A Wartime Welcome at Rookery House (Rookery House #1) by Rosie Hendry
Genre: Wartime fiction, Sagas, WW2
Read: 23rd August 2022
Amazon
Published: 7th June 2022
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Follow the much-loved characters from the award winning MOTHER’S DAY CLUB in abrand-new World War Two saga series.
October 1940
When VAD nurse Evie narrowly avoids being killed in an air raidduring the Blitz, it propels her to make a life-changing decision to break free of her troubled and unhappy life. She escapes to the Norfolk countryside to start afresh, with a job at the newly opened Great Plumstead Hall hospital, and a wonderful new home at Rookery House.
The community of Great Plumstead welcomes more evacuees to the village – mothers and children bombed out of their London homes. Sisters Prue and Thea, along with members of The Mother’s Day Club, help the new arrivals settle in, while continuing their work for the war effort by holding knitting bees, socials and doing WVS work.
Evie is happy in her new life – she loves living at Rookery House and enjoys her job at the hospital, despite working for the difficult Matron Reed. But when a patient arrives who knew her in her former life, Evie’s new-found freedom and happiness is in danger. Will the secrets of Evie’s past be revealed, and the problems from her old life return to trouble her once more?
MY THOUGHTS:
I absolutely loved the author's Mother's Day Club series and so I was thrilled to discover that A WARTIME WELCOME AT ROOKERY HOUSE was taking us back to Great Plumstead and to all the residents we have come to know and love there. Despite this book being the first in a whole new series, it was like coming home to be back in Norfolk once again at Rookery House. In fact, it seemed like this series just picked up where the other one left off. I've not read her East End Angels series but I believe some of the characters feature briefly in this one on a visit to London. I love how authors combine their series so the characters flow from one to the other.
I thoroughly enjoyed A WARTIME WELCOME AT ROOKERY HOUSE, having visited Rookery House in previous books and meeting the occupants there, I knew the welcome Evie would receive upon her arrival. It's one of the things I love about sagas - they are set during the war without being about the war, but more about the families and loved ones left behind to keep the home fires burning. It's a glimpse into what life was like for the women and children throughout what would have been a terrifying time.
London 1940: Genevieve Hamilton-Jones is a VAD nurse at a busy military hospital in London. Every day when she completes her shift, she changes out of her uniform and into civvies, carrying it home in a suitcase...an act which confounds those upon learning of her occupation. But Evie (the name she goes by at the hospital) has her reasons. One one such afternoon she is on her way home seated next to a chatty young woman on the bus who is excited about joining up to the WAAFs the following day in the hope that she had her fiance, who is in the RAF, may be stationed together sometime. When the air raid siren sounds, all the passengers flee the bus to seeks shelter in the underground. But Evie left her suitcase on the bus and went back to fit. An act which saved her life but claimed that of another in a direct hit, leaving nothing but a handbag. Suddenly, an idea comes to her. This is her chance to disappear and start afresh...leaving the Blitz and her past behind.
Norfolk 1940: A week later, Evie steps off the train at Great Plumstead and is greeted by the smiling face of Marianne and her baby Emily who takes her to Rookery House where she is billeted. The following day she begins work at the Great Plumstead Hall Hospital, the stately home now a military convalescing hospital, under the watchful eye of Matron Reed. She befriends Hazel on her first day and the two become firm friends. But no matter how comfortable Evie feels in her new home, she cannot let her guard down for a minute lest others uncover her past and who she really is.
Life continues as it always has in Great Plumstead with another bout of mother and children evacuees fleeing the bomb-Blitzed London, with the women shocked to discover that their new evacuees arrive with only the clothes on their backs, having lost everything in the bombings. Prue takes up the cause for a clothing drive to collect much-needed clothing, toys, books and shoes for both mothers and children. Thea continues to work the land at Rookery House with the help of Alice, Marianne and Reuben with Hettie still at the helm in the kitchen.
It isn't long before Thea suspects that there is more to Evie than she has shared with them yet knowing that she will when she feels comfortable enough to do so. But still she sees a shadow of a sadness on her face and often wonders what secrets she may be keeping that haunt her so much.
Evie is thoroughly enjoying her work at the hospital despite the week long introduction to the job in the sluice room scrubbing out bedpans and cleaning cupboards. It isn't long before she proves her worth and Matron enlists her help with the patients and bandaging their wounds. Everything is going well in her new life until a new patient arrives with injuries to his eyes that could potentially blind him for life. She recognises him. And Evie knows without a doubt that he will recognise her once his bandages come off should his sight be restored. Of course she hopes his sight is restored but she also hopes he doesn't recognise her but she knows that he will. Suddenly, all her carefully laid plans may be for nothing and Evie doesn't know what to do.
Will he recognise her? What harm could he do her? What is her secret? And from what past is she running?
A WARTIME WELCOME AT ROOKERY HOUSE is a delightful introduction to a new series whilst being a welcome continuation of the previous one in that we reconnect with Thea, Prue, Marianne, Reuben, Alice and even Gloria and the rest of Great Plumstead. It is a heartwarming read and though the story is somewhat predictable, it matters not because it is so well told, well researched and basically just a delightful tale all round. The author states she was not ready to leave Thea and Prue and Great Plumstead behind and I'm so glad she didn't because it is such a welcome place to be. I could climb into the pages and just live there myself.
Although this is the first in a new series, it does follow on from the two-book Mother's Day Club series and readers would most definitely benefit from reading those two first before delving into this one, though it can suffice without them. The previous two books will give you a much better background as the events often referred to, whilst they are briefly explained here, you can appreciate them more when seeing them play out first hand.
I cannot wait for the promised novella "First Christmas at Rookery House" nor the subsequent books which will follow the residents through the duration of the war. I have read many WW2 sagas and this one set in Great Plumstead is one of my favourites. It's just a delight to read and I devoured it in a day.
A WARTIME WELCOME AT ROOKERY HOUSE is a thoroughly enjoyable saga read and recommended for those who love wartime fiction and sagas.
I would like to thank #RosieHendry and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #AWartimeWelcomeAtRookeryHouse 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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