Elsie's Wartime Wish (The Kiltie Street Girls #2) by Carol MacLean
Genre: Historical fiction, Saga, WW2
Read: 19th March 2023
Published: 26th January 2023
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
While WW2 rages, Elsie must battle for her family
Elsie Weir is trying hard to keep her family together. Living in Kiltie Street tenement in Glasgow with her mother and little sister, Jessie, isn’t easy – not least because her mother spends most days in a drunken stupor.
But life gets harder still when their mother dies suddenly, leaving Jessie and Elsie broken-hearted. When Elsie’s meagre wages won’t stretch to supporting them, they’re thrown out of their home. The future looks bleak, until their mother’s estranged family deigns to take them in.
But their relief is short-lived as it becomes clear the Mearns family have taken in the orphan sisters only for appearances, treating them cruelly behind closed doors.
When Elsie discovers the devastating secret her mother kept from them, it seems that they may have a lifeline – until that dream too, is cruelly dashed.
Now, more than ever, the sisters only have each other. But can Elsie and Jessie find some hope in a life full of heartbreak?
A heartwarming and compelling family saga that fans of Rosie Hendry and Annie Murray will love.
MY THOUGHTS:
Can she keep her family together...or will secrets tear them apart...?
I read and loved the first book in this wonderful heartwarming series "Jeannie's War" and it was wonderful to revisit some of the minor characters from that first book. But this time they were the focus of the story. Jeannie popped in and out a couple of times but was mostly a mention in passing. ELSIE'S WARTIME WISH is just as delightful and as easy read as the first one that I enjoyed my time on Kiltie Street once again.
Glasgow 1943: War has raged for four years and by now Britons and its Allies have grown weary with the constant death and losses that ravage those left behind. After the Glasgow Blitz in which many children were evacuated to the country, Elsie's younger sister Jessie (now 13) had settled in Perthshire with a lovely family who loved her as their own. However, the time has come that Louise Weir wants Elsie to make the journey and bring her youngest daughter back home where she belongs. Upon arriving at the sprawling house owned by the Cranstons, Elsie can hardly see Jessie wanting to return to the slums and tenements of Glasgow. And she doesn't. Jessie pleads with her sister to let her stay. The Cranstons beg her also and stating that it is their wish to adopt Jessie. For two years, this has been Jessie's home. She is fed, clothed, loved and above all, safe here. But her mother wants her home, and go home she must. The train journey back to Glasgow is a silent one.
Annie had once worked alongside her friend Jeannie at Fearnmore Munitions Factory, where Elsie also works, but upon marrying Paul Thom she had then fallen pregnant. Now she has given birth to a hefty baby boy they have named Davey. Annie should be happy. But all Davey seems to do is cry and it wears on her nerves. Paul is barely home and when he is he is drunk and argumentative. What happened to her kindly husband? The man she fell in love with? He came back from the war a changed man and it has made him bitter. But when Paul falls in with a wrong sort, Annie fears he will land himself in more trouble and then what will become of them?
And then there is Doris. She by no means pretty, with her thick lens glasses and plain features, but she is clever. She lives with her mother Leila who spends her days fretting about just about everything which wears on Doris' nerves, often sending her into a panic and thus making her asthma worse. Doris longs for her dearest friend to see her as more than a little sister but fears with her plain looks that will never happen.
The three women become friends when they meet by chance on Kiltie Street, despite each of them working, or having worked, in the Munitions factory though in different roles. And then when Elsie's mother dies suddenly her entire world falls apart and she finds herself homeless but for a secret her mother kept from them until she was on her deathbed.
Thrust into a home where they are not wanted, Elsie and Jessie make do the best they can, despite being ignored for the most part until they are required to undertake chores to earn their keep. Both girls cannot wait until the day they can escape these cruel walls. But it seems their mother had yet another secret or two she kept from her daughters...and when Elsie discovers them, she does her utmost to make her greatest wish come true.
ELSIE'S WARTIME WISH is an easy read that will sweep you up and take you back to the tenements of wartime Glasgow. I loved taking the journey with each of the women and hoped that each of their wishes would come to fruition. There is plenty of heartbreak, secrets, lies and of course friendship and love. A truly wonderful heartfelt read.
I can't wait for book 3 which I believe will focus on Jeannie's wayward sister Kathy.
I would like to thank #CarolMaclean, #Netgalley and #HeraBooks for an ARC of #ElsiesWartimeWish in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
When she’s not writing, Carol can be found visiting museums or walking around the city looking for traces of old Glasgow to inspire her next novel.
Carol is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
She has written 18 pocket novels published by DC Thomson and Linford Romance Series (Ulverscroft).
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