#BlogTour: Brighter Days Ahead by Mary Wood @Authormary @panmacmillan

I’m excited to be on the blog tour for Brighter Days Ahead by Mary Wood and to be able to share my review.  I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good historical saga.

Brighter Days Ahead is available in paperback and ebook here.

Book Blurb:

War pulled them apart, but can it bring them back together?

Molly lives with her repugnant father, who has betrayed her many times. From a young age, living on the
streets of London’s East End, she has seen the harsh realities of life . . . When she’s kidnapped by a gang and forced into their underworld, her future seems bleak.

Flo spent her early years in an orphanage, and is about to turn her hand to teacher training. When a kindly teacher at her school approaches her about a job at Bletchley Park, it could be everything she never knew she wanted.

Will the girls’ friendship be enough to weather the hard times ahead?

My Review:

Wow Mary Wood’s definitely knows how to write a thrilling, action packed and emotional saga.

The book follows the lives of both Molly and Flo separately at first until they meet about half way through.  I was immediately drawn into Molly and Flo’s story and felt like I was there watching all the action unfold. When a story is split like this I usually find myself favouring one of the narratives over the other but this wasn’t the case for this book as I found I enjoyed both of their stories equally.  I did have a bit of a soft spot for Flo though, as I loved her attitude towards life.  Her ability to always try and see the good side of things was really heart warming to read about, especially as she suffered a few disappointments throughout the book.

This isn’t necessarily a happy book at times with the author covering some quite difficult subjects that was fascinating though quite poignant to read about.   This definitely kept me reading as I was very keen to discover how the character fared and how the incidents were resolved.  It was interesting to discover what types of underhand activities may have been going on in war time London that went undiscovered due to resources being occupied elsewhere.

Mary Wood is brilliant at setting the scene for the book and making the reader feel like they are in London during world war two.  There were times, particularly during a very detailed account about an air raid toward the beginning of the book, when I felt I could have actually been there watching all the action unfold.  Some of the prejudices society had at that time, in particular towards homosexuality was shocking to read about and really brought into focus how far we have come since.  I really felt for poor Simon experiencing all the hatred towards himself and some of his colleagues actions were just appalling.  Its awful to think that people may have experienced similar things.  I loved how Flo stood up for him against everyone, despite overwhelming opposition and this was another reason that really drew me toward her.  Flo and Simon work at Bletchley Park and this intrigued me as it is a place that I have heard lots about.  I did enjoy learning a bit more about what it was like to work there and a little bit about what type of work was carried out there.

This is an easy book to read as the writing just flows brilliantly.  It is quite fast paced with a lot of action happening throughout which helps to build the tension and keeps the reader wanting to read more.  For this reason it would be a good holiday read as I think anyone would find it hard to put down.

This is the first book by Mary Wood that I have read and I will look forward to reading more from her in the future.

Thank you to Mary Wood and Kate Green from Pan Macmillan for inviting me onto the blog tour and for giving me a copy of this book.

About The Author:

Born in Maidstone, Kent, in 1945, the thirteenth child of fifteen children, Mary’s family settled in Leicestershire after the war ended.

Mary married young and now, after 54 years of happy marriage, four children, 12 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren, Mary and her husband live in Blackpool during the summer and Spain during the winter – a place that Mary calls, ‘her writing retreat’.

After many jobs from cleaning to catering, all chosen to fit in with bringing up her family, and boost the family money-pot, Mary ended her 9 – 5 working days as a Probation Service Officer, a job that showed her another side to life, and which influences her writing, bringing a realism and grittiness to her novels

Mary first put pen to paper, in 1989, but it wasn’t until 2010 that she finally found some success by self-publishing on kindle.

Being spotted by an editor at Pan Macmillan in 2013, finally saw Mary reach her publishing dream.

When not writing, Mary enjoys family time, reading, eating out, and gardening. One of her favourite pastimes is interacting with her readers on her Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/HistoricalNovels
And on her web page: http://www.authormarywood.com
She is also on Twitter: @Authormary

Mary welcomes all contact with her readers and feedback on her work.