Book picks similar to
A Home from Home by Rosie Hendry


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The War Child


Renita DiSilva - 2021
    In the years that followed, she struggled to rebuild her life, desperately scarred by her childhood, finding solace in nursing and helping others.When a tragically injured soldier arrives from Europe, hospital staff are fearful and will not touch him. But Clara grew up listening to her father’s memories of his time in India and offers to nurse him back to health. Day and night she cares for Anand Goel alone, and as they begin to share stories of each other’s lives, she starts to fall for him.London, 1940. As war returns in earnest, Clara realises she is pregnant and the new life growing inside her provides a glimmer of hope. When her son is born, Clara sees her mother at last in his deep brown eyes. But as bombs begin to fall on the city, she cannot let history repeat itself. To save her son, can Clara let him go? And will she ever find him again in this world on fire?An unforgettable and haunting novel about love, secrets and betrayal set during humanity’s darkest hour. Anyone who loves A Fire Sparkling, The Letter or My Name is Eva will find this impossible to put down.

The Frenchman's Daughters


Paul Sinkinson - 2013
    Following an emotional and traumatic escape from the advancing German forces they arrive in England. As a result of their experiences, and the manner that they combated the Nazi regime, the three sisters, all civilians, are seconded, along with the survivors of their group, into the intelligence section of General De Gaulle’s newly formed Free French Force. After extensive training in England they return to occupied France living in fear of betrayal and capture.

ASSIGNMENT: PEENEMUNDE: A WWII Novel of Naval Intelligence and Spies (Tony Romella USN WWII Series Book 5)


Peter J. Azzole - 2020
    

A Web of Secrets


Roberta Kagan - 2021
    What torments him so?What dark secrets are buried deep within Kara’s loving heart?Anka’s affection for her husband Ludwig is all but gone. Will he turn to the ever-open arms of a secret life?And...What about Abram? Will he find a way to keep his vow to God? Will he ever be with his family again?Fans of The Girls in the Attic, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and The Venice Sketchbook will be enthralled with this riveting and heartbreaking story of love, betrayal, and ultimate redemption.

The Commandant’s Dog: A WW2 Historical Novel, Based on a True Story of a Jewish Holocaust Survivor


Shmuel David - 2021
    

Espionage - London


John Day - 2017
    A simple idea became the miracle Hitler needed, to bring Britain to its knees over night. Not only that, but it would save both German and British lives and leave the infrastructure of the English towns and cities intact. This character driven story of intrigue and guile will transport you back in time to Alderney and the back streets of London, on a suicide mission. Discover the details of Germany's plan and it’s execution, exposing the best kept secret of WW2. Timing is everything, and a cruel twist of fate changes history. A super-intense John Day Thriller.

Ella's War


Sarah Bourne - 2021
    Ella Elkington wakes up in hospital with minor physical injuries but no memory. She cannot even remember her own name.The doctor treating her tells her that she had a car accident and has been identified by a letter found in a handbag. Asking to see the letter, hoping to find out about herself, she learns the letter is now missing.When the hospital tracks down her brother, he visits her, and Ella has glimmers of childhood memories. After she is released from hospital, with the help of diaries and letters, and her long-time friend Sheila, Ella begins to piece together her past. She learns she was a nurse during the war, who was sent to work in a mobile hospital in France after the D-Day landings. But, haunted by nightmares, Ella struggles to understand how she ended up in the accident—as well as what happened to that letter and the man in her dreams.In order to understand who she is, Ella must face a terrible truth in order to make peace with the past and find a way to live again . . . Ella’s War is a captivating historical drama that will appeal to fans of authors like Lucinda Riley and Victoria Hislop.

Living on Borrowed Time


William Horton - 2019
    Luckily for us he had an incredible memory and one his daughters wrote down those stories.

A Ration Book Christmas Broadcast


Jean Fullerton - 2021
    

The Girl in the Baker's Van


Richard Savin - 2018
    There are those who will kill her to get it back. Ever since the German occupation, Evangeline Pfeiffer has worked at the bakery in the small French town of Turckheim. Each morning, with Alain her brother, she helps make the bread and pastries for Joseph, the baker. It is a life of routine and order. But when Alain is arrested by the Gestapo, her life is turned upside down. Unwittingly, she becomes an accomplice in the murder of Nazi agent Ludwig Kraus. Thrown together with the killer, a Polish spy, Kasha, her only hope is to escape to Spain. Taking the baker’s van she and Kasha drive south. She has burnt her bridges – there is no going back. She is on the run – but the spy running with her is not all he seems. Behind them as they twist and turn across Occupied France, their pursuers are closing in: the Gestapo, the German spy catchers (Sicherheitsdienst) and, most terrifying of all, the ruthless French secret police, La Carlingue. If they catch her she knows she will be violated then executed. In the city of Dijon Kasha is captured. On her own, her chances of escape fading she flees south, the net tightening around her. Then in Lyon she meets Grainger, a British SOE agent – he could be the game changer. If she can persuade him to help her, this could be her ticket out. Grainger is reluctant, he has his own mission, he can’t afford passengers – but she’s sticking to him. She’s not about to let go…

The Sugar Girls - Ethel's Story: Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyle's East End


Duncan Barrett - 2012
    The work was back-breakingly hard, but the Tate & Lyle factory was more than just a workplace - it was a community, a calling, a place of love and support and an uproarious, tribal part of East London. This is Ethel’s story, one of four stories from The Sugar Girls.‘On an autumn day in 1944, Ethel Alleyne walked the short distance from her house to Tate & Lyle’s refinery on the shining curve of the Thames. Looking up at the giant gates, Ethel felt like she had been preparing for this moment all her life. She smoothed down her frizzy hair, scraped a bit of dirt off the corner of her shoe and strode through.She was quite unprepared for the sight that met her eyes …’In the years leading up to and after the Second World War thousands of women left school at fourteen to work in the bustling factories of London’s East End. Despite long hours, hard and often hazardous work, factory life afforded exciting opportunities for independence, friendship and romance. Of all the factories that lined the docks, it was at Tate and Lyle’s where you could earn the most generous wages and enjoy the best social life, and it was here where The Sugar Girls worked.This is an evocative, moving story of hunger, hardship and happiness, providing a moving insight into a lost way of life, as well as a timeless testament to the experience of being young and female.

Elida, The Forbidden Ghetto Girl: The story of a daughter with three fathers and four mothers


Zipora Klein Jakob - 2021
    Biography

Wings Over Malta


Ron Powell - 2016
    Their task is simple, regain control of the air. But when not sheltering from incessant bombing by Luftwaffe forces based only minutes to the north on Sicily, Jack and his fellow pilots are hunted from take off to landing by tens of Messerschmitt 109Fs. Can they, and the Island, survive? The novel is dedicated to the people of Malta and the pilots from all over the world who fought to protect them. The cover design by Martin Butler is based on the image, Spitfire Flypast, by Paolo Camera. Reviewers found the flying scenes in Ron’s Battle of Britain novel, Wings Over Summer, especially vivid and those in Wings Over Malta are no less dynamic. This is because Ron spent much of his 32 years in the RAF as a flying instructor, teaching young men and women to turn upside down, jink and spin in light aircraft. He also picked the brains of several Battle of Britain veterans and current Spitfire pilots.

The Norwegian Assassin


Hannah Byron - 2022
    Her fiancé taken from her. Esther Weiss sees only one way to fight back.Life is good for Esther and her Jewish family until Hitler annexes their home country Austria. Her wedding to fiancé Carl Bernstein is postponed, and her family's entire life is uprooted.Thinking they’ll be safe in Oslo, the Weiss’s hope is short-lived when Norway is invaded in 1940 and the fascist Quisling Regime is put into place. Esther returns home one day to discover her entire family has been deported. Gone. Without a trace.Something snaps inside Esther. The soft-hearted, gentle girl is no longer. Her desire to fight the enemy becomes her only drive. She joins the Norwegian resistance movement and with her blond hair and light eyes, all it takes is a false passport to give Esther the freedom she needs. The freedom to kill. No German or Norwegian fascist is safe when she’s nearby.Destruction of those who took her family gives Esther a license to live, but it has also hardened her heart. Not even Tore Ringdal, her rock and protector in the Resistance movement, is able to break through the walls she’s placed around her heart.When all she loves is gone, and only hate remains, can the Norwegian Assassin reopen her heart and find love again?

Sisters at War


Clare Flynn - 2021
    The pressures of war threaten to tear apart two sisters traumatised by their mother's murder by their father.With her new husband Will, a merchant seaman, deployed on dangerous Atlantic convoy missions, Hannah needs her younger sister Judith more than ever. But when Mussolini declares war on Britain, Judith's Italian sweetheart, Paolo is imprisoned as an enemy alien, and Judith's loyalties are divided.Each sister wants only to be with the man she loves but, as the war progresses, tensions between them boil over, and they face an impossible decision.A heart-wrenching page-turner about the everyday bravery of ordinary people during wartime. From heavily blitzed Liverpool to the terrors of the North Atlantic and the scorched plains of Australia, Sisters at War will bring tears to your eyes and joy to your heart.