Synopsis
1946: The war might be over but for the Gilby family there are still battles to be fought at home . . .
For Birmingham and the Gilby family the war years have been a time of great change. With her husband having left her for another woman, Ann Gilby is finally free to follow her heart. While the neighbours may be scandalized by having a divorcee in their midst, Ann is determined to rise above the local gossip and make a happy home with her former sweetheart, the father of Ann’s youngest child.
Meanwhile daughters Joy and Sheila are lucky enough to have their menfolk back home, but Joy’s husband has returned from his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp a broken man.
Then there’s Ann’s son, Martin, who is still coming to terms with learning who his real father is, as well as having secrets of his own . . .
My Review
Anybody who knows me well, knows that not only am I a book geek but I am also a historical fiction nerd with a particular interest in stories set during or shortly after the First World War and the Second World War. So you can probably understand why the synopsis of ‘Homecoming For The Chocolate Girls’ appealed to me so much. I couldn’t wait to dive in and so without further ado, I grabbed a cup of tea, grabbed my copy of the book and settled down for an interesting afternoon of reading. I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Homecoming For The Chocolate Girls’ but more about that in a bit.
When I agreed to take part in the blog tour for ‘Homecoming For The Chocolate Girls’, I hadn’t actually realised that it was the fifth instalment of the ‘Chocolate Girls’ series. Oops. Not to worry though because it means that I now have the opportunity to read the series in order and from start to finish. I picked up ‘Homecoming For The Chocolate Girls’ only intending to read a chapter or two but I became so wrapped up in the story and in the lives of the different characters that I read over 100 pages in one go. I warmed to most of the characters from the start and I had to keep reading to see how their part of the story panned out. This was a book that certainly got under my skin and I found myself becoming far too involved in the story to the extent that I was ‘talking’ to the characters as if they could hear me. The more of the book that I read, the more I wanted to read and the quicker the pages seemed to turn. All too quickly I reached the end of ‘Homecoming For The Chocolate Girls’. I found ‘Homecoming For The Chocolate Girls’ to be a gripping, at times tense and rather emotional story which certainly kept me guessing.
‘Homecoming For The Chocolate Girls’ is superbly written and then some. Annie has an easy going writing style that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. Annie certainly knows how to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into what proves to be one heck of a story. Annie clearly cares about her characters and this shines through in the very vivid and realistic way in which she describes them. She makes her characters seem just as real as you and I. I ended up feeling as though certain characters had become friends of mine rather than characters in a book. There was one particular character whose situation really got to me and even now I am still thinking about them. Annie has clearly done an awful lot of research into the time period during which the story takes place and this helps the story seem that bit more authentic. Reading ‘Homecoming For The Chocolate Girls’ certainly felt like being on an emotional rollercoaster ride with all the twists and turns, ups and downs, highs and lows and well you get the picture. I love the way in which the author makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story and at the heart of the action.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Homecoming For The Chocolate Girls’ and I would recommend it to other readers. I hope to read much, much more of Annie’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.
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