The Staffymum's Book Nook: REVIEW: The War Girls of Goodwill House by Fenella J. Miller

Wednesday 12 January 2022

REVIEW: The War Girls of Goodwill House by Fenella J. Miller

The War Girls of Goodwill House (Goodwill House #1) by Fenella J. Miller

Genre: Historical fiction, Wartime fiction, Sagas, WW2, General fiction

Read: 7th January 2022

Goodreads

Amazon

Published: 12th January 2022

★★★★★ 5 stars

DESCRIPTION:

Lady Joanna Harcourt and her daughter Sarah discover their life of luxury at Goodwill House is over. Because with Lord Harcourt away fighting, the Harcourt girls are facing financial ruin.

Lady Joanna is terrified of losing their home, but for Sarah, this means her dreams of becoming a doctor are over. Headstrong Sarah isn’t one to quit! War or not, she’s determined to find a way to save her home and follow her dreams– whatever it takes!

Dashing RAF officer Angus Trent might just save the day. The new RAF base at Marston will soon be full of young women all hoping to serve their country, and Goodwill House will make the perfect home for them. But can Sarah convince Lady Joanna to agree to her plan?

Angus has never met a woman quite like Sarah – courageous, brave, unwavering. She has a huge task ahead of her, but if anyone can do it, his war girl can.

MY REVIEW:

What could be better than a new wartime saga series set against the backdrop of the onset of WW2? One that has a touch of "Downton Abbey" about it with the Lady of the manor and her daughter on such good terms with their employees they treat them as friends rather than servants. It is such a breath of fresh air and a delight to read and I am thrilled that this is just the beginning of the series.

Lady Joanna Harcourt and her daughter Sarah are left to run the estate with less than a handful of staff and very little means to do so after Lord Harcourt spared no time in rejoining the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and going off to France to fight the Germans in a war they believed would be over by Christmas. By January 1940, in the grip of a terribly harsh winter, there was no sign of the war coming to an end and Joanna and Sarah found that the funds that Lord Harcourt had left them with were fast running out as he had expected to be home in the autumn.

Despite having an extensive estate with an enormous house, the Harcourts are facing financial ruin if they don't do something fast. Goodwill House is a mammoth house that has been in the Harcourt family for generations, with both Georgian and Victorian extensions added onto the original house respectively, making it even bigger. With a harshly cold winter and only the two of them in residence, it seems ridiculous to run such a monstrosity. And to heat it, even worse. With just a housekeeper/cook who doesn't live in and a smattering of outdoor staff with no way to continue paying them, Lady Joanne and Sarah are therefore faced with a conundrum. And so they begin to take in paying boarders to help with the running costs. The first of their guests are six WAAFs seconded to the local RAF base which have no appropriate accommodation for them so they are billeted at Goodwill House. As they are WAAFs, the RAF supply coal for heating and remuneration for food and keep.

Lady Joanna knows that her husband Lord Harcourt would be apoplectic at the thought of the family lowering their standards to take in paying guests. But if he hadn't such a tight reign on the finances and having left no further instructions or means to make ends meet, then they wouldn't be taking in guests or selling his prized horses. But needs must.

Sarah Harcourt is just seventeen but is older than her years when she steps up to take the reigns and help her mother run Goodwill House in her father's absence. Social etiquette of the upper class would preferably see her married off to a suitable husband rather than making up rooms for paying guests, doing servants' menial tasks and running around the countryside on horseback or a Hillman with a rather dashing Flight Lieutenant. What Sarah really wants to do is become a doctor, as has been her dream for so long, but in the absence of funds to pay for her tuition at Oxford she has resigned herself to helping her mother run Goodwill House until she turns 18 in September and can then become a student nurse. But still she dreams of becoming a doctor.

When RAF Flight Lieutenant Angus Trent first sets eyes on Sarah, his mistakes her for a maid as no lady of the house would answer a door. But as soon as he realises his faux pas he is certainly not endeared to this somewhat snobbish and headstrong young woman. The feeling, as it happens, is mutual. For Sarah finds him to be overconfident and arrogant. But then Sarah also has experience with men at all.

As luck would have it, given that Goodwill House is be the billet for the WAAFs soon to arrive, Angus is the point of contact between the Harcourts and the RAF much to his irritation. As circumstances places them both in regular contact, social etiquette has Sarah being as polite to Angus as necessitates but soon the pair will find themselves thrown together in ways they could not have foreseen.

Meanwhile, Lady Joanna has had correspondence from her husband who strictly forbids Sarah to lower herself to that of a nurse and instructs Sarah to remain at home until he can return and find her a suitable husband. But Sarah, it seems, has other ideas. The freedom that has come from her father being in France has given both her and Lady Joanna a new lease of life as both women step out from under two decades of control...and they like it. War has changed the world and nothing is as it used to be as the women of Goodwill House give the house a new lease of life that hasn't seen laughter or happiness for decades.

I'm so glad I came in at the beginning of this series as I seem to stumble across many a couple of books in. I love wartime sagas like this one highlighting the struggles of daily life, even for the upper class who find themselves facing financial ruin. And while they aren't quite as comfortable as those in "Downton Abbey", society of the past has deemed a divide between the classes which now come together in the face of war as the world they know begins to change...and nothing is guaranteed anymore. THE WAR GIRLS OF GOODWILL HOUSE differs in that respect as most wartime sagas focus on the working class. It was a refreshing change to see it from the perspective of the upper class and how they bring change to their own lives in the face of war.

THE WAR GIRLS OF GOODWILL HOUSE is a delightful read that is enjoyable from start to finish. I was absorbed from the beginning that when I flipped the last page I was left with wanting more. I grew to love many of the characters, whilst some not so much. Lady Joanna, Sarah, Angus, Betty, Liza and Joe are all wonderful characters. But the Dowager and Lord Harcourt, who does not essentially appear except through thought and letter, are equally distasteful as well as Mrs Thomas who thankfully only fleetingly appears.

I cannot wait to see how this series develops especially as the Blitz has yet to begin and Angus being a fighter pilot whose desire is to run a squadron of Spitfires just as much as Sarah longs to become a doctor. Until we meet again...

Historical fiction and wartime saga fans will love THE WAR GIRLS OF GOODWILL HOUSE and I thoroughly recommend it.

I would like to thank #FenellaJMiller, #Netgalley and #BoldwoodBooks for an ARC of #TheWarGirlsOfGoodwillHouse in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Fenella Jane Miller was born in the Isle of Man and is the bestselling writer of eighteen historical sagas. She also has apassion for Regency romantic adventures and has published over fifty to greatacclaim. Her father was a Yorkshireman and her mother the daughter of a Rajah. She has worked as a nanny, cleaner, field worker,hotelier,chef, secondary and primary teacher and is now a full time writer.