A historical fiction novel based around the incredibly brave and heroic women in WWII. Goldring does a remarkable job bouncing between two timelines and two POVs to bring this story to life.

You are taken through the journey with Sylvia, trying to find out what happened to her “girls” (English spies) after they were captured by the Germans, and Peggy, her dear friend who is with Sylv until her final days.

This book is so grounding in a way of we will never truly understand the hardships these POWs faced in Nazi Germany. You are sucked in from the very beginning and on the edge of your seat with every new discovery.

Thank you to @netgalley and @bookouture for this eARC 💜 publishing 23 August 📝

Absolutely brilliant book. I couldn't put it down, I was totally hooked.

The book explores some of the horrid fall out from the second world war, and the fate of some who were involved. Painful at times but important.

I'll be looking out for more from Suzanne Goldring, that's for sure. Highly recommended.

There was nothing about this book that I didn’t like. The descriptions of the thatched cottage and it’s surroundings sounded so peaceful and although I was initially surprised that there were two old ladies living by themselves out in the middle of no where, it is all explained in the story and makes perfect sense. The flow of the chapters between the past and the current time was easy to follow. The characters were well written and I really loved the friendship between Sylvia and Peg and Sylvia and Charlie. Everything was perfectly wrapped up in the ending, with any loose ends explained.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced proof by Suzanne Goldring. It was an intriguing read about a group of female spies during World War II and the woman who recruited them.

Sylvie, an English recruiter, personally follows each of her trainees on their journey of espionage. One special spy escapes Sylvie's radar and she is distraught. Told in different timelines this is the story of Sylvie's endless search for Phyllis.

The Girl Who Never Came Back by Suzanne Goldring

Suzanne Goldring delivers a thriller exciting page turning book. A past that never lacks substance, a mystery that haunts the soul. Those whose mask and whom will you trust, Phyllis becomes obsessed with protecting the one person's promise and whose lies beneath Paris. Fantastic book and probably one of my favorites and the ending will blow your mind! I love it all.

I was so excited to read Suzanne Goldring's latest novel, 'The Girl Who Never Came Back', and I wasn't disappointed! A dual timeline story, set in the present day and wartime, it follows one woman's life, and her reckoning with a dark past. Sylvia is living out her twilight years with her old friend Peg, in a heavily protected cottage in the depths of the countryside. Sylvia seems to be losing her marbles, causing Peg concern, but as the story unfolds it becomes apparent that Sylvia is far from senile. She is remembering a shadowy past, when she was responsible for 'her girls', training them as secret agents and seeing them off on their missions to enemy occupied countries. Some survived. Some never came home. And Sylvia cannot rest until she finds the very last one...
Brilliantly written, expertly researched, a real page turner!

Refreshingly different.

Firstly, I loved this book because Goldring took me inside the mind of an SOE recruitment officer. I was able to see the emotional resilience of someone who handled agents knowing that some of them would return and some wouldn’t.

Secondly, I was able to see how the news of ‘missing in action’ affected those left at home. The Keitel decree ordered that resistance fighters be brought back to Germany to disappear into concentration camps where they’d vanish into ‘night and fog’. This made it extra punishing for loved ones because they were unable to learn anything about their fate. Goldring highlights the despair and hopelessness many faced as both victims and loved ones of those caught in the far reaches of this decree.

Thirdly, I thought it was fantastic that Goldring chose to present it as a dual timeline; readers get both points of view of the decades-long friendship between two women and what each endured. The quotes from the SOE handbook adorn each chapter and bring the focus back to the mission.

I was prompted to Google Vera Atkins, the Magnet Men and the Haystack group. I love it when an author can lead me to uncover little-known history or convince me that what’s being written about actually happened!

I was spellbound as I read about the challenges undertaken by an SOE recruitment officer and how they lead to a lifetime of blame. You must read about this woman who risked her life to find out about one of her recruits.

I was gifted this copy by Bookouture and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

The story of Sylvia and her protégé, Phyllis. Don’t forget Peggy. This story has more than one timeline, including that of WWII. The characters are realistic and keep the story moving quickly. Historical fiction at its best. Sylvia has died, at the beginning of the novel, and Peg has inherited her cottage. Going back in time, Sylvia’s story is revealed. This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher and the gifted author.

A 100% buy-today-read-tonight delight. History comes alive in this brilliant, highly-imaginative, and vivid novel. Immersive and revelatory and a pleasure to read!

This book is incredible! I was hooked from the beginning and loved the Special Operations manual instructions sprinkled in between chapters. I also love that the chapters have titles and hope this is a new trend for authors.

This is a WW2 story about the woman of war and it switched from current period to events in the past. These female characters are amazing and I'm so glad I got to know them!

This is the first novel I've read by Suzanne Goldring and I have to wonder what took me so long. This is not just another dual-timeline story either. One timeline is told by Peggy, who has just buried the main character, Sylvia. They had been friends since childhood so we get an inside view of their heartwarming 80-year friendship. Peggy's chapters give the reader a much-needed break from the traumatic chapters of Sylvia's career during World War II and beyond.

Sylvia was an SOE recruitment officer handling the women agents who were dropped behind enemy lines in France. She felt personally responsible for each of them and was haunted by those who never returned. She made it her mission to follow their trails in France and Germany once the war had ended. Their stories are the stuff of nightmares.

My father was a World War II veteran who rarely discussed his experiences. My mom once told me that no one got through the war unscathed but not everyone's scars were visible. I kept thinking of that while reading about Sylvia in this amazing book. The bravery of those women deserves to be remembered by all of us. I'll be thinking about this book for quite a while.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read the ARC. The review is my own.