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Hopes and Fears

An Unspoken Christmas Story

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About this listen

Featuring Amy Rowlings!

Christmas 1940. Despite the rationing and the blackout, excitement at Mollison Farm is building as Alice and her workforce prepare for the annual Christmas Eve party. The snow has arrived, and this year, Alice has a big secret. She has invited her evacuee children’s mother to spend a few precious days with her kids at Christmas. But disaster strikes, and Alice is given the shocking news that Rose’s home is now nothing more than a pile of bricks, and the woman herself is missing, lost in the blitz.

Amy, Alice’s best friend, is despatched to the capital in a race against time to find Rose, and if possible, get her out of London. As the search intensifies and the bombs start to fall again, Amy meets Rose’s sleazy husband Terry, a draft dodger, and Kevin, the ARP man with something to hide. Meanwhile, on the farm, Stephen and Harriet discover the truth about their mother’s disappearance and Alice finds herself having to deal with the consequences. The snow will fall, and the farmyard carols will be sung, but will it be a happy Christmas on Mollison Farm?

©2021 T.A. Belshaw (P)2023 T.A. Belshaw Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Winter Christmas
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I have gone about this a bit backwards, but this is the first book I am reading in this series, and it was certainly a great one to start with.

The characters are strong women, running things while the men are away at war. Alice and Amy have a special friendship, which is written in a way that makes the reader feel as though they too are part of the friendship.

I love the characters, and I thoroughly enjoyed the setting. It is always interesting to read about a time which has never been a part of my life, and the author has clearly done quite a bit of research into how things were during the war.

The narrator has a beautifully soothing voice, which was the perfect fit for this story.

Right, now I'm off to start the first book in the series!

Simply wonderful!

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Listener received this title free

This is a really good "nice" Christmas story. It is well written and the character development is excellent. It was a tough time and I think the author delivers this in a very compassionate way. I struggled with the narration a bit at first but once I got used to it I thought Deborah Balm's delivery was quite good. A Highly recommended listen.
I was kindly given a copy of the book by the narrator and leave this honest review.

Great Story.

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