Popularity: 13% [?]

Anna and Joe Putts have just been blessed with a beautiful baby daughter, Joanna. But with the gathering clouds of war oppressing all of their lives, the young couple soon realize that there may be a chance that little Joanna may never know her own father as he has just enlisted to fight in the War. Although sad that her husband has had to leave her and their child behind to fight the faceless enemy, Anna soon realizes that life has to go on for her and Joanna, so she decides to roll up sleeves and carry on with her life – with a little help from her friends, of course!

Her neighbours, Rosie and Queenie take Anna and her child under their wings and start to regard the Putts as members of their own families. But both women have got problems of their own. Rosie is concerned about what effect the war will have on her children and grandchildren; whilst Queenie has got even more pressing problems. Not only have two of her grandchildren been evacuated to the countryside, but the man she truly loves is fighting in the War and there’s a chance that he might never come back to her.

Queenie never thought that she would be the kind of woman who would have an affair, but when her ungrateful husband had pushed her once too often, she had found herself seeking solace in the arms of another man: Paul Tramner. Paul had begged her to leave her selfish husband behind and go to live in Canada with him, but her responsibilities and her loyalties had kept her in London. However, when she had last met Paul, she had realized that she wanted to spend the rest of her life by his side. But having gone off to war, Queenie worries that she’ll never see him ever again…

As the women of Dason Street worry whether the ones they love will ever return, the enemy gets closer and closer and they can’t help but wonder whether, this time, they will survive this damned war.

It’s One of Ours is an engaging wartime saga written with plenty of warmth, wit, grit and heart. Joan M. Moules has a lovely writing style which immediately draws you into her story and once you read the first page of It’s One of Ours, you’ll find yourself unable to stop!

Popularity: 21% [?]

The moon rode high in the night sky. On his pallet near the hearth, Liam lay asleep, his breathing quiet and steady.

Now!

Slipping out of her bed in Da’s old room, Grace stole to the cabin door. If Liam stirred when she lifted the latch, he’d think she’d gone to relieve herself and turn back to sleep. Should he worry when she didn’t return, he’d never find her, never suspect that to Owen O’Malley she had gone.

Luck and God and moonlight were with her, guiding her way to the village. She avoided the rutted lanes, for even at the midnight hour, someone might be traveling along, a drunkard, a tinker. An armed patrol.

At the edge of the village, still hidden by the trees, she waited, peering about, looking for the slightest movement, the slightest sound. Hardly a rustle came from the sleeping forest. Not a single dog barked. Forcing her mind from the thought of the dogs, she moved out of hiding.

Owen’s blacksmith’s forge stood apart, the last in a cluster of low, thatched huts, their doors closed against the night, their windowless wattle and daub walls blind to her presence. Like the clamor of his forge, Owen’s bitterness kept the villagers at bay. Unless, of course, they had need of his skill.

Tonight she needed him for far more than mending a leaky pot or patching a turf spade. Outside his door, in the open lean-to that housed his forge, she glanced from right to left and back over her shoulder. No one. Nothing. As fast as quicksilver she moved and, in an instant, stood inside his cabin.

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Popularity: 35% [?]