I love when I read a historical fiction book and as soon as I sit it down, I have to research what I just read to learn more. That is exactly what happened when I read Andie Newton's The Girls From the Beach. I hesitated a little to read the book. It was such a sad time in our history and so many were lost on the beaches. Once I started I truly could not put it down, I was up all hours of the night finishing the story. I had shared so much with my husband, he asked the next morning if I had finished it and what I thought. I enjoy but sometimes get lost with a dual timeline. That did not happen with The Girls. This novel for me had everything. It has intrigue, suspense, history and such strong women with a forever friendship. There is a love story there as well, but not what you may be expecting. I think this is my favorite book so far this year.
I thank Aria & Aries through NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Wow! This book is incredible. It is gripping, heart-wrenching, and so much more. Whenever I picked up "The Girls from the Beach", I was whisked back in time, and went on such an emotional journey with this story.

This is the second book I have read by Andie Newton, and, she is truly one of my favorite authors. Her storytelling is riveting, and she brilliantly blends history and historical fiction. As the reader, I am immediately drawn into the story she is telling, and her characters all feel like such incredibly real people. Her character's fears, needs, wants, and desires are so clear that I feel like they are jumping off of the page right before my eyes. Furthermore, I can only begin to imagine the amount of research Ms. Newton must have done, as each and every aspect of this book felt so authentic, in both the past and contemporary time periods. She seamlessly blends her dual-timelines.

This book tells the story of four nurses during WWII. They save lives every single day, and endure, and see, so much horror. When they are sent on a secret mission to steal a chest from enemy territory, Kit, Red, Roxy, and Gail must face more unimaginable horrors, where they continue to find the strength in themselves, as well as in each other to continue forward. What happens affects them not only in the past (as it is happening to them), but in the future as well. I do not want to spoil anything in this review, so, I will simply say, please read this book. There are parts of this book that are extremely difficult to read due to the atrocity of so much history that is displayed in it's pages. It also tells an incredible story of strength, determination, and friendship.

If you enjoy historical fiction, I highly recommend this book. It had me turning the pages to see what would happen next, and many moments had me holding my breath. I can't wait to read what Ms. Newton writes next.

Thank you so much to to the author, Andie Newton, Aria, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book, it is incredible. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Please Note: The author does deal with some heavy topics in this book, including many horrors of war and PTSD. I believe she handles them with great care, and it is so important that these stories be told.

This was a fast paced, riveting book that I could hardly put down!

This book follows four nurses, Kit, Red, Gail and Roxy, who join the Army Nurse Corps during WWII. They all have their own reason for joining. I was rooting for these four women during the entire book.

The characters were well written and you could easily understand their thoughts and feelings throughout the book. The sights and sounds and experiences they go through are described with such detail that you can easily imagine how a nurse could come home with PTSD. I did like the attention drawn to PTSD, because of course women in this situation are more often than not accused of being liars.

Of course, there’s action of a different kind in this book too when these nurses are sent on a mission to retrieve a war chest. This is where it becomes a bit unbelievable but you can suspend your disbelief because it’s fiction and there were people doing clandestine missions like this.

I highly recommend this book if you like historical fiction.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Girls from the Beach by Andie Newton ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

A big thanks to @netgalley and @ariafiction for the ARC!

I love a book that pulls me in and makes me feel all the emotions. Told in two timelines (past and present), this book tells a story of female friendship, heroism, and the horrors of war. I was just as invested in the present as I was the past, and both timelines aided the story. I commend the author on bringing an awareness to PTSD. So often these books only show the horrors during the war but gloss over coming home.

I took it down half a star because while I know this is historical fiction, I felt like it might have been too fictionalized. The author’s note at the end explained her inspirations, but it didn’t seem like much of the plot was rooted in history. That was a bummer but still a great read.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced historical fiction filled with mystery that might make you ugly cry at the end, check this one out in July.

An absolutely stunning read. The multiple narratives were woven together seamlessly, and the characters so well drawn, I felt like I was watching a film in my mind as I read. Action packed storytelling, with an acute eye for details and obviously well researched - I was able to completely immerse myself in this story. An absolute page-turner - highly recommended.

I accidentally started posting a review on the wrong book! Will update with my review shortly!!!.....................

I wanted to really like this book but it didn’t hold my attention. I ended up reading to chapter 9 and it just fizzled out for me.

Honestly, this started out strong. I was really excited to read about battle nurses, their comradery and grit. However, the farther I got into it, the more unlikely the plot seemed to be. I get it, it's a work of fiction. However, this is a work of historical fiction, there is supposed to be an element of history or at least some basis of facts. Four nurses who secretly sneak into Nazi Germany to steal the Nazi treasure chest should have been my first clue that this was going to be a bit far fetched. As can be expected, trials and tribulations befall our heroines along the way. Also the unveiling at the end was in no way surprising.

I am VERY tired of historical fiction authors using flashbacks! I am so tired of going back and forth in time. It's exhausting. Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC for review.

4.5/5

First, let me thank NetGalley and Andie Newton for early access to this lovely story. As of late, I’ve been reading several books portraying the heroism of WWII nurses and this story both enlightened and educated me.

Kit, Red, Roxy and Gail joined the Army Nurses Corp to save lives. The sights, the sounds, the selflessness they encountered during five days in September profoundly effected them for years to come. Tricked into crossing into the enemy’s territory, they were assigned a mission of portraying “werewolves” to retrieve a war chest that was going to be used to fund the destruction of POW camps. The mission hit Kit particularly hard as her brother was said to be interned in one of those camps. Together the ladies faced evil straight on and summoned the strength and the courage to fulfill the mission. Their experiences are something that remained in the past, unable to tell their families after the war the whole truth about that week and why they disappeared....shedding light into the post traumatic stress that even the nurses returned home with.

This book is a great weekend read. It’s a bit fast paced though I imagine if I were in Kits shoes, the time would have crawled by. The characters were easy to like and feel empathy towards. I wish there was a bit more background to them but in wartime...do they even share the details of their lives at home with each other? Some do, some don’t. Most importantly, I appreciate the awareness brought to PTSD. According to the authors notes, and this is something I didn’t know, women returning from war were often accused as being liars when they shared PTSD symptoms with doctors. They found inconceivable that the nurses could suffer the same mental ailments as the soldiers. But their post war struggles were very real and I think it’s important that people know that because it could explain a lot when veterans remain silent about their experiences during WWII.

So definitely get a hold of this story when it becomes available. It keeps you on the edge of your seat

Title: The Girls from the Beach
Author: Andie Newton
Publisher: Aria

Review to be posted to retail sites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble upon publication date on July 8, 2021 and Goodreads on April 19, 2021.

This eARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Girls from the Beach is a gritty novel from Andie Newton featuring four nurses in WWII. Red, Roxy, and Kit have seen some of the worst while nursing the wounded on the front lines of the war in France. Shortly after newcomer Gail joins their group, they are sent on a secret mission to help save some of their injured men who are hidden behind enemy lines. However, their job becomes far more complicated when they need to complete the original mission the men had- steal the Nazi war chest to prevent more men from being killed in the future. These four courageous girls are going to have to rely on each other to complete the task and keep faith that they will make it out alive.

I found this book riveting from the start. It was such an intense, fast paced novel with compelling characters and an intriguing mystery. All four girls have their own secrets and reasons for being in the war and none of them are even close to being perfect. They have all been hardened by seeing their soldiers injured, dying, or dead. They lie, steal, drink, smoke, and curse but they are all good women that save men every day and try to give them hope. These nurses are as strong, if not stronger, than the men they stitch up.

While the mission the girls are sent on is entirely fictional, it was so captivating I found I didn’t mind how Newton took such creative liberties with history. The horrors of war these women go through are atrocious and leaves the reader breathless, waiting to see how they will survive. While they don’t always get along and their personalities clash at times, the friendships the women build in this book are beautiful and essential to the story.

My only complaint with the book is the dual storyline that showed Kit, the nurse the story follows, in the future. I did enjoy that storyline and appreciated how Newton portrayed PTSD in nurses who served in WWII, however I was so invested in the past storyline that I felt jolted whenever it switched, almost like a commercial break. Also, the novel focuses on spies and secret missions so it is hard to trust some of the characters in the book. Newton does this intentionally but once a character is questionable it takes a lot for me to trust them again and while she redeems some of them successfully, there were some characters I still didn’t trust fully even though that wasn’t her intent.

The Girls from the Beach has become one of my favorite WWII historical fiction novels and I suggest it to anyone who enjoys this genre and is looking for an intense story of four brave women with a lot of heart.

Andie Newton has done it again! I really enjoyed her previous books, The Girl I Left Behind and The Girl From Vichy, so I was looking forward to this one and it does not disappoint. If anything, I think this is Andie Newton's best work so far.

The story is fast paced and exciting, and the characters are brilliantly drawn; I fell in love with all of them. The dual timeline was cleverly done, with just enough revealed along the way to stop it being confusing, but enough kept back for the finale, which made me cry (in a good way!).

Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction and WWII stories.

With thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest opinion.
First time reading this author, was slightly confused in the beginning but as the story went on it all became very clear extremely brave woman trying to save young lives during war time and now into days time they were suffering in more ways than they cared to say a poignant story full of action and excellent characters who played there parts so well I can highly recommend this beautiful book.

The Girls From the Beach
Andie Newton has written another winner. A wild ride of a book, laced with beautifully flawed characters, impeccable research, and a story that will make you cry with tears of joy and sorrow. A resounding five-star read!

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
Sliding timelines drive me crazy. WWII novels are great but I hate when this is so annoying

I. Loved. This. Book.

Kit, Red, Roxy, & Gail were my friends immediately. I wanted these women to succeed. I laughed with them (a literal laugh out loud a few times); I cried with them; I was scared with them, and the ending left me SO freaking happy. Like, this isn't a romance, but it definitely has an HEA fit for the story.

Kit is so relatable right from the first page. A feisty, driven young woman in a traumatic and stressful environment, doing the absolute best she can and continuing to feel like she's hit her breaking point but knowing she cannot give up because if she does, her entire world (and potentially many others) will literally end. She and her friends/co-workers are the definition of heroines.

The story is so quick moving from page one that I was immersed in this story immediately and flew through the book in 2 nights. I didn't want it to end yet was so pleased with the way it did.

This author has proved with each book released that she is one to watch in the historical fiction genre. I for one will one click anything she writes from here on out.

P.S. - Dear Netflix: Throw your money at this author. I want to see The Girls from the Beach on the big screen.

The Girls from the beach by Andie Newton is a great WWII-era historical fiction that has it all: mystery, history, intrigue, suspense, and strong female characters.

I really enjoyed Ms. Newton’s previous book, The Girl from Vichy, so I really wanted to read her newest book. It is definitely a great read.

There is a snippet of a dual-timeline introduced to help aid in telling the gripping story of a wonderful cast of characters in the latter years of WWII. I really enjoyed how Ms. Newton slowly drew out the fascinating stories of Roxy, Gail, Kit, and Red and their harrowing journeys and tasks that they went through, I learned a bit more about the Nursing Corps during WWII that were working in the line of fire, and I really enjoyed that addition. The reader thinks they know what this book will be about in the beginning, but it sure does present some welcoming surprises. I loved most of all the suspense, the action, and the amazing twists and turns that truly impressed me. There were stressful moments, heartbreaking moments, but also heartwarming as well. I really, really loved the ending.

This book was so enjoyable, truly unique, and I most definitely recommend this to anyone that loves a great historical fiction novel and wants to be entertained. It definitely sets itself apart from the rest.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Aria & Aries for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 7/8/21.

In 1944, four American nurses disappeared for five days. No one knew what happened to them. Until now.

I devoured this book! So amazing! I kept wanting more! And to be honest I'm not much of a historical fiction reader but this one held my attention and didn't let go! Amazing

This was so heart wrenching! For the first 10% or so I was a little lost and struggling to remember names but eventually I found myself completely immersed in the story and history of it all. The characters were compelling and felt real, their struggles and journey was inspiring. I particularly loved the last 50 pages or so, it was emotional and had me tearing up once or twice. All in all, a wonderful historical fiction.