A Stepney Girl's Secret by Jean Fullerton - #bookreview @JeanFullerton_ #blogtour

 

Rolling her shoulders to ease the stiffness caused by a four-hour journey down the Great North Road, Prudence Carmichael glanced at her watch.

'Not long now, Prudence,' her father, Revd Hugh Carmichael, called over his shoulder as their elderly Austin Seven approached a crossroads.

'Mind that parked car, Hugh,' said Prue's mother Marjorie from the seat beside him.

It was just after four o'clock in the afternoon. Twenty-three-year-old Prudence... was squashed into the back of her father's car since the last of their furniture had been carried out of St Stephen's vicarage in the leafy village of Biddenden.

***

East London, 1940. Prue Carmichael never dreamed that she'd end up working at a railway yard. But when her reverend father is called up to Stepney, she and her family are uprooted from their country home for a new life in the turbulent city.

Determined to help with the war effort, Prue signs up for work and soon becomes intrigued by handsome train engineer Jack Quinn. But as the spark between them grows apparent, so does his troubled past - a past that Prue's mother would certainly not approve of.

In between cleaning train carriages and helping to shelter Jewish refugees, Prue manages to stay busy. But she has more than one admirer, and when Jack is recruited into Churchill's secret army, a very different suitor begins to pursue her.

As air raid sirens sound overhead, Prue Carmichael is facing her own battle - the fight between her heart and her head . . .

Amidst the ruins of war, will Prue and Jack's love find a way?

***

As a Stepney girl myself, how could I possibly resist this book. It has been a number of years since I lived there, but it was where I spent my formative years and I still have a fondness for it.

Prue was a wonderful character and easy to engage with. She is determined, headstrong and hardworking. Having moved to the vicarage in Stepney from her father's rural parish in a Bedfordshire village, Prue quickly demonstrates that she is not afraid to roll her sleeves up and get stuck into working with the people of the parish. In addition, she 'does her bit' for the war effort and gains employment in the local railway works, enabling the trains to continue running.

It is in the train yard that she gets to know Jack and it is not long before an attraction turns into something more significant.

The author is a very skilled storyteller and I almost felt as though I was there with them. Her knowledge of the area is apparent, and she has clearly researched her period well, enabling her to do an excellent job of recreating 1940's East London.

This the first book that I have read by this author and I am certain that it won't be my last.

ISBN: 978 1838957599

Publisher:  Corvus

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages: 544 (paperback)

About the Author:

Born and bred in East London Jean was a District Nurse by trade and ended her thirty-year career in health care as a senior lecture in Health and Nursing Studies in London Southbank University.

She had published twenty sagas all set in East London with both Orion and Atlantic the most recent of which is the highly successful Ration Book series. She has also recently released her autobiography A Child of the East End.

If you would like to find out more about Jean and her books you will find her website at:  http://jeanfullerton.com/

(ARC, photos & author bio info courtesy of the blog tour operator)