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War Brides [Kindle Edition]

Helen Bryan
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,148 customer reviews)

Digital List Price: $9.99 What's this?
Print List Price: $14.95
Kindle Purchase Price: $4.99
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Book Description

The National Bestseller

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.


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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Helen Bryan is the author of Martha Washington, First Lady of Liberty which received an Award for Merit from the New York Colonial Dames in 2003. This is her first novel. She lives in London where she works as a barrister.

Product Details

  • File Size: 660 KB
  • Print Length: 496 pages
  • Publisher: AmazonEncore (June 12, 2012)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B007BSG026
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Enabled
  • Lending: Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

I Would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys reading historical novels. Nancy D. L  |  233 reviewers made a similar statement
Great well developed characters. and intriguing story line. Nancy Moore  |  424 reviewers made a similar statement
I could not put the book down one's I started reading . adriana quezada  |  265 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
429 of 444 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Unexpectedly well done June 17, 2011
By act3
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm still in the grip of this fascinating novel. I may just go back and read it again.
I try to avoid "romance novels", but the WWII setting and the friendship theme made me curious so I bought the book and was blown away! The author demonstrates a masterful ability to create a variety of seemingly authentic times and locations for her story. East End London slums, an old fashioned Sussex village, late '30's New Orleans at Mardi Gras time, and a city in Austria as Hitler rises to power. All these settings and the characters and situations they serve are amazingly real and convincing.
The story (or stories, there are several)is more about coping with extraordinary circumstances and the way adapting changes attitudes, actions and whole lives. The growth of the friendship between these disparate women thrown together by chance is mesmerizing to read about.
The various love stories are believable and satisfying although not at all the point of these women's lives.
These women live and breathe and ultimately matter to each other, to themselves and to the war effort to which they have committed. A completely unexpected treat that I'm glad I took a chance on.

One caveat: the text is very peculiar - not just typos and such but odd words and phrases that seem to be left over from an earlier draft where the author was experimenting with tenses and phrasing. Its fairly easy to figure it all out but its disconcerting and breaks concentration. Still a brilliant book though.
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197 of 201 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy the Kindle version October 28, 2011
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed this novel but Amazon must have out-sourced the transcription of it to an ESL provider or a very bad typist for the Kindle version. There are lots of typos, duplicate words, and missing words which made it frustrating to read at times. There were actually a few sentences that were incomplete, but I could intuit the thread of the thoughts being conveyed, so I just filled in. The plot and characters are very interesting so buy the paperback or check it out at the library.
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250 of 271 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, Terrible Editing August 21, 2011
By Ink
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I liked this book pretty well but have some negative comments.

I became engrossed in the separate stories of the women and was happy to find out what happened to them in later life, however the ending seemed like the author ran out of steam. She wrapped everything up, I guess, but left an opening for the women to find out that some people were alive who had been believed to have died, some were dead who might be alive, somewhere there was someone's child no one knew about and, oh, the bad guy was the obvious bad guy.

The editing was atrocious. I suppose for $.99 I shouldn't expect much but yikes! There were passages that were indecipherable. Even cheap books should be readable, Amazon.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars My review
I enjoyed this book very much. So much there were nights I had to make myself turn off my Kindle and go to sleep. Read more
Published 7 minutes ago by Brooke Fuhrman
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Couldn't put it down
Loved the characters and the history lessons inside story line. I will recommend this to other military spouses who can identify with what these wonderful... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Angela M. Walters
4.0 out of 5 stars Page turner
Couldn't put it down an the characters we well written. It did seem to end abruptly. Wonder if the caught th real spy?
Published 1 day ago by Dianna Brandon
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read, important subject.
War Brides was a good, easy, read.
It isn't perfectly written. The character development is choppy and sometimes confusing. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Adriennejune
5.0 out of 5 stars War Brides
War Brides is more than just a good historical book. It is inspiring about the sacrifice people make when necessity d demands it. Read more
Published 1 day ago by blumobean
5.0 out of 5 stars very good book
Tells an amazing story of Second World War and the effects on a group of women living in a small town. Many twists and turns make it fun to read.
Published 1 day ago by Sheila G. Rosenthal
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful tale
Woven stories of young women coping with the war. Rationing ,romance and revenge. Highly recommend this one. Is a
O ego have my 87 year-old mom read
Published 2 days ago by Jan, the Reading Teacher
1.0 out of 5 stars Boring book
Couldn't finish the book....boring and poorly written. Had potential but never could really get into the book. I wouldn't recommend it
Published 2 days ago by Lauren Drew
4.0 out of 5 stars Summer reading, with some history
Enjoyed this book, fell for the characters. It is a little over the top, and the ending is not plausible. Overall, an enjoyable book.
Published 2 days ago by Desert Beauty
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting perspective on WWII Life in England
While I'm not a WWII history buff, this book seemed to provide an interesting perspective on the trials and tribulations of the women living through WWII in England. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Alib
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More About the Author

Helen Bryan was born in Virginia, grew up in Tennessee, graduated from Barnard College and since 1971 has lived in London where she qualified as a barrister and is a member of the Inner Temple.She has written a layman's guide to the English planning system "Planning Applications and Appeals" and a biography "Martha Washington First Lady of Liberty" which was awarded a Citation of Merit by the Colonial Dames of America. She has written a novel, a World War II romantic saga " War Brides" inspired by the stories and reminiscences of the wartime generation, especially those of women who joined Churchill's Special Operations Executive, and family holidays in a small East Sussex village where, according to local legend, an old smugglers' tunnel led from beneath a grave in the churchyard to the seacoast, obviously waiting for a story to be built around it.
Her next novel is another romantic saga, set in sixteenth century Spain and Spanish America.

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Sep 12, 2012 by Restless |  See all 4 posts
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