A great historical novel but it seemed to end so abruptly. One can only assume there will be a follow-on. If not then I'd feel cheated..

The great western railway girls, the first book in this new series, a good read with plenty of different characters. The story follows a group of young girls working at the GWR at the start of WW2, as the men are called up to fight the women have to take on their jobs in the factory, hard and dangerous work, the book follows their lives as they navigate their way through their work and home lives. A great book and already looking forward to the next in the series.

The Great Western Railway Girls by Jane Lark

A great saga , loved reading this WW2 genre about the girls and how during the war were expected to fill the shoes of men away fighting for the war . This was an interesting book to,read and lovely to find out the first in a series.
Can't wait to read the next instalment by this author.

An enjoyable easy read with likeable characters. I would have liked more about what they were doing in the factory and more about GWR (it could have been any factory throughout Britain in which the girls were working as I felt it lacked a link to GWR).

The storyline at the start of the book also seemed to chop and change quickly; the Jewish twins seemed to play a significant role in the book but were never mentioned again until we were told they had returned to London.

I also feel that every book set in wartime seems to have an unwanted pregnancy and it is very repetitive and boring for the reader. My Gran lived during this time and says she didn't know anyone who got themselves in this situation but authors today seem to portray someone on every street getting pregnant!

I would recommend the book to others and assume this is start of a series which I look forward to continuing to read.

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley and author for allowing me to read an Arc copy and give my opinions.

At the beginning of WWII, the men left The Railway Village factories in Swindon, Britain, to go to war.
A group of young women decided to do their part to help with the war effort as well.
Maggie, Lily, Violet, Dot, Marjorie, and Catherine became The Great Western Railway Girls and the very best of friends.
This is the fantastic story of the Great Western Railway Girls: their families, lives, loves, and tragedies.
I wanted to stand up and cheer at the end of this book! It was brilliant.
I can't wait to read more from Jane Lark.
5 solid gold stars.

#TheGreatWesternRaileayGirls
#JaneLark
#Boldwood
#NetGalley

This is the first book of a new series and set just as war is declared in England. I call these set up books as we're getting to know the characters, there are a lot of them, the plot and the setting. The story follows five girls and their stories. Three of them have been friends a long time and two become part of the group when they start war work. One of them is keeping a secret and I enjoyed her story a lot. This is an open ended story but the finish stunned me!
It started off well and I was enjoying it but it lost me a bit along the way. The story could have been tightened up more, it sorted of rambled at times. There's a guy who chopped and changed his feelings and I couldn't get to grips with him at all. One nasty fella is mentioned a few times and I guess he'll make a more substantial appearance in the next book which I will read as I'd like to see what happens to them all.

Many thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

An entertaining a light hearted WWII homefront story of a group of young women that start to work in a factory at the beginning of the war. However, this book suffers with a major historical inaccuracy in that British soldiers never set foot in Poland before or after Dunkirk. Poland was overtaken by the Nazis in a matter of days, before England could mobilize troops.

Can their friendship carry them through hard times.
As we are introduced to the characters,
Lily Franklin, Maggie Abbot and Catherine Pearce and all the working women and men at Swindons great western railway works during WW2 war years.
This book is full of history.
As you learn their lives of work and play it really is an outstanding read.
Throughout the chapters you get pulled right into so much going on, leaving you content with happy and sad tales.
This is my first read by this author and won't be my last.
Love it.

Following the lives of young women as they navigate prejudice towards women taking “men’s” jobs when they leave too join up.
Lily is accustomed to harsh treatment from her father and is only too glad to escape his clutches, quite literally. Maggie comes from a house of women, having three sisters and Catherine who comes from a completely different background which she doesn’t want to divulge to the others, will she be found out?

I found it slow to get off the ground, but once it did I had to keep going.
At first I thought Maggie to be uncaring which changed as the story progressed.
I liked the way Naomi was introduced. There was some fascinating information re: the railways.
I do hope the author will do some more along these lines.

Thank you to NetGalley for a preview copy

Lovely war time story, really enjoyed it, nice easy read and loved how the different classes of people interacted, lovely characters, can’t wait to see what comes next in this series

Wonderful saga really enjoyed the working class and the rich mixing together.This was a pleasure to read looking forward to to more in this series and more by this author.

Firstly thank you Netgalley for this Arc

Wow lovied the book family saga, wartime just my kind of book
Loved how we have working class right up to the rich people and how their life’s intertwine

Oh wow.... One powerful story.
I love how it has every one from different classes in it from posh people like Catherine to working class like Maggie and violet to even lowerclass but making life better for her self Lilly.
I really liked how they all became friends and stayed friends even at the end of the book.
I really hope the series has a good ending and the characters get to live happily ever after. Can't wait for the next one

Firstly just wow at the Cathy storyline, that ending! I loved this book, it was a really interesting and informative read. The story is about a group of women who meet up working at the Great Western Railway yard and as war is declared they are moved into the men’s jobs who have gone off to war. It felt real, this was how it was in war time England. It was sad, shocking, hopeful and full of love and compassion amongst friends. I loved this book it was great, well written and drew me in from page one. Highly recommend, bloody brilliant book.

It's so nice to read a wartime story as they are so easy. This one set at the start of the second world war around Great Western Railways. Steam trains and a different way of life makes this book so interesting. I finished this one very quickly and enjoyed it. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.