Good evening guys,
It’s been a little while since I’ve done a blog tour so it was nice to get back onto that again! This book is a sweet easy read and I enjoyed it quite a bit. For some reason, it seems like easy reads have been my thing this year. The synopsis is borrowed from Goodreads:
Cambridgeshire – March 1939
As the clouds of war begin to gather in Europe, the Talbot family of rural Blackberry Farm will be torn apart, just as so many families all over the world will be. Life will never be the same again.
Whilst in London, the Salmons family will feel the pain of parting and loss.
Brought together by war, the two families become intertwined and, as the outlook looks bleak, they must draw on each other’s strength to fight through the hard times.
Lizzie Johnson and Tom were sweethearts until a mistake caused a terrible rift. Lizzie takes herself off to London to heal the pain in a glamorous new job but she still loves Tom. His pride has been hurt – but deep down inside Tom still cares. Can they find happiness before their chance is gone and the whole world is swept into the terrible madness of war?
This story is set just pre-WW2 at a small farm in Cambridgeshire. First of all, I love the environmental descriptions in this book. They make me feel like I’m there personally and by golly do I miss the British Isles after almost 2 years of only Norway! There are certain things about the Brittons that you don’t find elsewhere in other people and the same goes for their country. I particularly enjoyed how Blackberry Farm was portrayed, and also the 1930s London. The descriptions are detailed and presented in a way that makes them quite alive and easy for the reader to engage with, and that’s always very rewarding when the book is an easy read. The difficulty with easy reads is that they can become boring unless that author has the ability to engage their readers in different ways that don’t complicate the easy read if you know what I mean? One of the worst things I know is when an author has this brilliant story that has the potential to be an easy and enjoyable read and then they go ahead and make it unnecessarily complicated which takes away the potentially good foundation. Not Clarke though. She’s got it right down to the nail.
The characters in this book are complex and interesting. I feel that Lizzie is a woman a bit ahead of her time. She goes her own ways and the dilemmas she faces are of the sort everyone who has dreams and goals can relate to. Tom in many ways reminded me a bit of my own fiancé which was a bit fun. I enjoy seeing traits I recognize from real-life people in literate characters. Do you too? Sometimes the characters were a bit predictable but that didn’t bother me with this story. I actually found it a bit charming. The struggles Lizzie and Tom face aren’t unfamiliar compared to other fictional stories I’ve read from this time period but that didn’t really matter. Every author has their own way of making these kinds of stories special and so does Clarke. I especially enjoyed Tom’s mysterious promotion and where that headed the story.
War Clouds Over Blackberry Farm is a sweet and easy read which is perfect for a relaxing weekend. The story is nice although the characters might be predictable at times. This didn’t bother me because there were other aspects of the story that made up for it. If you’re looking for a historical romance novel as your next read and you’re interested in WW2 then I recommend that you pick this one up!
Author Bio
Rosie Clarke is a #1 bestselling saga writer whose most recent books include The Shop Girls of Harpers and The Mulberry Lane series. She has written over 100 novels under different pseudonyms and is an RNA Award winner. She lives in Cambridgeshire.
Social Media Links –
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnneHerries
Newsletter Sign Up Link: http://bit.ly/RosieClarkeNewsletter
Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/rosie-clarke
Published: 2021
Genre: Historical romance
Theme: Romance, WW2, history, friends, family
– The Book Reader
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