A Store at War cover art

A Store at War

The Shop Girls, Book 1

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About this listen

It’s 1941 and as the air raid sirens blare, Lily Collins is starting work in Midlands department store Marlow’s.

She learns the ropes from her sophisticated boss Miss Frobisher alongside shy fellow junior Gladys. But her friendship with young salesman Jim draws her into a swirl of secrets. And with the war progressing to crisis point, Cedric Marlow and his staff must battle nightly bombings and the absence of loved ones to keep going.

A Store at War weaves together a strong sense of community with a vivid evocation of a time when every man, woman and child was doing their bit.

©2019 Joanna Toye (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers 20th Century Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Romance War

Critic reviews

"Jo writes with a sure hand and a light touch... It's a real page-turner with a spirited heroine who will worm her way into readers' hearts. A sparkling new voice in fiction." (Veronica Henry)

"Cheerful and uplifting...I enjoyed it immensely." (Katie Fforde)

"Highly recommended - an engrossing story with a charmingly forthright heroine." (Anna Jacobs)
All stars
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The story was clean and simple - not much intricacy about it, but am easy, unchallenging listen. What irked was the fact that the narrator clearly didn’t have a big vocabulary and many ordinary words were consistently and irritatingly mispronounced. From Frobisher - a fairly common name, but said with a short ‘o’ to reputed, the repeated errors grated. Can’t performers be coached before unfamiliar names are recorded please?

Please teach narrators pronunciation

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This is a good story but it was lacking excitement and drama and did not grip me as other books

Easygoing read

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A pleasing little story though not very memorable. Very much setting the scene for later stories. I have to agree with one other reviewer that the narrator’s mispronunciation of certain words, E.g. reputable, strategist, was irritating. Doesn’t anyone edit these recordings any more as they are being made?

Simple but pleasing

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So dull - kept waiting for it to get better or at least to have a decent twist, but never came!

Dull, Dull, Dull

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