The Air Raid Book Club

 
As war clouds gather over Europe, Gertie Bingham is struggling in running her bookshop without the help of her late husband, Harry. She is on the verge of selling up when a good friend asks if she would consider taking in one of the Jewish child refugees fleeing from Germany.

She has never had a child of her own and is at first reluctant to help but relents and accepts the teenaged Hedy, who also has emotional struggles having been separated from her parents and brother. Initially, their relationship is prickly but as time passes and Britain is drawn into war, they manage to resolve their issues.

The community rally around Gertie as she starts a book club in the air raid shelter. Frosty individuals thaw, some even find romance, and when Gertie is faced with more losses and trials, she knows she has the support of her many loyal customers who are now firm friends.

I must admit I came to this novel with some uncertainty, being yet another title in the seemingly unending trend for World War II fiction (with the obligatory cover image of a faceless woman looking at planes) and combined with that other sub-genre in danger of being overcooked, i.e. the “book club”. However, with its easy narrative and cast of old-fashioned, good-intentioned characters who are filled with optimism in spite of the trials affecting all of them, I shook off my doubts and rather enjoyed what is a comforting ride.

If you’re in the mood for a romantic novel that is uplifting, relays positivity and generosity of the human spirit in hard times, then this is it.

(With thanks to Good Reading magazine for the free copy.)
 
Four stars


Amazon.com (different cover)

Amazon.co.uk (Kindle)
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Big W (Australia)

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