Dee Williams (1)

Sunshine After Rain by Dee Williams was exactly the right kind of book for me at this time. A story about two sisters, Connie and Jenny Dalton, whose father goes down with the Titanic in April, 1912. The girls had always taken their privileged lifestyle for granted but their father had died leaving them penniless and with debts causing them to lose their home. With the arrival of WW I new opportunities are offered to women who want to move ahead in the work place and while Jenny settles for a difficult marriage, Connie learns to drive and works as a tram driver.

Although the story involves woman’s rights and the suffragette movement along with conditions during the war both at home and in France, Sunshine After Rain was a warm and appealing read featuring two likeable sisters who faced life head-on. Romance certainly plays a part in the story, but I liked the fact that the girls didn’t focus all their attention on the opposite sex and that their own independence was very important.

Sunshine After Rain was a good historical fiction read about the turbulent lives of two sisters who mature into strong-minded women set against the backdrop of World War I.… (lisätietoja)

Love and War by Dee Williams is the story of a family in wartime England. Eileen and Reg Wells live in East London with their three grown daughters. Their simple yet pleasant life is changed drastically when World War II begins. When the bombs begin to fall, the family must learn to cope with little sleep and the constant fear as they must spend countless hours in their air raid shelter at the bottom of their yard. Two of the girls enlist, one joins the WAAF while the other the Land Army. The youngest daughter, stays at home but has the most difficult time of all.

This was a heart-warming story that painted a vivid picture of what it was like to live through the London Blitz. The father in this family was a stevedore and saw his job disappear as the docks were under constant barrage. At one point the father had to leave London to work the docks in Cardiff, but leaving his family in war-torn London was not an easy thing to do. Between the rushed marriages, anxious families, strict rationing and heavy duty blackout, the story also shows the strong neighbourhood connection and how people were pitching in amid the chaos to help one another.

It is was obvious that the author knew this corner of London well and how it fared during the war, but the writing was a little simple and while the author slowly took us through 1940 and into 1941, she then proceeded to jump over the next few years to the end of the war. This would have been fine if I was actually engaged by the characters, instead, they were a little too "Cookie-Cutter" to be believeable. There was a great deal left up in the air so I wonder if there is a sequel to the book showing us what happened when the men returned to pick up their lives and how they moved on from there.… (lisätietoja)

Although" A Moment to Remember" was a quick, easy read, it was very predictable and the way Millie landed on her feet every time something went wrong in her life, was unbelievable. She was like a cat with nine lives! I also hated her father and his attitude, and wasn't that impressed with Millie's siblings either, especially Bertie and Pammy, who expected Millie to provide for them all without doing anything themselves to support the family. The ending was too cheesy for my liking and a number of things were left unresolved. A mediocre read.… (lisätietoja)