Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce is set in London during the air raids of WWII. The main character, Emmaline, is a shallow young women living away from home for the first time who shares a flat with her BFF (no rent though, compliments of Granny). The pair of them spend a great deal of time running around London disregarding air raid sirens, goggling at bombed out buildings and larking around during the black outs.
Emmaline professes to want to pitch in and “do her bit” to help England win the war. To that end, and her credit, she works nights as a volunteer dispatcher with the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS). Her day job is playing at being the part time assistant secretary at a ladies magazine. It is in this latter position that Emmaline proves to be very shallow indeed as she wrecks havoc with the publishing routine by deceptively and secretly answering letters directed to Mrs. Bird (the magazine' s Agony Aunt).
Since there is a very real war set as the background to this story Emmaline in inevitably confronted with the horror of death and destruction on a personal level yet everything turns out fine in the end.
This reviewer is not a fan of stories which make light of life in a war zone and therefore, struggled with overlooking this pretext. Overall Dear Mrs. Bird is a trivial tale that insults the many civilians who worked hard and and many sacrifices to help England, and her allies, be victorious in WWII.

I found this book to be SO charming and delightful! When I read that it was similar to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, I assumed it would be written in the same style (letters only), but I was happily surprised that there were letters, dialogue and description. The book was so much better than expected. I love books about WWII that feature strong female characters, and I related well to the character of Emmy. She was so positive and plucky and I especially loved how the author would capitalize parts of sentences such as "Finally I gave what I hoped was a plucky Everything Is Absolutely Tip Top smile." Overall I really enjoyed this and look forward to reading more from the author.

3.5 stars (Publisher review only, I will publicly post my review closer to the pub date)

The storyline and the main character had me charmed from the get-go. I found Emmy Lake particularly funny and had a hard time keeping up with her - in a good way! I really enjoyed the writing style and the point of view of Emmy during trying times. I connected with her instantly as she was a breath of fresh air and had my mind swirling with positivity. A.J. Pearce took a lot of time to develop her characters into well-rounded people that you actually feel something for.

While I was a bit confused about some of the grammar, namely the capitalization, I am also not an expert so I’d say it was just a tad unnecessary more than anything else.

I tend to read a lot of both WW2 fiction and non-fiction and this story was unique in the sense that it brought a fresh new, young perspective to light.

Thank you so much for the advanced copy. I downed it in a little over a day!

This is not a book that I would have picked for myself, but thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for a fair review I dropped all my other books to give a special attention to this one. The first 60% is very enjoyable but lack some excitement. The remaining 40% was really great. The writing is excellent. The storyline is interesting and very easy to follow. The story is very cute but someone may find it a bit frivolous (that was my impression in the beginning). The setting is around the 2nd WW, so I was expecting a lot of drama, but it had the right amount. It was nice to have a break from the extreme violent stories that I’m used to reading. This is really a great debut and very refreshing.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

Set in 1940/41, this features Emmeline, who volunteers as a telephonist with the London fire service and accidentally gets a job assisting an agony aunt (Mrs Bird) on a little-read women's magazine. Mrs Bird will only answer the most anodyne of letters and Emmeline starts answering some herself.

Initially I found this overly-upbeat in a "that pesky war" kind of way, but it quickly settled down into a more realistic representation of life under Luftwaffe bombing. There was a little romance and a lovely portrayal of Emmeline's bonds with her parents and brother. The ending was perhaps a touch neat and convenient, but overall an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

Similar to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Dear Mrs Bird is light and charming, while still managing to convey the full gravity of life on the World War II home front.

Emmy, an aspiring 'Lady War Correspondent' gets into a spot of trouble when she finds herself in "entirely the wrong job" working for old-fashioned and severe Mrs. Bird, resident agony-aunt for Woman's Friend magazine. While Emmy struggles to keep her chin up as London is blown to pieces around her, she finds new ways to 'do her bit' - ones that threaten to have disastrous consequences of their own.

Ah, the 1940s... when people said things like 'Jolly Good!', when the words 'damn' and 'bloody' were considered swear words, when someone who did something terrible was said to be 'Being Very Silly Indeed', and when a baby born out of wedlock was absolutely Earth-shattering.

These amusing contrasts from 1941 to today offer comedic relief from the sad and shocking parts of the book. The funny, old-fashioned ways of speaking and acting were my favourite part. I also loved that the story was able to challenge my ideas about what life was like during the war and put my everyday problems into perspective. The characters' 'Keep Calm and Carry On' attitude is both heart-breaking and inspiring. Not wanting to let anyone down, they all put on a brave face, trying to stay positive while losing their homes and their loved ones.

I think A.J. Pearce did a really good job of balancing out the heavy parts of the book in a way that made it light but not too fluffy. This is also her first novel, so I'm looking forward to any others she might have in the works.

I asked for the Net Galley preview based on their description. I did indeed greatly enjoy reading "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" but this is not really in the same league. By the way that has been released as a movie - and the review came out in yesterday's Guardian. And if that title does not mean anything to you, try this

[The] mouthful of a title is a useful flag. Some will find the chintzy fussiness of it insufferable. To those people I say, trust your instincts. This film is not for you. Others, evidently individuals blessed with a higher tolerance of whimsy than I could ever dream of, will forgive the unwieldy word soup. But even fans of the source novel, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, might struggle with this photogenic but laboured adaptation.
So perhaps "Dear Mrs Bird" does have its whimsical side. Someone who stays in London during the blitz because she wants to become a war correspondent to an evening newspaper, ends up working for the agony auntie of a ladies magazine. She is clearly not where she wants to be or on track for anything, yet she sticks to it, even though there are some fairly obvious and more attractive opportunities. Though perhaps dispatch rider for the Auxiliary Fire Service would not be top of mind, except she volunteers as a telephone operator for the AFS overnight. There is surprisingly little about the daily deprivations - one mention of managing to find an onion is about the only reference to rationing, even though "forbidden sugar" does make a late appearance.

This is a first novel and Ms Pearce does a reasonable job, though I must admit I found the start a bit slow. Not quite enough to make me stop reading entirely but I do feel that she deserved some more pro-active editing. I stuck with it because I have recently simply abandoned two preview ebooks, each after a couple of chapters. So this one must have had something they didn't to make me keep going. Eventually it does get up to speed when we get away from the claustrophobic ladies mag and into the fire brigade's call centre (not that they called it that then) and some very good descriptive writing of the air raids, and their impact on London and its inhabitants. There are very few real villains - other than the Führer and his minions. Mrs Bird is the wrong person to be an agony aunt - and in fact hardly does that job at all. The heroine simply fills the space her boss leaves available. Nearly everybody else does their bit and keeps their upper lip as stiff as possible under trying circumstances - some revealing their anxieties in letters to someone who ought to help but very obviously doesn't.

I suspect that the book is aimed at female readers. Certainly it is written as a first person account, rather than the author as omniscient invisible observer. And it does see writing, persistently, despite all the odds, as the greatest virtue, which I suppose one must expect from someone trying to be a writer. I hope this one gets more guidance in her future efforts.

I received a free advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to read this book because I have a great interest in the era of World War 2. My father served overseas during that war and I am fortunate enough to have all of the letters he sent home. This particular book cover also drew my attention as I spent many an hour using an old typewriter with keys like that in my younger days.

Emmy Lake is a delightful young lady who lives in an upstairs flat with her best friend Bunty. She volunteers as a telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services helping to send the firefighters out to different areas which have been hit during the blitz but her true desire is to become a "Lady War Correspondent" and actually visit different war zones. When she sees an ad in the paper for a job at the London Evening Chronicle, she thinks this might be the answer to all her dreams only to find that she will really be working as an assistant to Mrs. Bird, a cantankerous older woman who writes an advice column for a woman's magazine. Mrs. Bird has a long list of forbidden subjects that will never be mentioned in her column but Emmy finds it hard to turn away from the letters which come in from young women whose lives have been affected by all that is going on around them in wartime England. When she decides to answer some of them herself, things get very interesting.

Emmy comes across as being rather young and naive for her age. She is the narrator of the story and as I read I could practically hear her voice trying to tell her story just as fast as she could. In the early part of the book there were a few run on sentences that were poorly structured and made me stop to try and figure out what she was saying, but this was less of an issue as the novel progressed.

Wartime in England was not easy and Emmy was clearly living in a war zone although she didn't really recognize it as such initially. There were moments in the book that brought me to tears and others where I laughed. In many respects this seemed to be a coming of age book set in a time when survival was not guaranteed.

As a debut novel, I found the book very enjoyable. The author was inspired by reading an old wartime magazine and seeing the agony aunt columns such as Mrs. Bird was supposed to write. I felt she captured the time period very well. I would love to follow Emmy in a future book to see even more of how her life turns out as the war progresses.

This is an enjoyable,sometimes hilarious and lighthearted story, but also contains sadness and heartbreak. It focuses on people courageously attempting to lead normal lives in London, 1940. Many volunteer to aid in the war effort during a time of German air raids with bombs dropping on the city. Still life goes on, and love, romance and friendships develop and endure. There is also tragedy, loss, misunderstandings and hardships and a theme of forgiveness.

Emmeline is a volunteer part time telephone operator for a auxiliary fire department which is kept busy with fires caused by German bombing. She has dreamed of becoming a war correspondent, perhaps interviewing victims of the Blitz or even working behind enemy lines.

She sees an opportunity to eventually fulfill her goal when she replies to an ad to work for what she believes is a leading London newspaper. Instead she finds that the position was for a failing womans’ weekly magazine as a typist. Her boss is the frightening Mrs. Bird who writes an advice column.

Among Emma’s many chores is sorting and cutting up letters requesting Mrs. Bird’s advice which she would judge as Unacceptable and the writers depraved. Only the mildest pleas for advice can be passed on to Mrs. Bird. Even these are usually answered with blame and sarcasm. Letters never to reach Mrs. Bird’s desk are those dealing with relationships (premarital, marital and extramarital), the effects of war, politics and religious matters.

While sorting the mail, Emma feels sympathy for some of the writers and wants to help and give them words of encouragement. She is young and has limited experience, but studies how the more popular and successful magazines deal with similar problems in their advice columns. She personally and secretly replies when there is a stamp and address, knowing Mrs. Bird would never help. This could cause her a lot of trouble, but even worse she inserts some of her advice into the magazine when the writer seeking advice was anonymous. To make matters worse she forges Mrs. Bird’s signature. There is suspense wondering if Emma’s act will be eventually discovered and if so, what the repercussions might be.

In the midst of this romances develop for Emma and her best friend/roommate and tragedy disrupts their lives and those around them. I thought this was a lovely book. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon& Schuster for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes for this book given its fantastic premise, but I was somewhat disappointed. This is a light take on the homefront during World War II—similar in tone to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I suppose, but with a much lighter, shallower feel. The dialogue was awkwardly chocked full of 1940s slang that felt too much like an attempt at accuracy. It was distracting. The main character was appealing enough, but also didn't seem to have any deep thoughts or feelings. It all just falls a little flat.

That being said, the plot was very well-paced. Although predictable, it did keep me reading. And there were some charming laugh-out-loud moments. But it feels as though the author wrote a pamphlet about how to Keep Calm and Carry On, not a novel.

The premise for this book is fantastic but the reality is hugely disappointing. The writing is painfully wooden and the attempts at historical detail felt clumsy and overly, unnecessarily specific amidst the anachronistic dialogue and attitudes.

A sweet, uplifting story of a very young woman trying to find her way (making plenty of mistakes along the way) during the Blitz. Recommended for fans of Chillbury Ladies Choir, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.