Member Review

This is probably my favourite of the three books in the series. In the first, we were introduced to Emmy Lake - a cheerful young woman who hopes to become a journalist who adds value to the war effort. In the second, she gets married and pushes to take 'Women's Friend' magazine in a different direction. In this third installment, Emmy and the team will probably be facing their biggest hurdle yet!
The magazine's owner passes away and leaves just this particular magazine in the hands of his niece Mrs Porter. The latter is an interesting character who starts off as a beautiful airhead who is nice and says pretty things to everyone. It is only a matter of time before she makes the paper regress to the state it once was in the first book, albeit in a more fluttery and less aggressive manner than Mrs Bird.
The difference this time is the effort that goes into thinking up the options while maintaining the basic audience that the team has managed to gather over the last year or more.
It is a very active enterprise, with plans in the making, heart-breaking incidents and a lot of effort. The constant movement in the plot and the overall triumph (that is not much of a spoiler) make this a worthwhile read.
I actually shed tears this time as opposed to the previous two times with Emmy Lake, and I highly recommend this series. It is the kind of historical fiction that people do not get often, one that does not focus on a historical figure or incident but focuses instead on ordinary people and their daily lives.
I would not recommend jumping in at this point, although it is self-sufficient to a point. The relationships that were forged over the time the characters have all spent together make a difference in the effect the book has on the reader, and going in the appropriate order makes sense.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.