Excellent, love the sequel book. A must for comfy sit down book enjoying WW11 era. Doesn’t disappoint at all. Keep writing please.

This was much better than the first book. I said in my review of the first book that I hoped it would turn into a series and I'm glad it did.
I must admit I didn't see the twist coming at the end and I really enjoyed it. I won't say anymore for fear of spoiling it for other readers

Although this is the second book in a series, you do not need to have read the first in order to understand this one.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Usually, I adore these types of books, a look at the UK during the war fascinates me, but not this time.

I was pretty disappointed in the lack of description. They are supposed to be lumberjills, yet there was only one tree felled in the book. I was looking to experience that time through these women and their work.

Also, there was only very little description of the Scottish Highlands. The entire book seemed to be full of nastiness and sniping from Seffy and Angie, which was not what I was expecting to be reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in return for my honest review.

A story of love and friendship and of course a dose of risk taking. I was captivated from the beginning to the end. I do love reading about the lumberjills and their trials and tribulations and of course their love stories. Beautifully written and a real page turner.

Poignant novel!

This is the first time that I read a novel by Helen Yendall! This touching and heartwarming WW2 story had me turning pages after pages! I could not put it down. I saw her beautiful characters come to life! It tells the story of brave young women from Scotland and England who became part of a military group called the Women's Timber Corps during World War II after most of their men were drafted into the army. I truly enjoyed The Highland Girls on Guard!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book from HQ Digital and NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

It was a real pleasure to catch up with the lumberjills again and find out how things were progressing for Seffy and her pals. As it turns out, life has become rather challenging for heartsick Seffy. Her best friend, Grace, is married, and a new lumberjill has taken over as leader, creating plenty of rivalry and tension. On top of that, a group of Italian POWs are proving to be a troublesome distraction for some of the women on the logging camp.

I liked the main characters in the first book in this series so much they felt almost like friends, so it’s been a joy to visit with some of them again in The Highland Girls on Guard. The plotting was fast-paced and intriguing, combining elements of romance, friendship, subterfuge, and a satisfying, cheer-out-loud ending. A thoroughly enjoyable read. Can’t wait to get my hands on book three in this great series.

It was a joy to read more of the girls, some familiar , some new. Believable characters, strong independent women all housed in the same bunkhouse leads to some laughs and disagreements. Is there trouble brewing when Miss McEwen returns to the fold and then appoints a new lead girl?
The youngest new recruit “Tattie” gets lead astray by an older camp mate who is effectively blackmailing her.
Seffy’s aunt Dilys decides to start a branch of the women’s Home Defence Corps ably assisted by Lady Lockhart from Blantyre Castle. Seffy gets the girls to come along to the meetings, which become all the more enjoyable when Lady Lockhart’s nephew arrives.
The lumberjills work long hard hours in the Forrest so it’s understandable that they get a little excited when some Italian POW’s are moved into the adjacent camp.
My least favourite was Miss Buchanan for obvious reasons. My favourite was Taffie for her gullibility and innocence.

The icing on the cake was the discovery that there’s to be a third book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and author for allowing me to review a preview copy.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the series I was sadly disappointed by this second one. I don't think they felled more than one tree in the whole book! For a book on Lumberjills it lacked description of their vital work and could have been about any group of girls serving in one of the women's forces during the war! I was really disappointed as I had saved the book to read whilst staying in the Scottish Highlands but apart from a brief mention of Inverness there was little 'Scottishness' to the book. It also felt like Seffy's cattiness and Angie's nastiness took over the book and it wasn't a very jolly or light hearted read at times.

I will look for the next in the series in the hope more detail on their forestry work is back in the book.

Back with the Lumberjills!! The first book in this series was just epic and I’m so glad to be back. The first isn’t *essential* and you can easily get by without reading it. But it’s great if you want to go back and read it after this one or to the backstory and proceed to a continuation into the second.

We join some old faces and meet some new ones, as a new band of Lumberjills join the Women’s Timber corp. They’re chopping trees for the war effort and trying to stay strong in the face of such adversity, both personal and during wartime.

There’s relationships to be mended, new friends to make, romance (and Italians) in the air and the war to win. No mean feat.

The story aside, Shedding light on the work the Lumberjills do was great as they’re such an underrated and under reported sector of women’s work in the war. The land girls and land army are always mentioned but the girls working in the forests are never included much! I loved learning about them and getting to know our girls in this book.

I love Seffy, our headstrong leader girl, with Angie stepping into the breach and upsetting her apple cart. Lovely Grace is separated from her husband by war, Joey with a brand new romance on the horizon and little Tattie was so endearing, it wasn’t hard to love.

Greatly written and in a way that captures the times well. Thoroughly enjoyed and read it far too quickly!!