This is the ninth book of the "A Ration Book" series but the only one I've read. It's the kind of book where you can take a glance at the cover and know exactly what you're going to get - a family saga based in World War II. Not having read any of it's predecessors was not an issue as this worked perfectly well as a standalone and it was very easy to slip into the lives of the Brogan family.
As the genre goes this is a good example. It focusses mainly on Queenie, the matriarch of the family, and flits between her current and past life. Back in Ireland, as a child, she fell in love with Patrick Mahon. He was the youngest son of a wealthy local family, who never approved of Philomena/Queenie. When the family pledged him to the church any possible marriage was instantly stopped in it's tracks but yet both of them ended up in London.
Queenie now has a very large family but an unbreakable bond remains with Father Mahon.
There are a lot of characters here and I felt that sometimes there was an unnecessary and distracting amount of superfluous detail. For all that the book does provide a genuine sense of life at the time and was an enjoyable enough read.
Fans of the wartime, family saga genre will love it.
As the genre goes this is a good example. It focusses mainly on Queenie, the matriarch of the family, and flits between her current and past life. Back in Ireland, as a child, she fell in love with Patrick Mahon. He was the youngest son of a wealthy local family, who never approved of Philomena/Queenie. When the family pledged him to the church any possible marriage was instantly stopped in it's tracks but yet both of them ended up in London.
Queenie now has a very large family but an unbreakable bond remains with Father Mahon.
There are a lot of characters here and I felt that sometimes there was an unnecessary and distracting amount of superfluous detail. For all that the book does provide a genuine sense of life at the time and was an enjoyable enough read.
Fans of the wartime, family saga genre will love it.