Book Synopsis:
Will the coming war divide them . . . ?For as long as she can remember Peggy O’Shea has been expected to work at the family dairy, look after her younger siblings, and eventually marry cow-keeper Martin Gallagher. And that’s the way it has predictably gone, apart from one glorious summer when at the age of eight she meets handsome Anthony Giardano.But there’s bad blood between the Irish O’Sheas and the Italian Giardanos, so perhaps for the sake of both of their families, it’s a good thing when Anthony suddenly disappears.Ten years later at the start of the war, Peggy bumps into Anthony again. But as they begin to rekindle their friendship, Italy joins forces with Germany and Liverpool turns on its Italian residents overnight, making any relationship between Peggy and Anthony impossible . . .The Girl From Liverpool is a gritty World War Two historical saga from Elizabeth Morton, acclaimed author of Angel of Liverpool.
The Girl From Liverpool is available in all formats now. You can purchase your copy by using the links below.
My Review:
I’m a huge fan of saga’s so I jumped at the chance to be on the blog tour for The Girl From Liverpool, especially as Elizabeth was a new author for me. The story follows Peggy and Anthony from 1930 and continues throughout the second world war.
One of the things I most enjoy about saga’s is that I feel they tell the stories of people’s everyday life experiences and I always manage to learn something new. This book was no exception and I enjoyed learning more about how Italian and German citizens were treated in the UK. I also didn’t realise that people in the cities tried to keep pigs and found it hilarious to read about their attempts in this book.
Peggy and Anthony were fantastic main characters who I enjoyed following throughout the book. They just seemed made for each other and I loved the way they came out of themselves when it was just the two of them. Martin on the other hand was a nasty piece of work and I couldn’t work out why the lovely Peggy was with him. I was very invested in their story and I wanted to keep reading to see how it all ended for them.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author in future. The book was well written and had a great flow to it as there was also something happening to keep my interest. I think I went through every emotion whilst reading as there were some sad, shocking moments but also some funny or heartwarming ones which was really nice and stopped the story becoming too sad. The Liverpudlian humour was evident throughout the book too and I loved the banter between the characters. I enjoyed spending time with the two families and hope there will be a sequel soon.
Huge thanks to Chloe from Pan Macmillan for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Elizabeth Morton was born in Liverpool and worked as an actress. She is known for playing Madeline Basset in Jeeves and Wooster and Lucinda in the Liverpool sitcom, Watching. As well as TV, she has also worked in theatre and film. She trained at Guildhall School of Drama and as a writer, with The Royal Court Young Writers’ Group. She is an award-winning short-story writer and has also written drama for TV, film and theatre. In her formative years at convent school, she spent her weekends playing the piano accordion in Northern Working Men’s Clubs. She lives with her husband – the actor Peter Davison – in Middlesex and is the author of A Liverpool Girl and A Last Dance in Liverpool.
Over The Rainbow Blog 