Jeannie McIver is staying with her Aunt Christine and Uncle Cameron in Glasgow, she works at the library and she loves her job. With the threat of war looming, her father Duncan wants her to return home and she’s not keen. Her father's a difficult man, he’s extremely religious and very strict. Jeannie joins the Women’s Land Army, she’s sent to a farm near Lanark, to help the Cunningham family, its hard work digging turnips and herding sheep. Jeannie doesn’t mind at all, she likes working with animals, it’s a peaceful and beautiful place to live.

Jeannie meets Tam McColl, his fathers a tenant farmer, and he as an older brother Alan. Tam and Alan are completely different, Alan's very outgoing and a real ladies man, and Tam's shy and hard to read. Tam and Jeannie start courting, Tam doesn’t express his feelings, he’s distant, and at times Jeannie isn’t sure their relationship will work.

When the war starts, the local men start joining up, and some are exempt due to working on farms. Evacuees arrive at the village, the Cunningham’s have Alice Campbell staying with them and her three young children. Jeannie helps look after the two boys Ian and Malcolm, and they soon adjust to living in country. When Glasgow starts being bombed, Jeannie’s concerned about her Aunt and Uncle's safety, and she makes a decision that will change her and Tam's future.

God's Acre by Dee Yates is a dual timeline story that’s set in Scotland during WW II, and years later when Tam’s cottage is sold. Elizabeth Deighton is the new owner, she finds a picture of her mother, receives a letter, and a shocking secret from the past is revealed. I recived a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, I enjoyed reading about beautiful Scotland, and four stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
A very good read and one I can highly recommend to others.
I could not put this down.
Thoroughly enjoyable with an amazing cast of characters that you cannot help but engage with.

This is an interesting premise for a story, and I really wanted to love this book. However, I never could connect with the characters in this book in any way. I think this author has writing talent, and I’d be willing to read another story by her. But somehow this one was just not for me.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

This was an interesting story of a young girl who goes to work as a Land Girl during WWII. I find this time period (and the subject matter) very fascinating. The book mostly kept my interest, but I felt the ending was rather forced and wrapped up too quickly. I wanted to find out more about the characters but it just ended abruptly. Overall a decent read. I will mention that the tile was a bit confusing, as I don't remember any mention of "god's acre" at all.

This was not my type of book and I was very disappointed in it.
I had such high hopes for this book

A lovely story of finding a path and history long secreted away as both your adult life and the history of your coming to be comes into the light.. Using several points of view, all but a handful in the distant or near past, the story unfolds to mix history of people and events, spanning years from the early 1900’s through the first decade of the millennium. We hear of Tam’s early childhood and the struggles after his younger sister’s death and his determination to keep his mother safe and happy until her death several years later. His being the ‘second son’, and never quite as bold, popular, handsome or brash as his older brother, and his steadiness, work ethic and reliability. We meet Jeannie, at 17 she is a free-spirit and chafes against the constraints her clergyman father and mother try to place on her. Determined to make her own path she has moved to Glasgow with her Aunt and Uncle and is working as a librarian’s assistant just as Hitler is coming to power and her parents’ ultimatum to move ‘back home’ isn’t one she is willing to consider. Remembering her Aunt’s mentioning the Woman’s Land Army, she joins up and is soon sent to a farm in a small village in the uplands of Southern Scotland.

Jeannie finds that while the work is hard and never-ending, the family she’s assigned to are welcoming and a chance encounter in the market brings her face to face with Tam, an instant ‘love connection’ is made. Soon Tam and Jeannie are ‘walking out’ when time and work allows, although her flightiness and persistent pressure from both Neil (son of the farmer she works for) and Tam’s older brother have ignited all of Tam’s insecurities. He’s not a big talker, more afraid of saying the ‘wrong thing’, and this will cause the two of them no end of heartbreak. Jeannie has been in the uplands less than a year, is married to Tam and is pregnant with their first child when news comes from her Aunt of her Uncle’s failing health and his wish to see her one last time. Close to her delivery date, the two argue and Jeanie heads off to Glasgow to visit her relations – not telling Tam. With her uncle’s heart failing and the war increasingly coming to affect life in Glasgow, bombs are dropping and the house takes a direct hit. In a panic after learning of the bombing, Tam heads off to find Jeannie, only to be informed that she is dead.

Years later, Liz is working to rebuild her life after divorce, her mother’s death and a relationship that wasn’t meant to be. Finding this run-down cottage that held, of all things, a picture of a woman who looked like her mother, she decided to buy it and start her new life. A bit of coincidence, a long-held letter from her mother and a few enquiries bring the truth to Liz, and to discover long-held secrets about her mother’s past. Lovely and engaging, we see the struggle of farm life in remote villages between the wars, feel for the people and characters that survived and thrived, and more than a few who didn’t make it to see Hitler’s defeat, understand the naivete that altered Jeannie’s (and ultimately Liz and Tam’s life) for years, and learn that secrets are always best uncovered so that choices for the future can be made with full understanding and hope. Beautifully drawn characters who find a way into your heart, with the details of life past (and still present on farms), the struggles of people everywhere and in every time, and the lovely twists that make this a reaffirming story of hope, this was a winner and a favorite.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=’”https://wp.me/p3OmRo-apx /” > <a> I am, Indeed </a>

God’s Acre by Dee Yates takes readers to Scotland. Jeannie McIver is a seventeen year old currently living with her aunt and uncle in Glasgow while working at Clydebank Library as a library assistant. Her father wishes her to return home, but Jeannie has other ideas. She signs up for the Women’s Land Army to be a Land Girl. Jeannie has lived around farms her whole life and she prefers to be outdoors than cooped up inside. She finds herself assigned to Blackford Farm in County of Lanark with the Cunningham family. Rob and Agnes Cunningham along with their son, Neil raise sheep, have milk cows and grow a few basic crops. Jeannie is working sunup to sunset around the farm and loving every minute of it. While at the market one day, Jeannie runs into Tam McColl who lives on a neighboring farm. Jeannie and Tam fall in love, but there are others competing for Jeannie’s attention and would like to come between the young couple. Tam tends to keep his thoughts and feelings to himself which is challenging to Jeannie. One decision by Jeannie changes the course of their lives forever.

God’s Acre is a unique novel in that the story is told from different points in time. Liz Deighton in 2002 buys a cottage and finds a picture of her mother inside. She knows her mother spent time in the area long ago and looks to obtain more information. We also get to learn what prompted Liz to move to Scotland. The last thing Jeannie McIver wishes to do is move back home. Her father is overbearing and dogmatic. Jeannie enjoys being outdoors and when she sees the advertisement for Land Girl’s, it seems like it a sign. She is soon enjoying farm life and the comfort of the Cunningham’s home. Rob and Agnes are kind people who make Jeannie feel welcome. She is drawn to Tam McColl from the moment they bump into each other in town. But the road to happily ever after is a bumpy one especially with a war raging on. Dee Yates is a descriptive writer which helps bring the story alive. It allows readers to visualize the scenery and the characters. The book proceeds at a thoughtful pace which picks up in the second half. I could feel the emotions of the characters. The feelings of loneliness, joy, sadness, grief, love and anger poured out from the pages. I did find it disconcerting as we jumped from character to character and to the various time periods. It made it hard to get into the story in the beginning. Once everything started coming together, it was easier to stay absorbed in the God’s Acre. I found that I preferred the historical sections with Jeannie the best. Jeannie’s story had me reading quickly to learn what happened to her. One phrase really captured the story—“God Works in mysterious ways”.

Told from several points of view, from a historical and current day perspective, 'God's Acre' creates a vivid picture of life in rural Scotland during World War 2 and in the twenty-first century. It 's a story of coming of age, working in the Land Army and finding out that love and family are not always bound by blood.

Jeannie is a free spirit, she is clever, but is not allowed to follow the same educational path as her brothers. Her clergyman father feels she should help in his parish, but she wants independence and freedom. Joining the Land Army means living in a rural setting, but the people are friendly and she finds she fits. Meeting Tam is love at first sight, but he is troubled and she is young and naive and it seems their love story is doomed to fail.

Liz knows little of her mother's background when she visits the Scottish village her mother often talked about. Finding a cottage for sale, she visits and finds a tenuous connection. She buys the cottage and tries to rebuild her life and discover what she can about her mother's past.

The historical viewpoints of this story are poignant and page turning, there is so much heartache, but a real sense of family. Jeannie is a lovely woman but so naive and this flaw in her character changes her whole life.

Believable, complex characters drive this story forward and make it an excellent read. The setting is full of visual imagery and you can imagine what working on the farm at this time was like for Jeannie. The mystery of Jeannie is revealed in a letter to her daughter, it is full of sadness and transparency and underlines the heartbreaking waste, caused by misunderstanding and the inability to trust. Despite this, the ending is hopeful for Liz in the present day and ends this lovely story in a satisfying way.

I received a copy of this book from Aria Fiction via Net Galley in return for an honest review.

A wonderful read Scotland war life families so enjoyed this novel was transported to their world their time.Highly recommend this book this author.Thanks #netgalley#ariabooks.

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an early copy
First time reading this Author a real cosy book during war time in Scotland the trials and tribulations that go along with it can highly recommend this FANTASTIC book