The Mersey Angels (Dockside Saga #2) by Sheila Riley
Genre: Historical fiction, Wartime fiction, WW1, Sagas
Read: 8th August 2021
Published: 10th August 2021
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
1916 LIVERPOOL
Following the death of her father, Ruby Swift, and husband Archie finally move back into Ashland Hall.
As the Great War rages, fathers and sons take the King's Shilling and head off to fight the unknown enemy, not knowing what horrors lie ahead.
With Ned Kincaid in the Navy, Archie signs up to the volunteer constabulary and nurses Anna Cassidy and Ellie Harrington enlist to do their bit for King and Country.
Soon the true casualties of war are being brought home in droves, Ruby converts Ashland Hall into an auxiliary hospital for wounded servicemen.
It’s not long before the true cost of war is brought closer to home and Anna and Ellie enlist in the British Military Nursing Corp and soon find themselves in the battlefields of France in search of the truth.
But they soon discover more than they bargained for...
MY REVIEW:
Having previously enjoyed the author's Reckoner's Row series and then "The Mersey Mistress", which was the first in this new Docklands series set on the River Mersey, I was excited to meet up with Anna and Ruby once again. I thoroughly enjoyed their stories in the first book, their tragedies and heartaches along with their lives, loves and joys. The first book introduced us to a cast of characters we grew to love in Anna, Ruby, Archie, Ned, Izzy, Lottie, Sam and Ellie including the not so nice ones in Jerky, Giles and the priest Father Parsons. In THE MERSEY ANGELS we meet up with them once again as life takes a different turn in each of their lives.
When we left them at the end of "The Mersey Mistress", Ruby's father had passed away and she was finally able to marry her lifelong love Archie. Surprisingly her estranged father had left Ashland Hall and its estate to Ruby while his elder daughter May inherited Ashland Lodge within the grounds of the estate. Giles was so angered by the outcome that he packed himself and May back up and they returned to his parish in Scarborough, for he had been so sure the Hall was coming to May and therefore him and he'd already begun firing staff and making arrangements to move in.
Now Ruby was in the process of refitting Ashland Hall with electricity and making the necessary arrangements to open as an Auxillary Hospital for soldiers returning from the Front. With Anna and Ellie trained up as nurses, they handed in their notices at a nearby hospital and took up positions at Ashland to treat returning soldiers alongside Doctor Bea, a brash wiry haired Scotswoman who does not suffer fools.
Anna's story began in "The Mersey Mistress" also as a young girl who was made homeless when her house was burnt to the ground with her mother and twin brothers inside. Her ten year old brother Sam had been picking up a birthday gift for their mother he had saved for by carrying passengers' bags from the docks for them. But he had returned to find his home a pile of ashes and was taken to the vicarage where Father Parsons had taken him to the orphanage and nefariously arranged a passage for him to Canada and a new life, telling Sam that his sister Anna had died in hospital. But his new life was nothing like it was promised and Sam was beaten and abused before he managed to escape and was taken in by a kindly doctor. When war broken out in 1914, Sam signed himself up in the hope that he will one day return to Liverpool. He wrote a final letter home to Ruby and Archie asking them to put some flowers on Anna's grave for him, which is when they realised Sam believed her to be dead.
Now as a nurse in the Ashland Auxilliary Hospital, Anna works tirelessly alongside Ellie, Ruby's secret daughter who had been stolen from her and Archie ten days after her birth by Giles and her father. But Anna dreams of searching for her brother Sam and when young Nipper Woods is brought in as a casualty of war, he tells Anna that Sam says hi. Is he delirious? Anna isn't sure but one thing she is sure about...she wants to be posted overseas so she can find her brother. In his letter two years ago, he told Ruby and Archie that he was going off to war so where else would he be but at the Front? But for now, Anna knows she is needed here. Besides, when Ned comes home on leave she wants to be here to see him. The couple have grown closer over the years they have lived with Ruby and Archie, particularly when Ned rescued her from Jerky Woods' advances in a dark alley one night. The friendship then grew into something more and it is her fondest hope that he will return unscathed so that they may marry.
When Doctor Bea announces she is joining the Red Cross overseas, Anna and Ellie decide to go with her...much to Ruby and May's horror. But the two women are old enough and their services are needed at the Front to the many soldiers that come in by the hour. Both are excited by their new adventure but nothing prepares Ellie for the lack of facilities available, having been sheltered all her life. They meet and make fast friends with the effervescent Daisy Flynn who, as luck would have it, was shipped to Canada on the same passage as Anna's brother Sam.
But nothing could prepare Anna for the sheer joy she would feel when she finally comes face to face with her brother now all grown up at 17 and working as a medic. But just as quick as she found him comes the threat of her losing him all over again. And with not having heard from Ned in months, Anna fears she has lost the two men she loves the most in the world.
Back home in Liverpool, life goes on as normal for those left behind on the home front. And yet it has changed dramatically for so many in the years since war began. They said it would be over by Christmas...they just didn't define which Christmas!
As with the first book "The Mersey Mistress" , there are various stories running throughout involving each of the key players. There are still many secrets but they too come to the surface and bring everyone full circle. As this book begins in 1916, the war is well underway so a fair portion of it is devoted to the battlefield both in the trenches and the field hospitals. There are more losses along the way - some tragically cut short while others may not be so missed.
The reader will be taken through a range of emotions as we are left wondering who will return from the Front and who will not. THE MERSEY ANGELS is a delightful addition to the Dockside saga series and while there was an element of rounding off the stories by the books conclusion, I hope this isn't the end and that we hear more from Anna, Ruby and their extended families.
Thoroughly enjoyable, THE MERSEY ANGELS can be read as a standalone as there is enough backstory included to not leave the reader behind. But I do recommend reading "The Mersey Mistress" as it is a very different tale to this one that is emotional and tragic on a whole other scale. To better understand the characters in this one, I do recommend reading "The Mersey Mistress" first.
Enjoyable easy read, THE MERSEY ANGELS is perfect for fans of historical wartime fiction and sagas. I highly recommend.
I would like to thank #SheilaRiley, #Netgalley, #RachelsRandomResources and #BoldwoodBooks for an ARC of #TheMerseyAngels in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Married to her knight in rusty armour, Tony, she has three grown-up children, five adored grandchildren, a majestic German Shepherd called Max and an insatiably energetic Siberian Husky called Louis and an ancient cat called Missy.
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