10 Ten Exciting New Releases in June 2026

 

There are some fabulous books being released in June.

During the latter half of the month, I will be taking a two week break for a holiday. Although, I won't be posting during that time, rest assured that some of the little beauties in this list will be sneaking into my suitcase and keeping me company.

I hope you find something in this list to entice you too.

The Promise of Wonder by Katherine Webb

A tragic accident. A misguided accusation. Are some mistakes unforgivable?

England, 1889. In her family’s rambling manor house in Dorset, fifteen-year-old Theodora Hallewell dreams of magic, adventure, and Toby Meriwether. As Toby prepares to leave for university, Theo plans a midnight gathering—one last chance to make Toby notice her. By dawn, a tragic mistake will shatter the world as they know it.

Years later, Toby has built a respectable life in London, scarred by the past but determined to put it behind him. Theo, struggling with the aftermath of what happened, has begun to fear that the life she has built is more fragile—and far more dangerous—than she ever imagined. Both live under the shadow of that fateful night—until a startling discovery casts what happened in a whole new light, and offers a chance to right the wrongs that have haunted them for so long.

Spanning three decades, The Promise of Wonder is a spellbinding story of lost love, atonement, and the long journey towards forgiveness.

Preorder Link

The Underground Sisters by Soraya M. Lane

Amsterdam, 1940: Schoolteacher Aletta knows the war will soon reach her and the Jewish children in her class. When her family hide an injured Allied airman in their home, they must decide: how much will they risk when resistance could prove deadly?

Paris, 1940: Since her mother’s death, Chloe has dedicated herself to protecting her brothers. So when the SS accuses Claude of being in the Resistance, she sacrifices herself to save him.

Forced together in Ravensbrück concentration camp, Chloe, Aletta and her mother, Emma, forge an unbreakable bond. Surrounded by unimaginable cruelty, they mount their own kind of resistance―secretly teaching children and preserving fellow prisoners’ precious memories. In a place designed to strip away humanity, their friendship becomes an act of defiance, their determination to bear witness a lifeline of hope.

As the war rages on and whispers of a longed-for liberation grow, can their courage and sisterhood see them through to freedom? And if they survive, how can they ever be the same?

Based on true events, this is an inspiring testament to the power of friendship and the resilience of the human spirit.

Preorder Link

Dwell by Rue Baldry

January 1919 - A new gardener at a snowbound boarding school catches everyone's attention. It's rumoured he is a war hero.  He's nineteen-year-old Albert, haunted by Great War experiences and fighting the temptation of one particular prefect. What they want is illegal.

Being caught would ruin them. Then Albert's past finds him, making their quest for a place where love can safely dwell look impossible.

Preorder Link

Just Emilia by Jennifer Oko

The past, present, and future collide in a DC Metro elevator as three women get caught up in a gripping time-traveling tale of memory, emotion, and unspoken truths about their shared history. Synopsis: When Emilia Fletcher finds herself trapped inside a Washington, DC Metro elevator, getting out is the least of her problems. Sharing the confined space with her are Em, a troubled teenager plagued by suicidal thoughts, and Millie, an elderly woman yearning to mend ties with her estranged daughter. As the hours drag on, hunger, exhaustion, and panic set in, revealing an almost incomprehensible truth: they are the same person. Locked in an uncompromising match of memories, the three women excavate and attempt to reckon with the shared shame and suffering stemming from an unresolved trauma that has cast a profound shadow over their lives. Brimming with biting humor, compassion, and quick-witted insight, Just Emilia is remarkable journey of self-discovery.

Preorder Link

Collapse by Edourd Louis

Édouard’s brother spends much of his life dreaming. He lives in a poor, working-class world, where he imagines that he will become one of the finest butchers in France, that he will travel, that he will make his fortune, that he will restore cathedrals, that he will earn his father’s love.

But his reality allows none of this. There is no way to escape, no one who can show him how, and everything about him – his drinking, his violence, his behaviour with women and with others – condemns him.

At thirty-eight he is found dead on the floor of his small studio apartment. This book is the story of his collapse.

Preorder Link

Bad Deeds by Andrew Hunter Murray

Alex used to break into houses illegally. These days, it’s his job.

Alex is part of a small firm of consultants who break into offices and homes to test their security. It’s fun, it’s well paid, and he’s very good at it. It’s almost like he’s grown up at last.

But when he gets fired from his firm, evicted from his flat and dumped by his girlfriend, all in the same evening, he decides to steal one last job from his company without their knowing. A job they had already decided not to accept.

Big mistake.

Before long, Alex is in remote northern Scotland, following the trail of an ambitious young man who supposedly fell to his death with no witnesses in sight.

And if Alex doesn’t get to the truth soon, he may well be the next one over the edge...

Preorder Link

A Time to Be Born by Dawn Powell

Amanda Keeler is a bestselling novelist, famed for her martini-soaked parties. It's a glamorous life, paid for in full by marriage to a tedious, teeth-grinding newspaper tycoon.

When a meek friend from her provincial past arrives in Manhattan, Amanda plots to use her as cover for an affair-until she realises that they have both fallen for the same man.

Sophisticated, scandalous and acidly funny, this is a portrait of a woman determined to have everything, even if it costs the one thing she never meant to gamble: her heart.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

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How to Survive in the Woods by Kat Rosenfield

Emma Sharp knows the rules of survival. From being raised by a doomsday-fearing father and hardened by the startup world, she has learned how to endure - especially in her marriage to Logan Grant, a charismatic tyrant who keeps her under tight control. To Emma, her marriage is a cage: it keeps you in, but it also keeps you safe. Until it doesn't.

When Emma forms an unexpected bond with Logan's former girlfriend, the two women form a plan to help Emma reclaim her life. Destination: the punishing final stretch of the Appalachian Trail.

After all, bad things happen in the woods all the time.

As the three venture deeper into Maine's backcountry, desire and dread curdle into something unpredictable, dark and deadly. Someone is lying. Someone is watching. And in the remote heart of the forest, someone is about to be lost . . . or found.

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Lisa Doyle is Absolutely Fine by Mo Fanning

Lisa Doyle is fine. Absolutely fine.

At least, that's the story she's been telling herself.

Her best friend is getting married. Everyone around her seems to have a partner, a plan, and a life that makes sense. Lisa, meanwhile, has four glasses of wine in her, a talent for making bad situations worse, and a growing sense of being left behind.

So she does what any sensible woman in a crisis would do. She announces that she's engaged.

There is only one problem.

Brian does not exist.

Now Lisa needs a fiancé before the wedding, her actor flatmate is far too willing to get involved, and the real Brian, who is very much married and very much her boss, is starting to look at her in ways that suggest this lie may have got seriously out of hand.

Warm, witty, and painfully recognisable, Lisa Doyle is Absolutely Fine is a grown-up romantic comedy about love, pressure, friendship, and the exhausting performance of holding everything together when you're quietly falling apart.

Perfect for readers of Mhairi McFarlane, Beth O'Leary, and Marian Keyes.

Preorder Link

The Cider Girls Join the Fight by May Ellis

1941, Somerset: the shadow of war is closing in.

Two years into the conflict, Rose is adjusting to life as a Land Girl, working the Somerset fields alongside Jimmy, the farmer’s son whose watchful, protective attention she can neither escape nor ignore. Thankfully, she has found companionship in Daisy, a district nurse, and Elsie, an ATS clerk. New friends thrown together by the necessities of war, they call themselves the Cider Girls.

As the threat of invasion grows, the girls prove their courage to the commanding officer of a secret resistance unit and are drawn into a dangerous world of espionage, coded messages and hidden loyalties.

But there is trouble close to home too. Daisy knows she is in love with her lifelong friend Mattie, but will she speak the truth before it’s too late? Elsie’s life is shattered by the tragic death of her sister, leaving her with an impossible choice. And Rose finds her work in the resistance increasingly hard to hide.

In a world of secrets and sacrifice, can the Cider Girls’ friendship see them through the darkest days yet?

Preorder Link

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

Books I Read in January 2026

January has been a wonderful month for me and my husband, as we have welcomed our fifth grandchild into the world. We couldn't be more excited, and as soon as I push the publish button on this blog post, we will be getting in the car and driving to meet my new little granddaughter. I can hardly wait for my first cuddle.

Somehow in all this excitement I have managed to read some good books.

What have you read this month? Anything you would recommend?

 The Market Girls of Petticoat Lane by Patricia McBride

This was a lovely story in which we meet friends Amanda, Maisie and Bethan. They all work together in the sewing factory making uniforms for the troops.  You can find my review here.

The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale

I have read the majority of Kate Summerscale's books and enjoyed each one of them. So, when I saw this on my library shelves I picked it up and checked it out with a sense of glee. You can find my review here.

The Dubrovnik Book Club by Eva Glyn

This was a lovely book and I have not had a blog gap to upload my review as yet. It is coming though so watch this space.

One Moonlit Night by Rachel Hore

I have read this book as part of the Clock Reading Challenge. There will be more about this when I upload my book review soon.

Dark is the Night by Rachel Evans

This book made for fabulous reading and I was gripped from the very first page to the last.  You can find my review by clicking here.

Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan

This book had me on the edge of my seat from the first page to the last.  You can find my review by clicking here.

In the Blink of an Eye by Yoav Blum

This book was a locked room mystery combined with science fiction. I read 25% of the book and then decided it wasn't for me.

You Go, Girl! by Elaine Insinnia

A series of diary entries written by a grandmother in her youth during the 1950's. Not as good as I hoped but entertaining enough.

Fortune's Wheel by Carolyn Hughes

I found this hard to get into but probably because my mind was full of grandbabies. I shall try it again at some point.

Terrible True Tales: Saxons by Terry Deary

An excellent book for children of stories from Saxon history. My review will be coming soon.

(header photo courtesy of Picsea/Unsplash)

(all opinions are my own)

10 Ten New Release Books in February 2026

 

There are so many exciting new books due to be published in February. Here are just ten that have caught my eye.

Do any of these appeal to you?

The Secret of Snow by Tina Harnesk

Máriddja is eight-five years old and more than a little eccentric. When she finds out she has cancer, her first thought isn't for herself. It's for her beloved husband. Without children or grandchildren, Máriddja and Biera have only ever had each other. She's determined to keep her diagnosis a secret from Biera, and to find the one person who might take care of him when she's gone.

Kaj is new to the village, recently engaged to the love of his life, and mourning the death of his mother. One day, he finds a box of Sámi handicrafts that once belonged to his mother, the carefully wrapped objects placed together like a crisp new set of jigsaw pieces. If he can solve the puzzle, it will unlock a secret he could have never imagined.

Preorder Links - Bookshop.org  Amazon

 Bianca's Cure by Gigi Berardi

Florence, 1563. Forbidden from practicing her herbal cures in Venice, the young noblewoman Bianca Capello flees to Florence, where the ruling Medici family practices alchemy. There, she wins herself an invitation to their palace, and, as it turns out, a path to the duke regent Francesco’s bed.

The impassioned bond between Francesco de Medici and Bianca is at the core of this fact-driven dive into medicine, politics, love, and ultimately death in Renaissance Florence. Malaria killed many of the Medicis, but traces of the poison arsenic were recently found in Francesco’s remains. Even more sinister: Bianca’s remains have never been found. To this day, what happened to Bianca and Francesco remains one of the greatest mysteries surrounding Renaissance Italy’s legendary Medicis.

Bianca’s Cure probes what might have been as Bianca’s quest for a malaria cure—in palaces, gardens, sick rooms, and whorehouses—collides with Francesco’s intensifying illness. Her main tool is the herb artemisia—medicine still used today. A woman who dared to practice science well ahead of her time, Bianca fights off self-doubt until she believes herself invincible. But is she? When only she stands between Francesco and death, her skill may save him or doom them both.

Preorder Link - Bookshop.org

  Shared Secrets of the Home Front Nurses by Rachel Brimble

1943: Becoming a Home Front nurse, meant Kathy Scott was finally able to escape the violence of her childhood. At long last, her life has taken a turn for the better. Particularly because, for the very first time, she’s made some wonderful friends–fellow nurses Sylvia, Freda and Veronica.

Kathy’s known for not being short of a word or two. So nobody’s more surprised than her when she finds herself tongue-tied around Freda’s handsome brother, James – who’s home from war with an unexplained injury.

Eventually they start to open up to each other… But can two people who have felt so broken by their experiences ever find a chance for happiness?

Preorder Links - Bookshop.org  Amazon

 Eradication by Jonathan Miles

A moving fable in which a grieving man, confronts a broken world on an island overpopulated by goats.

Reeling from tragedy, a former jazz musician-turned-schoolteacher named Adi answers a job listing advertising a chance to save the world. The assignment: to spend five weeks alone on the tiny, isolated Pacific Island of Santa Flora and reckon with its invasive population of goats that's sent the ecological balance severely out of whack..

What follows, however, is anything but balanced. The threats to the once-Edenic island, Adi soon learns, aren't exactly what his employers said they were - and, complicating things further, he discovers he's not alone on the island. Fearful for his own life, and for the fate of the island, Adi spends his sun-drenched days rooting out the true threat to Santa Flora, and, by extension, to the world it occupies - and the desperate steps he must take to eradicate it.

Eradication is an utterly unforgettable reading experience and the work of a truly singular imagination.

Preorder Links -  Bookshop.org  Amazon

 Strange Ways to Die in the Dark Ages by Emily Bush & Carrie Ingram-Gettins

Strange Ways to Die in the Dark Ages takes an amusing yet grim dive into the bizarre, unexpected, and downright ridiculous ways people met their untimely ends in early medieval Europe.

Join us as we recount tales of battles gone awry and tell the stories of monarchs who demonstrated they might not be all that fit for the throne.

Together, we will uncover what weird and wonderful ways our ancestors attempted to cure themselves or the awful inventions created to torture and execute each other.

Tread carefully in the past, though, as you never quite know what perils are lurking.

From Viking warriors felled by cheese to kings who perished in toilet-related mishaps, this book uncovers the strange, often absurd realities of life and death in an age of superstition, blood feuds, and very questionable medical advice.

Packed with dark humour, historical oddities, and stories so strange they simply must be true, this is history as you've never read it before—deadly, disturbing, and delightfully ridiculous!

Preorder Links - Bookshop.org  Amazon

Trouble Comes to Harbour House by Fenella J. Miller

Will love or duty be her downfall?

Wivenhoe, 1940.

As war tightens its grip, the residents of Harbour House are doing their bit for King and country—keeping calm through air raids, blackouts and family issues.

When Elizabeth Roby’s glamorous young cousin Lucinda Somiton arrives from London, scandal at her heels and a broken heart in her past, she brings a spark of chaos to the quiet Essex town. Accustomed to champagne parties and bright lights, Lucinda struggles to adjust to ration books and village gossip.

But when she volunteers to aid the war effort, Lucinda begins to find a sense of purpose—and perhaps a chance to redeem her name. Yet just as she starts to build a new life, the past threatens to ca  tch up with her once again. And in wartime, every choice comes at a cost…

  

Preorder Links - Bookshop.org  Amazon

Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War by Jane Rogoyska

A meeting place for Europe’s bohemian artists. A headquarters of the Nazi occupation. A shelter for camp survivors.

This is the story of how one Paris hotel came to hold the weight of a century.

The Hotel Lutetia is a Paris institution, the only ‘grand’ hotel on the city’s bohemian Left Bank. Ever since it opened, it has served as a meeting place for artists, musicians and politicians. André Gide took his lunch here, James Joyce lived in one of its rooms, Picasso and Matisse were regular guests. It has a darker history, too. During one short period, it became a focus for some of the most dramatic and terrible events in recent history.

In the 1930s the Hotel Lutetia attracted intellectuals and political activists, forced to flee their homes when Hitler came to power, who met here with the hope of forming an alternative government. But when war came, Paris was occupied, and the hotel became the headquarters of the German military intelligence service – and the centre of their operation to root out enemies of the Reich. In 1945, the Lutetia was requisitioned once more, this time transformed into a reception centre for deportees returning from concentration camps.

Hotel Exile is about what happens on the edges of a war. At its heart are three groups of people connected to a place, to one another, and to the dark ideology which dictates the course of their lives. A masterpiece of empathy and concision, Jane Rogoyska’s extraordinary new book offers us a vision of individual human beings desperately trying to find a path through some of the twentieth century’s most devastating events.

Preorder Links - Bookshop.org   Amazon

The Lister Sisters by Rebecca Batley

When Anne Lister, ‘Gentleman Jack,’ and her infamous diaries hit the headlines a few years ago, their popularity spawned a plethora of Gentleman Jack blogs, research and books which have focused primarily on Anne Lister’s romantic relationships with (a huge) number of women, but whilst they are an integral part of the Lister story, there is another woman lurking in the pages of her diaries: The original Lister Sister, Marian.

Marian Lister was Anne’s younger sister and the two women had a complex and fascinating relationship.

The evidence reveals Marian to be a complicated woman who both resented, loved and was fiercely protective of her older sister.

Forced to live together for a large part of their lives Anne vehemently disapproved of Marian’s desire to escape in order to marry a “carpet maker” feeling him to be unworthy of the sister she herself derided.

Marian, for her part, did not understand her elder sister's relationships with women, but she accepted them, defended her and worried about her excessively even whilst she ranted about Anne’s spending, scheming and selfishness.

When together, the two women bickered constantly with Marian, literally at times screaming in frustration at her headstrong sister.

Anne, for her part, complained that Marian was “simple … good for nothing,” yet her approval meant a good deal to her.

Here, for the first time, we look at the complex relationship between the two women, how it developed, its moments of triumph and tragedy, as well as the profound influence it had on each of their lives.

Preorder Links - Bookshop.org   Amazon

 The House of Secrets and Lies by Rosie Clarke

The compelling first instalment in the Crawley Family Saga series, a family brimming with secrets from bestselling author Rosie Clarke. Perfect for fans of Lizzie Lane and Fenella J. Miller.

One girl's chance of a new life, or a sacrifice too far?

Cambridgeshire, November 1945

Young Betty Cantrel is just 14-years-old when she reluctantly leaves her troubled family home to take up a position as companion to Frances Crawley, the ailing daughter of Eben and Mary Crawley.

As Betty begins her new life at the grand and imposing The Willows, she becomes drawn to Nathan Crawley, the handsome, yet mysterious nephew and ward of Eben Crawley whom malicious whispers linger – whispers of a tragedy that claimed the Crawley’s’ young son Edward, years before.

As her friendship grows with Frances, Betty accompanies her to London, where she glimpses another world – a world full of art, music, and freedom, and she begins to dream of a different kind of life.

But her growing loyalty to both Mary and Frances comes at a cost when tragedy forces her to choose where her true allegiance lies: with the family who opened her eyes to endless possibilities, or the one she left behind, where her dreams could become nothing but a memory.

For young Betty Cantrel, her story is only just beginning…

Previously published in paperback as Lovers and Sinners by Linda Sole.

Preorder Links - Bookshop.org  Amazon

The Resistance Knitting Club by Jenny O'Brien

Inspired by the true story of a woman who used knitting patterns to encode intelligence during World War Two.

Guernsey, 2010. After a stroke, an elderly woman shocks her family by speaking perfect French – a language they never knew she possessed. As her granddaughter unravels seventy years of silence, a hidden wartime story emerges...

Paris, 1941. After her brother is declared missing in action at Dunkirk, eighteen-year-old Lenny Gallienne vanishes into Churchill’s secret army. In a bookshop on Rue de la Pompe, she poses as a simple shop girl while encoding intelligence from Nazi headquarters into knitting patterns. Each sweater smuggled to prisoners contains flight paths. Each scarf holds radio frequencies. Each mistake means execution.

Fellow agent, Harry Dennison, is the only person who knows her real name. But when the Gestapo close in, Lenny faces an impossible choice in the Metro tunnels beneath Paris – one that will haunt her family for generations. Because in the resistance, the most dangerous secrets are the ones you keep from those you love most.

Preorder Link - Amazon

(header photo courtesy of Tom Hermans)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

The Market Girls of Petticoat Lane by Patricia McBride - #bookreview #blogtour

 

1943

The hum of the sewing machines filled the air, a rhythm so familiar Amanda could usually ignore it. Twenty women were bent over their machines making uniforms for the troops, work so repetitive they didn't have to think about it...

The Blurb

🪡 With the world at war, three women stitch hope into every seam…🪡

In the bustling heart of London’s East End, Maisie, Amanda and Bethan work long hours at the uniform factory. The pay is poor, the shifts relentless and the bombs fall far too close for comfort ­– but these three women refuse to give in to despair.

For when not at the factory, the girls spend their days on the markets of Petticoat Lane, trying to source material in order to make dresses ­– doing their best to bring any small amount of joy in these troubled times.

When a chance encounter leads them to a bundle of parachute silk, they decide to think bigger. And so, with needles in hand and a dream in their hearts, they begin sewing a beautiful wedding dress in secret.

But in wartime, secrets don’t stay hidden for long. And when Amanda uncovers seedy goings on at the factory, all of their livelihoods may be on the line…

A page-turning tale of friendship, courage and a chance for a better life. If you loved The Library Girls of the East End, be the first to read Patricia McBride's brand new series!

My Review

I adored reading Patricia McBride's series, The Library Girls, and I will be including links to those reviews below. So I snapped up the chance to read this first book in a new series when I was offered a copy.

When I've enjoyed a series so much, I approach a new series with slight trepidation in case it doesn't live up to my expectations.  However, I am glad to say that this did not disappoint in any way.

This was a lovely story in which we meet friends Amanda, Maisie and Bethan. They all work together in the sewing factory making uniforms for the troops. However, during the book they begin venturing into the world of design, dressmaking and alterations.  They share a market stall in the titular Petticoat Lane to begin their venture.

They also each have their own challenges - Amanda's father is violent and she longs to leave home, Maisie's mother is an alcoholic and thus Maisie is left to care for her younger brother and sister, and Bethan wants to meet and marry an American GI and escape the East End for life in America.

I loved the way the author depicted her characters. Each very different but all exhibited the strength and courage they needed to face their individual circumstances. Each of them were well-formed characters who came alive on the page.

I grew up in London's East End and frequently went with my mum to visit Petticoat Lane on a Sunday morning when I was young. Therefore, the setting resonated with me as I could imagine the market very well - albeit the book was set about three decades before my time there. However, the author does a great job with creating the setting and you would end the book feeling as though you were equally as familiar with it.

What I enjoyed most about this book is the strong sense of friendship between the three women.  The support they each receive from one another allows them to be better versions of themselves in a time when there were so many constraints on them, not just because they were women but also because the country was at war.

This is a wonderful start to a new series and I will definitely be following along with their further adventures.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1836333128

Publisher:  Boldwood Books

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

No. of Pages:  288 (paperback)

Series:  Book 1 of the Petticoat Lane series

Links to My Reviews of The East End Library Girls series

The Library Girls of the East End

Hard Times for the East End Library Girls

A Better Tomorrow for the East End Library Girls

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Patricia McBride is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books as well as numerous articles. She loves undertaking the research for her books, helped by stories told to her by her Cockney mother and grandparents who lived in the East End. Patricia lives in Cambridge with her husband.

You can also find Patricia at:

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(ARC and media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)

(all opinions are my own)

Heartache on West India Dock Road by Renita D'Silva - #bookreview #blogtour

Two years into the war, West India Dock Road is tired and looks it, regardless of how much its residents try to spruce it up...

The Blurb

1941 - Amid the bombs falling over London’s East End, the residents of West India Dock Road endure wartime with courage, defiance and a good dose of humour.

From nights spent sheltering together in the Underground station to sharing gossip, pastimes and meals, they lean on each other as their world is turned upside down.

Since the bombing of her family’s boarding house, Charity has held her loved ones together, and now, with her heart set on becoming a ‘sugar girl’ working for Tate & Lyle, she’s determined to forge a new path, despite prejudice about her relationship with the Indian soldier she loves.

Her best friend Divya serves up warmth and spice in her beloved curry house, but is hiding a secret that grows more urgent with each passing day. What will happen when it is revealed?

Ruth is a newcomer, recently arrived from war torn Europe and haunted by the atrocities she’s experienced. On West India Dock Road she finds not just refuge but an unlikely family.

As heartache affects them all and bonds are tested, can these three women find hope and happiness, even in the darkest of times?

My Review

This is my favourite series of books at the moment. I have previously read and reviewed New Arrivals on West India Dock Road and Wartime Comes to West India Dock Road. You can find the links to my reviews by clicking on the titles. However, it is not necessary to have read the books before this one, as they each work very well as standalone novels. However, if you read one, I think you will probably want to spend more time in the company of the residents of West India Dock Road, whichever order you read them.

Whilst the book brings us up to date with all of the characters who reside on the street, the two main characters remain Divya and Charity. Charity is fulfilling her dream of working at the nearby Tate and Lyle sugar factory, whilst Divya is hiding a secret which is sure to come out soon.

In this book we are introduced to a new character, Ruth, who has escaped Germany following Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in order to deliver a letter to Mrs. Rosenbaum from her sister. Part of the book is devoted to Ruth's story of how she came to West India Dock Road, and it is a moving and emotive account.

The book deals with themes, that although would not be seen as scandalous today, they certainly were in 1940's Britain. I really like the way the author depicts attitudes as they were historically, and not through a twenty-first century lens. This lends the book an authenticity and demonstrates that she has done her research thoroughly.

The narrative is interspersed with letters written by Divya. She writes to Jack, a long-time resident of West India Dock Road. Her letters are on behalf of all of the residents, but Jack hasn't replied to any of them for a while. She also spills her heart into letters to her lost love. It is a great device for hearing her inner thoughts.

In my opinion, each book in this series gets stronger, and I am already excited for the next one. I read a fair number of this genre of book and this is by far my favourite. 

Have you read any of this series? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1806560998

Publisher:  Boldwood Books

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

No. of Pages:  256 (paperback)

Series: Book 3 in the West India Dock Road series

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Renita d’Silva is an award-winning author of historical fiction, often set partly in India, where she is from.

You can also find Renita at:

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(ARC and media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)

(all opinions are my own)