I eagerly await book 2 set in the 20s and 30s to be published in late Spring of 2022 and book 3 set in WW2 to the 70s to be published in Spring of 2023. This is probably an aspect I found questionable as with there being three sisters, it added to the number of characters, bringing a lot of dialogue and plot lines to follow. In 1913, in a quiet corner of London, the three Fry sisters are coming of age, dreaming of all the possibilities the bright future offers. Amongst these were photographs of my great-aunts Jessie and Ettie Chinn — Jessie who became a milliner was creative and engaged to a young German student who was killed during the war; Ettie joined the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Nursing Service and served on a hospital ship at Gallipoli and in Egypt during the war.

I was a kid then and I remember how vibrant and fun it was — I had a banana bike and pink and white polka dot bellbottoms and paisley cap and white boots, The Beatles were huge — I remember all the Yellow Submarine posters, magazines, lunchboxes, etc. I really, really enjoyed this book and felt quite sad when I reached its end and am looking forward to the next book featuring this family. It also makes for a very long book that took some time to establish itself but worked out well towards the end, despite not being a standalone and therefore a future instalment is required.

The Fry sisters are coming of age in a time when rights for women are in the news and the future seems positive for them all.

Etta elopes to Capri with her Italian love, Carlo, but though her growing bump is real, her marriage certificate is a lie. Jessie enlists in the army as a nurse and finally finds the adventure she’s craved when she’s sent to Gallipoli and Egypt, but it comes with an unimaginable cost. There’s some foreshadowing regarding a problem with Frank that I believe the author will develop later in the series.Even Jessie, who was my favourite character, eventually embarks on a relationship with a man who for many reasons would probably not be welcomed with open arms in the Fry household. It was one of those rare books where I became so caught up in the characters and their story that I really didn’t want it to end – and I couldn’t be more delighted that this is the first in a planned trilogy, and that I’ll have the opportunity to immerse myself in their lives and experiences once more. But the Acknowledgements at the end explains how the novel was inspired by the author’s own three great-aunts and grandmother who lived in Britain, Canada and Egypt.

Celie, the eldest, works in the photography studio, is an ardent suffragist, and is in love with her German tutor, Max. To access you ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose. I’ve always been aware of the war through my family’s experiences, and I am a great history buff, having read English and History as an undergraduate. My grandmother, Edith Adelaide Fry Chinn, emigrated to Alberta, Canada with her British Army veteran husband and her two very small children in 1922 and never saw her English family again.When he goes off to war, promising to come back for her, she busies herself in her father’s photography studio and fights off the pursuits of Frank Jeffries. And Capri is where her mother Christina’s story began – it’s cleverly laced through the story of the sisters, along with the layers of secrets that explain her protectiveness of her daughters and her fervent wish (or maybe that should be vain hope…) that they will all follow a conventional path to marriage and motherhood. Living in comfortable means with their parents, Christina and Gerald in Clover Bar, London, none are prepared for the harsh realities of the impending Great War and the locations it will lead them to.

Adrienne Chinn was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, grew up in Quebec, and eventually made her way to London, England after a career as a journalist. Having done his best to provide a stable home for his daughters, encourage their interests and be a devoted husband, I was intensely moved by his discovery that all is not what it seems in his marriage. Celie helps her father in his photography studio, and he’s busy taking portraits of young men going off to fight in, The Great War.Her second novel, The English Wife – a timeslip story set in World War II England and contemporary Newfoundland – was published in June 2020 and has become an international bestseller. This was a very good story about a family of sisters and how they managed through hardships during the war, each in their own way. This is a book that really has a bit of everything – drama, romance, conflict, heartache, rich historical detail, wonderfully drawn locations – and “swept me away” doesn’t begin to do it justice. The book is set in 1913, the author gets it absolutely spot on with the descriptions of the characters and the setting , when reading it you can clearly picture the type of places they are in . Cecelia loves Max but his soldier’s uniform is German, not British, and suddenly the one man she loves is the one man she can’t have.