The Land Girls

Well it’s 2am and I’ve just finished reading this wonderful story. I just had to finish it. You girls did Australia proud

a tale about women working on the farms in Australia as the men go to fight in the war .very well researched and gives the reader a look at what it was like for the women as they tackle different produce to be gathered

This is a part of history I never knew about.It was well written and I recommend the book.It was very interesting I love historical books

What a lovely tribute this book is to all the women of the Australian Women’s Land Army. This story will draw you straight into the 1940’s world as we meet three young ladies from very different walks of life living in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. The author’s reference to this era was wonderful and in my mind very accurate to everything I have ever read or watched about this time in our history. You could almost feel the pain and anguish the girls here experienced during this book, with there up and down while doing the part in the war efforts. They wanted to do their part to help both the soldiers and their country so it may enable their loved ones to return safely and sooner.

This is the second book that I have read by this author and I must say I have very much enjoyed them both and look forward to having the time to read more of her wonderful work. I enjoy her style of writing, the characters and the in-depth description she gives to make you immerse yourself into her world.

Flora Thomas lives at home with her father and younger brother a Melbourne suburb with her other brother away fighting in the war. She is in her mid-thirties, a spinster known in her times with a very boring office job. She is drawn to the Land Army after her younger brother is given a White Feather from a stranger on the street. Feeling the need to help in the war in place for her brother Jake who is unfit for service she travels to Mildura to help on a farm picking grapes.

Betty, a 17-year-old lives in Sydney and works as a counter girl at Woolworths which is a job she enjoys. Her best friend is about to turn eighteen soon and he will be off to war, so Betty thinks about joining the Land Army to help and do her part in the war effort. She really wants Michael to come home safe and well.

Lily has been raised in the upper lifestyle of Adelaide with everything she wants or needs. But she is the younger sister to a very talented older sister who is a doctor working abroad in Egypt in the war. She has always felt like she was never as good as her sister, she decides to do her part with the war and the Land Army looks like a way she can do her part. The boy she had been attending some dances and parties with is about to leave to training to become a pilot.

The girls all start this new chapter in their lives and will find their way through the hard work with good new friends and knowing they are doing something other than just sitting by waiting on a letter from their loved ones at war. The girls will connect with each other along the way over the three years this book gives us there journeys.

Will all the pain, grief, loss, hard work, worry and waiting see the girls in a happy place at the end of the war?

Three girls

Three different stories

Three changed lives

Three Journeys

Three love ones at war

Three loves

This is my honest and voluntary review and all my own opinions of this book that I received an ARC copy of off from NetGalley and the publisher.

What could a 17-yr-old, full-of-life teenage girl, a 20-yr-old spoiled rich girl, and a 30-yr-old spinster possibly have in common? They all become Australian Land Girls that help work the farms in the absence of war-fighting men. It was interesting to see how drastically their lives changed as they each decided to give of themselves rather than do nothing. Again, I learned something about WWII I did not know: I've actually never thought about Australia being involved, but it was a training base for British and Americans, and it required their protection from Japanese forces. (There's always something to learn about WWII!) Mixed into the war story is some wonderful romance too. I especially liked Flora, the mature one. Her character was actually forefront and most interesting. This is a great woman's read that will inspire you to be more than you think you are.

I loved every page. It was like a one of the really great movies made about the homefront in Australia, England, and America. I wish I could read it again for the first time.

Enjoyable book.

A wonderfully written book

Three women join the women's land army in Australia during World War 2. The Land Girls introduces the reader to them and by the end of the book, each woman found a place in my heart and my very sincere admiration.

Flora is thirtyish and from Melbourne, she lives with her Dad, a brother who can't go to war (Jack) and Frank who is fighting in the war overseas and they haven't heard from him. A white feather given to her brother Jack on the street one day, decides Flora  to join the Land Girls - her first assignment  is picking grapes - hard work but she meets up with a delightful family. Slowly a relationship develops between Flora and Charles the owner of the farm but she is only there for a few weeks.

Lily is   18  from an Adelaide wealthy family, she has a sister a doctor working in the war overseas but Lily  hasn't found her own niche. She finds it hard to even learn shorthand and typing. She is in love with David who is going off to war. Taking up her courage she too joins the land girls - unusual for some one from such a family. She is sent out to a place north of Adelaide to pick cherries.

Betty is almost 18, friends all her life with Michael next door, she is an only child and she too decides to join Land Girls when Michael joins up in 1942 when he turns 18. She starts this life picking grapes in Mildura, many miles north of Melbourne, on the edge of the outback. She is among 20 other girls. It's hard work and Betty is homesick. One Sunday she meets Flora who gives her words of encouragement, that really help.

I loved the Australian setting, the  realistic painting of what it was like to live in that time during war. The women who joined the land army worked hard, and it changed them in so many ways.  How worrying though for them for the loved ones who fought overseas and often when bad news came, so heart breaking

.Victoria Purman had me fully invested in each woman, each story so real. I loved the way the woman put their hands up and contributed. The way they supported each other and developed such important and memorable friendships.

Everytime Victoria Purman releases a new novel, I know I'm going to find great characters; with her historical novels, I know I'm going to learn about a part of Australian history that I had very little knowledge of before picking up her book. In The Land Girls, she draws on the experiences of women from The Women's Land Army as well as those left behind to do the jobs the men have left when they joined the armed forces during WWII, to weave an emotional tale of love, loss and courage.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and learning about this important part of our history. There are three main female charatcers whose lives we follow, Flora, Lily and Betty, I loved each one of them, working with them on the farms, sharing their losses and heartbreak all the while discovering so much about themselves.

My favourite of these characters though, was Flora. I really engaged with her, whether it was because she was older and still searching for her place, her loyalty to her family and those she called friends, or just her wonderful character, I loved the journey that the Land Army took her on. Flora meets Charles during her first posting as a Land Girl and I loved watching the relationship between the two of them grow and change them. I held so much hope for the two of them and the future.

There were many emotional moments throughout this story, as I'm sure you can imagine, happy as well as sad ones.

The work these women did during the war was inspiring and shows just what people can achieve. Without these women filling the places of men, most farms and factories would have gone out of business. I definitely recommend this wonderful novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for a digital copy of this novel in return for an honest review.