Heartbreak for the Great Western Railway Girls is a compelling story of women supporting women on the home front during WWII.
Heartbreak for the Great Western Railway Girls by Jane Lark
Genre/Categories/Setting: Historical Fiction (WWII Home Front), Friendship, Women Supporting Women, England
***This post contains Amazon Affiliate Links
My Summary:
Thanks #NetGalley @BoldwoodBooks for a complimentary eARC of #HeartbreakForTheGreatWesternRailwayGirls upon my request. All opinions are my own.
Heartbreak for the Great Western Railway Girls is installment #3 in a series and continues to follow the lives of Lily, Maggie, Catherine, and friends as they work their shifts for the Great Western Railway (outside of London) and experience the daily hardships of war on the home front.
My Thoughts:
Friendship/Women Supporting Women
Stories about women supporting women on the home front during WWII are among my favorites! I often wonder how I would have supported the war effort and what challenges I would have faced. I hope I would have been surrounded by friends like Lily, Maggie, Catherine, and Joe!
Hardships and Heartbreak
This installment of the series is aptly titled because the women experience their share of heartbreak, worry, bombings, injuries, and shortages. Their friendships are put to the test in new ways. A few bright spots lighten the mood. Overall, the story feels realistic.
I Wish…
Joe is a part of the friend and support group, and I love him! He’s a wonderful, caring, thoughtful, and compassionate human. I wish he had a more important role in the story.
Content Consideration: bombing, injuries, sexual assault (in the past), abortion (in the past)
Recommending Heartbreak for the Great Western Railway Girls:
Fans of stories with strong, independent women surviving and thriving on the home front during WWII will appreciate this heartfelt series.
Because each book in the series follows all three women, I recommend reading the series in order for the most satisfying reading experience.
Related: Great Western Railway Girls (#1), Great Western Railway Girls (#2)
My Rating: 4 Stars
Meet the Author of Heartbreak for the Great Western Railway Girls, Jane Lark
Jane Lark writes compelling, passionate and emotionally charged fiction filled with diverse characters.
She is an international bestselling author of historical fiction and psychological thrillers, and a British Fiction awards finalist.
Known as a night owl, she’s fuelled by chocolate, coffee and these days apple juice (having given up red wine). She’s an eclectic reader – a fan of many things from Catherine Cookson’s sagas to everything by Lucy Foley. Which is possibly why she has successfully written in different genres.
Away from her writing desk, as an amateur historian, she hangs out in historical places, records centres and museums, devouring true stories from history. She has particularly loved the researching the WWII story of ‘The Great Western Railway Girls,’ saga series.
The common factor for all her books, is that they will take you on an emotional journey. They may contain love, hate, violence, death, passion, a little swearing, and endings you are never going to forget.
QOTD:
Do you love home front WWII historical fiction?
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Nice post. I always love learning about women in history.
Thanks! 🌷
You didn’t say, and I found myself puzzling—is the Great Western Railway in the US? Or Britain? If it’s in Britain, where on earth would a “great western railway” be?? I can’t imagine…
I think located 60ish miles outside London… in my review of the first installment I included a link…. Hold on..I’ll get the info………. Here.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Western_Railway
Oh, thank you, the map in that link helped a lot! I was picturing just one line from London, west to the coast, which wouldn’t be that many miles of line! But oh my goodness, it streaks out like a multi-legged spider, with lines running in a different gazillion directions, to the sea, to Devon and Cornwall, to Bristol, to Wales, and up to Liverpool, with a million cross connections….WOW. What a system. How I wish the US had a passenger train system like that now. I’ve ridden on English trains back in the 70s, it was wonderful.
Yes, it was quite important for so many reasons!
I’m editing the post now to include the link…thanks for inquiring!