their journey from London. Her husband Victor is a prominent businessman and local councillor (and a bully to boot) and while he loathed to take in anyone, Prue reminded him of his duty and standing in the community, and so he reluctantly acquiesced. Now she is standing on the station platform awaiting the arrival of the evacuees.
Upon arrival at Great Plumstead, the expectant mothers and those with young children are met with a flurry of confusion as Prue scurries from WVS officers to the station office. It seems there has been a mix-up. The residents of Great Plumstead are expecting children and their teachers...not expectant mothers and their children. But a phone to HQ and the orders are that the women will remain so they are to make the best of it. But it took a lot of persuading with some people to host children - how will they react to having an expectant mother instead? No woman will welcome sharing their kitchen with another. Not only that, when Prue's husband discovers their billet is to be an expectant mother rather than a teacher he is wild with rage.
Making the best of a bad situation, Prue takes in Sally while Thea immediately befriended Marianne. Thea soon discovers that Marianne is no stranger to the countryside, having grown up in Kent. When her grandmother died, Marianne had moved to London to become a seamstress and trained under a prominent employer in the West End making ball gowns, wedding gowns and clothing for affluent customers. Now a fully qualified seamstress, Marianne soon finds herself making gowns, dresses, suits and clothing for a number of Great Plumstead's residents...including the affluent ones.
As the war beckons, young men are being called up to fight for King and country but before he gets the call, Prue's son Jack signs up for the Army, making his pompous father preen himself with pride. Prue is both worried and fearful for her son as he sets off for training. When the call-up comes a month later, her younger son Edwin receives his papers to register with one of the forces. But Edwin doesn't want to fight. Not because he's a coward but because it goes against all that he believes in - that thou shalt not kill. When he registers as a conscientious objector, his father is furious and tells him he is no longer welcome under his roof. Prue is heartbroken, having felt like she has lost both her sons. With Jack away about to be sent to the front line and Edwin now gone, her house no longer feels like home. But although Edwin has registered as a CO, his status as one is not yet official. He must first go before a tribunal who will then decide, based on letters, references and a barrage of questions that they will put to him, whether his claim will be accepted. What will he do if it's not? And he is forced to fight? What will Prue do?
Meanwhile, after a conversation with one of the expectant mums on a blackberry picking expedition, Thea approaches Prue with an idea for the women to occupy them during the day in Great Plumstead. These women have come from the city where life is constantly busy and there is always something to do and somewhere to go. But in the country, life is vastly different to what they know. So together the sisters come up with a mothers "day club" where the women and their children can gather to chat, where they can learn new skills like sewing or knitting and even make things for the soldiers on the front line. Not only that, it's a place where they feel welcome as many of them don't feel that with their hosts. The only problem is, Prue must get permission from Victor who is the local Councillor. With his say-so, all will be well...but will he give it?
As Marianne continues to keep her secret to herself, she feels bad about lying to Thea and Hettie who have done nothing but made her feel welcome. But she knows that if word gets out she will be shunned, will lose the business she has built and her child will then have the stigma of being illegitimate. But when someone discovers her secret and comes calling with an offer and a threat of blackmail, what will Marianne do? Will she risk everything she has built up and her child's future or will she give in?
There is so much going on in this wonderful story that it is easy to get caught up in the lives of Marianne, Thea, Sally, Prue and everyone else. You wonder will there ever be a happy ending for Marianne whose secret risks coming out? What will happen for Prue and her loveless marriage to a pompous bully? Will Edwin's registration be accepted or will he be forced to fight? So much happens and yet there is so much more to come!
THE MOTHER'S DAY CLUB captured the feeling of wartime Britain and those caught in the crossfire at home, as they prepare for rationing by the "Dig for Victory" campaign to encourage growing your own produce where possible to help the nation as well as keeping themselves fed. It was a refreshing aspect to take by focusing on the evacuation of expectant mothers rather then the children we usually hear about. It made for intriguing reading with some emotional moments as well as some laugh out loud ones too.
A beautiful uplifting story told in the third person narrative from the perspectives of both hostesses and evacuees, namely Thea, Prue and Marianne. The bonds formed in this installment serve as a preface to the rest of the story to come. I really didn't want it to end and the only negative thing about thing was that I had to finish it! I look forward to the next installment "The Mother's Day Victory".
I thoroughly enjoyed THE MOTHER'S DAY CLUB and recommend it to fans of wartime sagas, Lynn Johnson, Elaine Roberts, Pam Howes, Lizzie Lane and Ellie Dean.
I would like to thank #RosieHendry, #RachelsRandomResources, #Netgalley and #SphereBooks for an ARC of #TheMothersDayClub in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Listening to her father's tales of life during the Second World War sparked Rosie's interest in this period and she's especially intrigued by how women's lives changed during the war years. She loves researching further, searching out gems of real life events which inspire her writing.
When she's not working, Rosie enjoys walking along the beach, reading and is grateful for the fact that her husband is a much better cook than her.
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