Thursday, March 24, 2022

Books from the Backlog - The Spies of Shilling Lane

 


Today I'm linking up with Carole from Carole's Random Life of Books for Books from the Backlog.  I really enjoy the chance to feature a book that's been hiding in the piles of books for far too long!

Goodreads:  The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan

Blurb:  Mrs. Braithwaite, self-appointed queen of her English village, finds herself dethroned, despised, and dismissed following her husband’s selfish divorce petition. Never deterred, the threat of a family secret being revealed sets her hot-foot to London to find the only person she has left—her clever daughter Betty, who took work there at the first rumbles of war.
But when she arrives, Betty’s landlord, the timid Mr. Norris, informs her that Betty hasn’t been home in days--with the chaos of the bombs, there’s no telling what might have befallen her. Aghast, Mrs. Braithwaite sets her bullish determination to the task of finding her only daughter.

Storming into the London Blitz, Mrs. Braithwaite drags the reluctant Mr. Norris along as an unwitting sidekick as they piece together Betty’s unexpectedly chaotic life. As she is thrown into the midst of danger and death, Mrs. Braithwaite is forced to rethink her old-fashioned notions of status, class, and reputation, and to reconsider the question that’s been puzzling her since her world overturned: How do you measure the success of your life?

Why It Needs to Come Off My Shelf:  I've had this sitting on my Netgalley shelf for years and even though I loved Ryan's The Chilbury Ladies' Choir I have yet to pick this one up.  I have a few extra Audible credits and am thinking about picking this up on audio because I have a much higher chance of getting to it that way than I do my Kindle version.

8 comments:

  1. Oh I like the sound of this one. Trying to piece together her life amidst WWII- sounds great!

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  2. It does sound good. I hope you enjoy it when you pick it up.

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  3. I love THE SPIES OF SHILLING LANE! I would describe it as "fun" even though it's a war book. I also loved THE KITCHEN FRONT. Ryan is quickly becoming one of my favorite hist-fic authors.

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  4. I liked this one but not as much as the Chillbury book. She's a great author.

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  5. It does sound like a good one.

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  6. I sure sounds interesting to me!

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  7. I do like the sound of this one. I have been buying a lot of audiobooks to clean up my NetGalley shelf lately and I have been really enjoying the books. I hope that this one is a winner for you.

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  8. I found this not quite as good as The Chilbury Ladies Choir but I still enjoyed it. I did listen to the audio version.

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