Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

War Brides

by Helen Bryan (Goodreads Author)

3.52 of 5 stars 3.52 · rating details · 5,175 ratings · 1,032 reviews

With war threatening to spread from Europe to England, the sleepy village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. Nightly air raids become grimly mundane. The tightening vice of rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge an unlikely bond of friendship that will change t...more With war threatening to spread from Europe to England, the sleepy village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. Nightly air raids become grimly mundane. The tightening vice of rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge an unlikely bond of friendship that will change their lives forever. Alice Osbourne, the stolid daughter of the late vicar, is reeling from the news that Richard Fairfax broke their engagement to marry Evangeline Fontaine, an American girl from the Deep South. Evangeline's arrival causes a stir in the village?but not the chaos that would ensue if they knew her motives for being there. Scrappy Elsie Pigeon is among the poor of London who see the evacuations as a chance to escape a life of destitution. Another new arrival is Tanni Zayman, a young Jewish girl who fled the horrors of Europe and now waits with her newborn son, certain that the rest of her family is safe and bound to show up any day. And then there's Frances Falconleigh, a madcap, fearless debutante whose father is determined to keep her in the countryside and out of the papers. As the war and its relentless hardships intensify around them, the same struggles that threaten to rip apart their lives also bring the five closer together. They draw strength from one another to defeat formidable enemies?hunger, falling bombs, the looming threat of a Nazi invasion, and a traitor in their midst?and find remarkable strength within themselves to help their friends. Theirs is a war-forged loyalty that will outlast the fiercest battle and endure years and distance. When four of the women return to Crowmarsh Priors for a VE Day celebration fifty years later, television cameras focus on the heartwarming story of these old women as war brides of a bygone age, but miss the more newsworthy angle. The women's mission is not to commemorate or remember?they?ve returned to settle a score and avenge one of their own.(less)

Paperback, 467 pages

Published 2007 by Penguin Books

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

World War II Fiction

144th out of 485 books — 613 voters

The Luck of the Weissensteiners by Christoph Fischer

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

The Valley of Unknowing by Philip Sington

The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek

History through Novels: 1900s/2000s Eastern Europe

18th out of 46 books — 39 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Aug 04, 2011 Erin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: historic-fiction-1900s

Follow all my reviews at: http://flashlightcommentary.blogspot....

Trifecta! Punctuation errors, spelling blunders and formatting mistakes! I’m sorry but I can’t ignore it. Throughout the text I found double periods and commas. Slipups in spelling are abundant. Some chapter headings were placed immediately after the last sentence of the preceding chapter and others began a full two pages later. These seemingly simple gaffes drive me crazy as a reader.

Think you can ignore those issues? Let’s look...more Follow all my reviews at: http://flashlightcommentary.blogspot....

Trifecta! Punctuation errors, spelling blunders and formatting mistakes! I’m sorry but I can’t ignore it. Throughout the text I found double periods and commas. Slipups in spelling are abundant. Some chapter headings were placed immediately after the last sentence of the preceding chapter and others began a full two pages later. These seemingly simple gaffes drive me crazy as a reader.

Think you can ignore those issues? Let’s look at another one. “Evangeline Fairfax’s coming-out ball was the last party before Lent and everyone knew was going to be splendid.” Nothing wrong with the formatting but I find this issue to be more serious than those previously mentioned. Evangeline’s last name is Fontaine. You could stretch it by saying she eventually marries Richard Fairfax but as the story is written in the present tense I can’t give much weight to that argument. The cast is rather large. How can the reader be expected to keep the characters straight if the author can’t?

Characterization was almost nonexistent. Tanni discovers she is pregnant, has a normal pregnancy and holds her son in less than two pages. That was difficult to wrap my head around. I am not looking for The Council of Elrond here but I couldn’t empathize with characters who receive such simplistic treatment within the text.

Some situations made no sense at all. Evangeline drugs Richard and is planning her escape and elopement from New Orleans. One page break later Richard’s mother is announcing their marriage and arrival in England. What happened to his being in love with and engaged to Alice? Was the drug supposed to be some sort of voodoo magic? It felt like a drive by.

To be fair, most of the dialogue is fine and I am all for colloquialism in literature but this was too much. “’Well, I can’t ‘ardly bear to think of it ‘appenin’ all over again,’ I says to ‘er. ‘It can’t,’ I says to ‘er. ‘But it will,’ she says, certain as anyfink. ‘I fink you can count on it, Mrs Pigeon.’” For the record, I know there is a period missing from Mrs. Pigeon. The passage is a direct quote.

In a nod to my English grandmother, this wasn’t my cup of tea. My cheap humor aside I was prepared to like this book before I even opened it. Women in wartime England is right up my alley of interest not to mention my family tree. My problem with the novel is that there were so many superficial errors that I really didn’t care about the story. By the time it really started moving I was 43% done with the book and completely out of patience. Other reviewers seem to be able to ignore these issues. I can’t. The story doesn’t matter if it isn’t readable.
(less)

12 likes · like · see review

Sep 04, 2012 Nancy L. rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-ii

In addition to Erin's trifecta of punctuation errors, spelling blunders, and formatting mistakes, I'll add two more:

1) tiresome overuse of dialect – Creole! Georgia! Cockney! Louisiana! - and yet the upper crust Brits, the Jews, and the Austrians had none, and

2) obvious and distracting historical blunders. Frex, the American air crews in Britain were part of the U.S. Army Air Corps and they weren't split off into a separate branch of the service and called the U.S. Air Force until 1947. Glenn M...more

9 likes · like · see review

Aug 13, 2012 Josee rated it 3 of 5 stars

The story started off with a lot of promise but fell flat at some points and the ending was really rushed. The author set you up to care about these 5 girls (although it is clear one of them is missing 50 years later) but each of their stories comes off fragmented and too piecey with too many holes. And the "present day" story got to be annoying and it was overshadowed by the news program and the anchor! Who cared about all that! We wanted to know the story of the women: Alice, Evangeline, Elsie...more

18 likes · like · see review

May 11, 2013 Marcie rated it 3 of 5 stars

My problem with this book is that I liked the overall story, but was driven completely nuts by the writing style, character development, and timeline. Regarding writing style, the author tries to recreate a Cockney accent in text, which was completely distracting since I often had to read a sentence three or four times before I could figure out what the character was trying to say. While the story was predominantly written from the point of view of the main five characters, the author would thro...more

like · see review

Apr 09, 2013 Aunty Janet rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

,,In 1939, as evacuation gets underway and Britain waits for the Luftwaffe to arrive, the lives of four very different women are about to collide in the sleepy little village of Crowmarsh Priors. Evangeline Fontaine has eloped from New Orleans with dashing naval captain Richard Fairfax. A Sussex village is about as far away from home as she can possibly imagine, away from memories of her first, passionate love. Alice Osbourne, living with her impossible mother, is resigned to life as the parish...more

like · see review

Mar 15, 2013 Lynn Young rated it 1 of 5 stars

Warning! If you don't wish to read an insulting review, stop now!
This author is horrible! Author should've clearly done more research. It's obvious that she just plucked ideas and wrote them down. She doesn't know her ass from a hole in the ground! Everything is wrong!
We go from the dumped Alice who never got an explanation from Richard to Evangeline, the supposedly privileged plantation daughter. There was poor and butchered accents and stupid spies. Oh and there was old smuggling caves! Tanni...more

like · see review

Jan 30, 2013 Abra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, first-time-read, historical-fiction

This book is published by "Amazon Press", which may make it one of the new Amazon ebook virtual imprints. Not sure. In any case, it was enjoyable and light. Historical chick lit. It struck me as a poor woman's Gone to Soldiers, in that it was meant to be an ensemble tale of World War II on the homefront, but confined to Britain. The author is American, though she's lived in England for quite some time. But like Elizabeth George and that woman who wrote The Mucky Duck and other pub-named mysterie...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 22, 2013 Kiera Healy rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book had the makings of an interesting, character-driven look at life for the women of World War Two. Unfortunately, it was horrible. Early on it had a lot of promise, but by the end I was skimming pages, desperate to finish this thing.

The premise is that five women from different backgrounds find themselves drawn together in a small Sussex village during WW2. See, given their diverse backgrounds, there could have been some interesting conflict here, but the author seems to only like confli...more This book had the makings of an interesting, character-driven look at life for the women of World War Two. Unfortunately, it was horrible. Early on it had a lot of promise, but by the end I was skimming pages, desperate to finish this thing.

The premise is that five women from different backgrounds find themselves drawn together in a small Sussex village during WW2. See, given their diverse backgrounds, there could have been some interesting conflict here, but the author seems to only like conflict when it's a very black-and-white, good vs evil situation. So the five women become best friends without any preamble, while the villains in the background are racist New Orleans plantation owners, Nazi sympathisers, Mengele-type doctors operating on Jewish twins, etc. There is zero explanation of how the five women become friendly - despite the fact that one is a rich heiress, one is a down-to-earth Cockney with the worst accent since Dick Van Dyke (painfully written out), etc. What kills me is that two of the women are set up to be opposed to each other - one seduced and eloped with the other's fiance - and initially we are told they don't like each other, but without any warning they become BFFs. Why?!

The book is riddled with typographical errors and factual mistakes, which other reviewers have commented on. They were jarring, but for me what really sucked was the pacing. A lot of the action happens in retrospect, so we miss the interesting moments in the characters' lives. One of them, a teenage Austrian Jew, is forced into marriage with an older man she barely knows so that she can escape to England. We fast-forward from her marriage to her discovery of her pregnancy to her having the baby. Suddenly she's happily in love with her husband, but we've missed all the interesting character development along the way! Similarly, characters fall in love abruptly, and thankfully Helen Bryan writes in this painstakingly obvious way - "She suddenly realised she was in love with him" - otherwise I'd have no clue what was going on.

The story would have worked a lot better had Bryan focused on the minutiae of these characters' lives, and explored how they really felt about each other and their situation, but instead she had to throw in these ridiculous action elements of Nazi spies, plucky girls trying to save children from Auschwitz, and a "mystery" that the reader will solve before it's even been introduced! The plot stops and starts and doesn't really go anywhere until the final pages of exposition.

Point of view jumps from one character to another. The accents are written out HORRENDOUSLY, and the way these supposedly English characters speak is ridiculous - this was very clearly written by an American. The ending is horrible and makes no sense, with all the main cast ageing 50 years and reuniting (to the background noise of a news anchor who is narrating the VE Day celebrations, and who has probably the most jarringly un-English way of speaking of the lot) and acting completely out of character. In conclusion: this book is a total mess. Stay away.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jan 05, 2013 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I waited awhile for the book to get going and once it finally did and I was really hooked in, wanting to read more, the story ubruptly stopped! The characters were finally developed, but then suddenly all forward momentum in the story stopped and things were explained to Alice in a phone call (the death of the elder DeBalfort/burning down of his home and Frances disappearing). Talk about missing out on all the action! It was almost as if the author decided she had written enough and needed to qu...more

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 30, 2012 Catherine Crowther rated it 5 of 5 stars

I honestly thought this was one of the best books I have read ever. Yes I thought that it ended too quickly, but I loved it all the same. (Plus I think I am an idealist and a definate sucker for a happy ending) I liked the way that the beginning set the scene really well and got you intrigued. I felt desperately sorry for Evangeline when she was in New Orleans, but always knew Laurent couldn't be trusted either. I felt so bad for Tanni but would have been happier if her sisters had eventually fo...more I honestly thought this was one of the best books I have read ever. Yes I thought that it ended too quickly, but I loved it all the same. (Plus I think I am an idealist and a definate sucker for a happy ending) I liked the way that the beginning set the scene really well and got you intrigued. I felt desperately sorry for Evangeline when she was in New Orleans, but always knew Laurent couldn't be trusted either. I felt so bad for Tanni but would have been happier if her sisters had eventually found their way to her as she probably suffered way more than the others. I actually cried when we found out what happened to her family.
I loved Alice as a character and was happy she got a happy ending at last, expecially after all the misery with her mother. I thought Elsie was great, especially how she matured and altered throughout the course of the book.
I thought that Frances was a brilliant character (probably my favourite)and loved how she developed and changed throughout the book. When she discovered the de Balfort secret, I thought more could have been made of it in terms of detail as I felt her exit was too sudden.(again it was down to me being an idealist rather than any error on Helen Bryan's part - obvious Frances's work in the war meant she could have been called off at any moment)
The sense of loyalty and friendship between all the women was strong and obvious, although I would have loved a good old fashioned argument between Alice and Evangeline.
The ending was great, although I got very upset at what happened as I was such a fan of Frances as a character. Yes, the final scenes were far fetched but they were far kinder than they could have been. Without giving too much away, the person confronted DEFINATELY gets what they deserve. I would have liked more to be made of Frances and Oliver's relationship but that's more because I am just a sucker for an old fashioned romance. I think the relationships and what happened during the story and afterwards to the characters were portrayed realistically as war destroys. I think to tie everything up in a big Disney-fied happy ending would have satisfied me more, but would have left me not feeling the same about the book.(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Oct 26, 2012 Rochelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Overall, a good book and well researched, though a few things did bother me. Such as...Laurent kept popping up in London, even though it was so dangerous and difficult to get across the English channel and sneak into England. Maybe it was his activity in the Free French? But still, to do it and talk about it so openly and obviously...well, seems dangerous. Also, If Frances reported the de Balfort family to her higher ups about suspicious activity and they already suspected them and asked her to...more Overall, a good book and well researched, though a few things did bother me. Such as...Laurent kept popping up in London, even though it was so dangerous and difficult to get across the English channel and sneak into England. Maybe it was his activity in the Free French? But still, to do it and talk about it so openly and obviously...well, seems dangerous. Also, If Frances reported the de Balfort family to her higher ups about suspicious activity and they already suspected them and asked her to watch them, then why the hell did they let her go back there alone? I'm pretty sure in Wartime Britain they would have investigated such a thing, especially if catching "Manfred" was such a priority. Additionally, if there was any sort of chance her cover was blown, especially since Hugo survived the explosion (which was apparently also not investigated), why did they still send her abroad?? Especially since she was apparently pregnant? It's a bit of a plot hole, I think. It seems she would have/should have had at least one superior in the region, if not in the village, supervising her mock/trial period.
Then there's the whole part at the end where all the old ladies go "The Visit" on Hugo. I guess I'm supposed to cheer and be excited about that bit, but quite frankly I found it disturbing. DCS Foyle would have frowned on these shenanigans, arrested them all and charged them with murder, all while cooly explaining that even when it's justified and even when there's a war on, or was, murder is never, ever justified. It just seemed so out of character for all of them, except for maybe Frances. Who got shot in the head earlier, so wasn't even there.
The last little chapter where it was revealed that the twins did survive after all was a nice little tie up, but honestly I didn't feel it was necessary and gave the book a bit more of a holiday ending. One of the books strengths, I thought, was how the author wasn't afraid to kill off characters (yes, even though I disagree with how Frances met her end...). She killed off half Elsie's family, the Joseph Parents, the twins not making it to England on the Kindertransport. The whole plan to smuggle the twins into England was so far fetched and unlikely to succeed anyway that having it ALMOST actually work only to have the twins die or drown in a tunnel collapse just really brought to life the tragedy and futility of war. You can be so save...just almost there, against impossible odds and then...you bite it. It would have made me super sad had they really been dead in the book, but it would have had more meaning than a last little chapter saying "Oh, btw, they're totally alive but Tanni doesn't know it." Because then all I have to say is...soo....can they pay another private detective to figure this one out for them? Because the private detective did a pretty good job with the rest.
Anyway, other than these things it was a pretty good book. A little slow in the beginning as all the characters were being lined up for their entrances but once the plot got going, I stayed up past midnight reading through to the end because I knew if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to sleep until I found out what happened. (less)

like · see review

Oct 23, 2012 Reid rated it 3 of 5 stars

I find it extremely difficult to write a review of this type of book; there may be nothing more difficult. It is compelling. It covers a fascinating subset of a familiar theme: the blitz and other experiences of war in Great Britain. It focuses on the much-neglected lives of women in those times and what they experienced. And yet....

And yet, it really isn't a very well-written book. Not that Ms. Bryan can't put together one sentence to follow another. Not that she can't build a (mostly) credible...more I find it extremely difficult to write a review of this type of book; there may be nothing more difficult. It is compelling. It covers a fascinating subset of a familiar theme: the blitz and other experiences of war in Great Britain. It focuses on the much-neglected lives of women in those times and what they experienced. And yet....

And yet, it really isn't a very well-written book. Not that Ms. Bryan can't put together one sentence to follow another. Not that she can't build a (mostly) credible storyline. Not that I doubt the veracity of her scholarship (she is, by profession, a historian, after all). But she has drawn from a grab bag of prêt-à-porter characters, no more original or believable than Snidely Whiplash or Dudley Do-Right. There is the standard issue widowed rich lady (nasty, nosy, snide, proud), the dowdy vicar's daughter, the bumbling new vicar, the confused refugee East European, the ne'er-do-well little thief made good by love, the heroic warrior, the spoiled Southern belle...it goes on and on. And what could be better than the ultimate black hat: Nazis! Everyone who sympathizes with the Nazis is, of course, entirely evil and can have no motives other than this evil for their deeds. It wouldn't do to have any moral ambiguity in this fairy tale. And heaven help you if you are not one of the major characters the author has chosen to focus her attentions on; not only will you not be fleshed out, you won't even have a name (watch for the Land Girl's team leader for a good example).

In addition to this, the writing is predictable and plodding. Partly this arises from trying to tell too many stories at the same time without the narrative chops to make each intertwining storyline make consistent sense. I found myself wondering just exactly what was motivating many of these characters to do what they did. I came to suspect that the primary reason they took many of their actions was to satisfy the author's predetermined agenda rather than from any internal logic within the character as written.

I won't even get into the moral blindness Bryan exhibits in the way she chooses to end this story; I wouldn't dream of spoiling that particular nasty surprise for you. I see this as another example of the author having a particular need—in this case to have a "daring" or "shocking" ending—and carrying forward this urge without consulting the characters she has built and asking if they would do what these women do.

But you can see what I mean about reviewing this kind of book. Because in the final analysis I actually liked War Brides. "Compelling" is still the adjective that comes to mind most readily when I think of it. I suppose what I am reacting to is the fact that, for a book I found so basically likeable, I regret it wasn't much better than it was, as it could have been if rewritten by someone who could make the whole thing hang together in a credible way. (less)

8 likes · like · see review

Oct 07, 2012 R. Honey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Everybody in my reading circle knows I am drawn to books about the second world war. I REALLY like books that deal with the homefront

in Great Britain. These include The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher and Forbidden Places by Penny Vincennzi.

So when I saw the delightlful cover of War Brides I just had to read it immediately!

There was a bit of fanciful nonsense in the beginning of this book that made me wonder if it was going to turn out to be some kind of

Danielle Steele,True Blood,Twilight non...more

4 likes · like · see review

Oct 05, 2012 Mmtimes4 rated it 3 of 5 stars

With war threatening to spread from Europe to England, the sleepy village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. Nightly air raids become grimly mundane. The tightening vice of rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge an unlikely bond of friendship that will change their lives forever. Alice Osbourne, the stolid daughter of the late vicar, is reeling from the news that Richard Fairfax brok...more With war threatening to spread from Europe to England, the sleepy village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. Nightly air raids become grimly mundane. The tightening vice of rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge an unlikely bond of friendship that will change their lives forever. Alice Osbourne, the stolid daughter of the late vicar, is reeling from the news that Richard Fairfax broke their engagement to marry Evangeline Fontaine, an American girl from the Deep South. Evangeline's arrival causes a stir in the village?but not the chaos that would ensue if they knew her motives for being there. Scrappy Elsie Pigeon is among the poor of London who see the evacuations as a chance to escape a life of destitution. Another new arrival is Tanni Zayman, a young Jewish girl who fled the horrors of Europe and now waits with her newborn son, certain that the rest of her family is safe and bound to show up any day. And then there's Frances Falconleigh, a madcap, fearless debutante whose father is determined to keep her in the countryside and out of the papers. As the war and its relentless hardships intensify around them, the same struggles that threaten to rip apart their lives also bring the five closer together. They draw strength from one another to defeat formidable enemies?hunger, falling bombs, the looming threat of a Nazi invasion, and a traitor in their midst?and find remarkable strength within themselves to help their friends. Theirs is a war-forged loyalty that will outlast the fiercest battle and endure years and distance. When four of the women return to Crowmarsh Priors for a VE Day celebration fifty years later, television cameras focus on the heartwarming story of these old women as war brides of a bygone age, but miss the more newsworthy angle. The women's mission is not to commemorate or remember?they?ve returned to settle a score and avenge one of their own.
I enjoyed this book. It took me a few chapters to get all the characters straight but I like the time period, the setting and again insight into the lifes of people who went through WWII. (less)

like · see review

Sep 22, 2012 Regina Meehan-simunek added it

War Brides – Helen Bryan
War Brides is not a curl up by the fireplace type book but rather a quick read and the first novel written by Helen Bryan. The title may be a little deceptive if you are expecting a book about how young women married and survived during World War II.
This is an uplifting story about friendships that developed with these women. They come from different backgrounds who under normal circumstances would have hardly given the time of day to each other
It opens with these women...more War Brides – Helen Bryan
War Brides is not a curl up by the fireplace type book but rather a quick read and the first novel written by Helen Bryan. The title may be a little deceptive if you are expecting a book about how young women married and survived during World War II.
This is an uplifting story about friendships that developed with these women. They come from different backgrounds who under normal circumstances would have hardly given the time of day to each other
It opens with these women returning to the coastal town of Crowmarch Priors, England, for a reunion with a quest concerning one of their friends. As they are return to Crowmarsh Priors the story unfurls and we learn how they meet and become such caring friends. We are introduced to the women one at a time and recognize some of the pain they experience; the broken hearts, the lost love, and the deaths of a loved one. Other than the men making them war brides we are introduced to them but do not get to know them.
We live through the women in the village and see how the friendships developed. While babies are born and marriages take place these women decide to help the Zayman twins. And yet they discuss little if anything of their personal lives with one another.
The story was short on detail. You are not inclined to cringe in fear when bombs were dropped on London. You were on to another chapter before you could feel the hunger of poor children or smell the stink from poor housing in London. The rationing did not appear to leave the people of Crowmarsh Priors feeling depressed or in despair. A chapter was devoted to the Zayman's in Austria yet I did not feel the pain and fear the Jewish people felt when rejected by their town in Austria.
As I finished the book I thought that it started with such great potential but the title left me looking for more to the story. It is a nice story about friendship that did not need World War II as a back drop. It seemed the Ms. Bryan or her editor had run out of time and did not address some items and just dropped them. Then as a sudden afterthought the Zayman twins were addressed.
When London was being bombed I wanted to feel the dust and rubble, when in the country I wanted to feel the grass beneath my feet and the smell of the salt air. Helen Bryan states that she was inspired to write this book by the war-time stories of family and friends. It felt like she could tell a story but her lack of detail and emotion left me feeling as though she was trying to remember the memories of others and when the memory faulted so did the story.
(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 12, 2012 Cindy Huff rated it 4 of 5 stars

War Brides took me to England during WWII. As an American whose parents were children during WWII I knew of the hardship here and was curious to get another perspective. This book has been well researched. There are five war brides (almost too many characters to keep straight). Evangeline, an American who married an English officer before America joined the war. Frances, a debutant sent to the country to stay out of trouble.Tanni, an Austrian Jew whose arrange marriage happens moments before fle...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 09, 2012 Suzanna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

The women in the story had such varying personalities. One seemed spoiled and selfish but in he end she was the most giving. Another who was was miss organized and seemed to be the most stable ended up making quick decision that was most important for her. One was a jewish girl who escaped the clutches of Hitler by an almost extreme plan her plans her parents had made which was against her wishes, but necessary. Another was a lower class English child who became a servant in a wealthy manner. Th...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 01, 2012 Michele Grant rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was wanting more even after the storyline came to a conclusion. Evangeline, Alice, Elsie, Francis and Tanni all came to live in the English countryside, quite by chance, before War broke out in Europe. Their lives became entwined in such a way that they became forever friends. They were an unlikely bunch to have formed such lasting friendships. Alice, the local minister's daughter who had never stepped outside Crowmarch Priors, Frances, the admiral's daughter w...more

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 30, 2012 Maria rated it 3 of 5 stars

It wasn't until I was almost 3/4 of the way through that I couldn't put the book down. It was just that after reading so much of the book, I was eager for something...ANYTHING to happen.

For 75% of the book, I was casually reading, finding out about these five, dramatically different women. But like all good stories, they united for a common cause. The thing is about War Brides, is that the common causes were never fully explored, and, quite frankly - lazily explained in the clipped ending.

SPOIL...more

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 18, 2012 Julia rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: popcorn

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Bought this on the cheap for the Kindle, thinking it would be a good vacation read. It wasn't.

Basically, five young women from wildly different backgrounds all wind up in the same English village during WWII. Somehow (and without much explanation) they all become chums, and then there's some romance, a meddling old lady, a bit of espionage, and a failed (but not really!) attempt at saving some twins using mysterious underground smuggling tunnels. The book could have worked, but it just didn't....more

8 likes · like · see review

Jul 31, 2012 Libi rated it 2 of 5 stars

*SPOILERS*

After hearing both good and bad reviews, I went ahead and got this book on a fling (borrowed from ebook fling. I thought this story was very engaging and I liked it, in the beginning. There were places where it drug terribly and the ending was rushed. Like other reviewers, I noticed typos and nonsensical sentences throughout the book. However, I felt that some of the spellings could have been GBE instead of AmE but most of them weren't. (ex: using a 's' in the place of a 'z'.) And the...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jul 26, 2012 Allie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoy historical fiction, especially if that history involves WWII. Generally I stick to stories that revolve around the camps or Germany for no other reason than those are the ones that draw my attention the most. However, I always love reading about England. (Even though I've never been, I am sure I was meant to live there.) This story was a fantastic compilation of everything I enjoy in a book. WWII, England, romance, and mystery. I literally dreamt myself into this story at nigh...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 22, 2012 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not normally a book I'd think to read, War Brides turned up atop my Kindle recommended list and, as I'd yet to borrow a book for July, I figured, what the heck?

And a very nice story it is, too. War Brides tells the story of five young women sent off to the tiny town of Crowmarsh Priors in southeastern England during the Blitz of WWII. Mostly, there's drama around making ends meet, the fate of children, boyfriends, and husbands and family abroad. The spice comes from the fact that there's a spy s...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 17, 2012 Regina Chapin rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had such high hopes for this book, but ended up being disappointed. This will contain some spoliers.

So the story begins as the women are coming back together for the first times since the war to celebrate the 50th anniversary of VE-Day. The first and largest section of the book, while interesting to the my inner-history buff was more about the reality of living in rural England during the war, how it effected different types of women (the wild debutante, the poor girl from the wrong side of...more I had such high hopes for this book, but ended up being disappointed. This will contain some spoliers.

So the story begins as the women are coming back together for the first times since the war to celebrate the 50th anniversary of VE-Day. The first and largest section of the book, while interesting to the my inner-history buff was more about the reality of living in rural England during the war, how it effected different types of women (the wild debutante, the poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks, the solid country girl, the american wife, and the immigrant Jew) and how they came together. While laying this ground work, there was no effort to weave in (however seamlessly) the sudden addition of the mystery of Manfred (the spy sending the Germans weather reports to increase the effectiveness of their bombing campaigns. We are beginning to figure out what a German spy has to do with the group of ladies specifically when we come back to the 50th anniversary celebrations only to discover that it is no longer a group of 5 but 4, with one of the women having gone missing before the war ended. And in the space of the afternoon, these 70-80 year old ladies come together and piece the clues together, solving the mystery of both their missing friend (who it turns out was killed in France on the information of Manfred), unmask Manfred (80ish himself) and then beat him in the Parish Church 's grave yard and leave him to die in the smuggler's tunnels hidden by the same grave yard.

The lack of ground work for the ending was quite jarring, but so were the lesser threads on the girl's attempts to rescue the Jewish gals' younger sisters (it comes up at party, they work to rescue them, plan seemingly fails when the Germans bomb the church in order to get rid of Manfred's romantic rival and then it is gone).

If you like novels bring past and present together to unravel a family mystery the novels of Kate Morton (The Forgotten Garden, The House at Riverton) are much better. (less)

7 likes · like · see review

Jul 04, 2012 Dawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a book that tells a story through five stock characters who serve as a representative cross-section of women who lived in England during the war. You've got the debutante heiress, the dutiful vicar's daughter, the Jewish refugee, the big-hearted Eastender and the American socialite. I suppose you could argue that these characters remain in-character in that they never become very much more than representatives of their "type." However, it was a useful way to organize the story and helped...more

like · see review

Sep 27, 2011 LaNae rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The setting (a small English town), the Era (WWII) and 5 women of different backgrounds (and cultures) coming together out of necessity and circumstance sounded like something I would love. And for a while, that was the case. I did like reading about the wartime economies and hardships. Further, I appreciated the strength and ingenuity of each woman to find her own niche in terms of contributing toward the common welfare of the town and/or her friends.

I overlooked some of the grammar and other e...more The setting (a small English town), the Era (WWII) and 5 women of different backgrounds (and cultures) coming together out of necessity and circumstance sounded like something I would love. And for a while, that was the case. I did like reading about the wartime economies and hardships. Further, I appreciated the strength and ingenuity of each woman to find her own niche in terms of contributing toward the common welfare of the town and/or her friends.

I overlooked some of the grammar and other errors in the text (after all it was a bargain so some of it can expected). However, the way that the book ended completely killed it for me. The vast majority of the book was set in the WWII era. The author utilized flashback (or flash-forward) device and an epilogue to wrap up the loose ends in the book. That in itself wouldn't have been so bad, but it felt rather abrupt. But what really killed it for me was the ending. I found it completely absurd for four elderly ladies to attack an elderly former Nazi collaborator with their canes and entomb him within a hidden compartment in a tombstone, a la The Cask of Amontillado. While it may not be fair, the ending annoyed me so much that it sort of ruined what had come before.

The epilogue probably should have been left out completely. It was such an odd, unrelated and disjointed way to wrap up the mystery of what really happened to Tanni's twin sisters. I would have preferred it to be left out and to be left not knowing for sure. After all, a lot of people were left wondering as to what became of their loved ones during the Holocaust. It seemed too tidy for the author to introduce some random character for a couple of pages to produce some sort of happy ending. Only in many ways it really doesn't feel that way, because Tanni and her friends would likely never know that their efforts were successful. I don't expect happy endings as a matter of course, and in this case, the so-called happy ending weakened the overall story for me.(less)

10 likes · like · see review

Mar 23, 2013 Adri rated it 3 of 5 stars

3.7 STARS

I read a few reviews before I started reading this book and they almost convinced me to abandon it. How glad I am that I stood by my principle of deciding for myself.

The book has clearly been very well researched and there are echoes of the countless other WWII books I have read. The characters are well drawn and show interesting development during the course of the story. There are many plot lines, but they are tightly controlled. The reason why I am not giving it four stars is that th...more

like · see review

Oct 18, 2012 Lori Anderson rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: WWII book fans

Shelves: historical-fiction, wwii

I had to think for a bit about the rating on this one. On the one hand, I had a hard time putting it down. On the other hand, the ending had parts that were completely unrealistic, and one of the themes in the story was a bit hard to digest. HOWEVER -- the characters stayed with me past closing the book, and I was genuinely surprised and delighted with a couple of the endings, even if some would say they were too neatly tied up. I don't care -- I liked it.

The story is about a group of women duri...more

4 likes · like · see review

Oct 03, 2012 Rebecca Brothers rated it 4 of 5 stars

Did you know people in the 1940's had illegitimate babies?! Oh MY! (please hear the sarcasm in that. Please). But you know, growing up with respectable (nudge, nudge) grandparents, I didn't realize this happened. Thought teen pregnancy was a new thing, invented by people who wrote scripts for 1980's after school specials with titles like "Did You Hear What Happened to Marti?". But no. And in this wonderful story of sisterhood, friendship, and air raids, you get to hear lots of juicy details abou...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jul 19, 2012 Lana rated it 3 of 5 stars

I loved the premis of this book and the characters. The detials of each character and the way they came together and their relationships were very believable. Their interaction in a small English village was packaged just perfect and with enough historical facts to satisfy historian in me. But the final couple of chapters and the ending were abrupt, awkward, and completely unbelievable. The sudden ending left all sorts loose ends when viewing the characters during the later years of the war then...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (13)

More editions...

Genres

Historical Fiction

119 users

Book Club

19 users

History > World War II

14 users

War

9 users

Romance

7 users

European Literature > British Literature

7 users

Womens Fiction > Chick Lit

5 users

Novels

5 users

Adult

3 users

Drama

3 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Helen Bryan

Helen Bryan is an American-born writer living in London for many years She qualified and practised as a barrister in England before giving up law to concentrate on a biography of fellow Virginian Martha Washington (MARTHA WASHINGTON FIRST LADY OF LIBERTY published by John Wiley in the USA in 2002 which won an Award of Merit from the Colonial Dames of America. WAR BRIDES (published by Penguin Books...more

More about Helen Bryan...

Books by Helen Bryan

Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About War Brides

10 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

title link	preview: War Brides
avg rating	preview: War Brides Goodreads rating: 3.52 (5175 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2535743.War_Brides?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348638940l/2535743.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2535743.War_Brides?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]War Brides by Helen Bryan[/url]

War Brides

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website