Family Matters at Blackberry Farm (Blackberry Farm #4) by Rosie Clarke
Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas, WW2
Read: 31st January 2025
Published: 1st February 2025
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
The war continues to touch everyone’s lives and loves on Blackberry Farm.
Cambridgeshire – 1943
As Spring blossoms, it seems love is in the air. 21-year-old, John Talbot dreams of a world not at war, where he can be a father to his young son Jonny and have a wife by his side. But is nurse Lucy Ross the woman for him?
When brothers Tom and John are recalled to active service, Artie is left to look after the farm. But tragedy strikes at the very heart of the family, when Arthur peacefully passes and John is reported missing in action. Pam, is left grief-stricken and fearing the worst with John lost at sea – has John’s luck finally run out?
Pam’s eldest Tom, returns home injured to convalesce and help a disgruntled Artie with the farm. But when the brothers become embroiled in a dreadful fight that could ruin several of the Talbot’s lives, it’s up to Tom to protect what they hold dear.
With an uncertain future there are trials and tribulations ahead for the Talbots in this continuing bestselling saga.
Perfect for fans of Lizzie Lane, Fenella J Miller and Patricia McBride
MY THOUGHTS:
As always, it was lovely to return to Talbolt family fold at Blackberry Farm in rural Cambridgeshire. I have thoroughly enjoyed every book in this series and watched the characters develop and grow as war rages in Europe, taking with it many young men.
It's now 1943 and the war is at its height and at last it feels as if Britain and her Allies are gaining the upper hand at last. Maybe by next Christmas it will all be over. Who knows? But one thing's for sure...something big is brewing; and it is bound to change the course of the hostilities once and for all.
At Blackberry Farm, however, it's almost as if the war has not reached them there but for the young men off fighting or those that have been lost. Not to mention the airfield running adjacent to the farm itself, having once belonged to the Talbolts and sold to the RAF. Life is quiet and it goes on, whatever the war holds.
Tom and Lizzie have barely spent any of their married life together, but long enough to produce young Arthur who is now toddling and saying a few words. John's little Jonny, only a few months older than Arthur, is thriving while his father courts a young nurse named Lucy. She agrees to marry him and the couple plan to marry in the Autumn after Lucy has served her 6 months abroad as a nurse in a field hospital. But fate has other plans for the couple.
Artie and Jeanie recently married and farm the land at Blackberry Farm. But now that Jeanie has discovered she is with child, she can no longer do the heavy work and so they apply for some new Land Girls to take her place. Susan has gained a place at teacher's college but has some trouble along the way. Only Angela finds herself adrift with her sister away and everyone having their places in life. She wants to leave school and become a farmer's wife.
And then, just as they start to find their feet again, tragedy strikes the family once again...
Once again, there is so much going on in this book that I have barely scratched the surface. Suffice to say, it will leave you wanting to read the next installment with how it ended, wondering how it will all pan out.
Rosie Clarke is a go to author I always enjoy and I look forward to rejoining the Talbolts in Pam's warm and inviting kitchen once again soon.
I would like to thank #RosieClarke, #Netgalley, #BoldwoodBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #TheFiance in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Rosie loves shoes, especially those impossibly high heels you can buy and has a gorgeous pair of Jimmy Choos but can't wear them so they sit on the mantlepiece.
Rosie also writes under the name of Anne Herries and Linda Sole.
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