This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

I was not able to get interested in this book and I did not finish it. The characters and the plot were not able to catch or keep my attention.

War Orphans by Leah Fleming is a story full of characters that will haunt your mind long after you finish the story.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but the story, which starts with a rough and tumble bunch of orphans during WWII, follows their lives, and how they intertwined, through decades. There are challenges, secrets, regrets and success. It was hard not to get drawn in. You wonder at the unfairness and cruelty of war. Not just WWII but also the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 adds to the story. So does high fashion. There is a little something for everyone interested in this period of time.

The one constant in the story was a tree. It made many appearances in this story from the very beginning to the very end. The way the author weaves it all together will captivate you.

I received an eARC from Avon through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

This was a very interesting reading experience for me .
I loved joining the characters in their journey .
Would recommend this book for everyone .

Thank you to Netgalley, Avon and Leah Fleming for a gifted egalley of this story.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I hated to do it, and hoped I wouldn’t have to, but I just could not get into it. I did not find the story grip me at all, I did not find myself curious about what would happen, and I did not feel drawn to any of the characters. It’s just not for me.

This story was okay, but too drawn out. Not much happened in the length of this book to justify it being so long. The characters were okay, but I didn’t feel any emotional attachment to them.

1940 - Maddy Bellfield is living with her Granny in the family Inn while her limelight loving parents are on tour across the sea singing for the troops. Maddy knows the drill, when the air raid siren goes off head to the shelter immediately. After the latest siren she emerges from the shelter to find the town in ruins. She runs home to find that her home is in ruins and her granny and uncle have not survived.
So starts Maddy’s journey to go and live with her fathers wealthy mother that she has never met while he parents start the long journey home.
Aunt Plum is to collect Maddy as well as some evacuee children from the train station and bring them back to Southerwaite where they will live at the hostel she runs. This book is full of lively and unforgettable characters that make this book hard to put down. I loved every minute of it!

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon for the advanced copy!

This story was too long for my liking. It was also predictable. The story focuses on three children who meet on the train to Yorkshire Dales. Maddy lost her family in the Blitz. Gloria and Sid were abandoned by their mother. This story spans 60 years. The characters are likeable, yet lackluster.

Orphans of War by Leah Fleming is the first book by her that I have read. I enjoyed the story itself, but it was a bit long for my taste. The story revolves around three orphans during World War II and follows them into their adult lives. Maddy is young when her parents leave her with her mother's family while they go and sing to soldiers in the war, bringing comfort to them. However, when her family is killed in a bombing raid, she is sent to live with her father's family, whom she has never meant. Along the way, she meets Gloria and her brother, two kids thrown on the train by their mother, and Greg, a young boy with no family that he recalls. Maddy, Gloria, and Greg grow up together in the country hills. Maddy, however, is part of the old family, the Belfield's. Gloria and Greg must live in the hostel for evacuated children. As war rages on around them, the choices they make and the lives they live will be forever entwined. I really did enjoy the story. I had some moments where I laughed out loud and others that were forlorn and sad. I do think it was a bit long though, which is the only reason for my four stars.
I voluntarily read an advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

The Victory Tree

This book was a fantastic read. I actually think The Victory Tree would have made a fitting title for this book. This story starts and ends with The Victory Tree".

The Brooklyn and the restored building down the road play the most important part in the story. Two important buildings bringing joy and sorrow to so many. From the child evacuees from bombed out cities in England, the weary mill workers, the Hungarian refugees, to the troubled young unwed mother, all were welcomed with love and patience by the Belfield family,

It all begins with young Maddy Belfield comes to stay with her grandmother and her aunt Plum, and the evacuees some who became friend forever, Gloria, Sid, Greg, and Maddy.

The story follows these characters as they live and mature, making lives for themselves. There is romance, mistakes made, secrets kept, love and betrayal, and understanding. It is a story of growing up and living in the aftermath of a war torn nation.

You will not want to miss a word in this book; it keeps you reading until the end. The book is very well written and the characters are believable and personable. The descriptions of the settings and especially the fashions and clothing worn are perfect.

I recommend this book, and I know you will love it as much as I did.

Thanks to Leah Fleming, Harper Collins, U.K., Avon, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for asking me to read and review.
This story was a wonderful read.
It is well written with some characters that are well rounded and as a reader you feel you are right there with them and feel the emotions that they are going through. The plot draws you in, keeping you wanting more and turning those pages.
A brilliant, addictive read.

Maddie was being evacuated to the Yorkshire countryside after she was bombed out of her home in London where she lost the only relation she knew she had, her grandmother. Quite lost and forlorn she was going into the unknown to relations she had only heard about and never seen. Her parents were overseas and would eventually pick her up from her aunt and uncle.

Enroute to Yorkshire in the crowded train, a young mother thrusts her two children with no directions and no idea of where they will end up, hoping that they would be looked after. Maddie befriends Gloria and Sid and this unlikely meet up ends with them being friends forever.

The story proceeds in Yorkshire where taken in by a kind aunt and a stern grandmother who wants nothing to do with the evacuees and washes her hands off them , the children try to settle down to a life which is alien to them. This must have been the case with the many children who were sent to the countryside for their own physical safety with the bombings going on in London during the War.

The way in which the children all grew up, finding their own feet knowing they were on their own was sad. None of them had a shoulder to cry on or someone to confide in and though the Aunt was a kindly soul she had problems of her own to manage and cope with.

The story was detailed and descriptive of the emotional state of the children as they grew up and Maddie becoming adult and independent and finding a life of her own amidst heartbreak. Another book with the backdrop of the War, and the amount of damage it did to people not just as statistics but with their lives as well.

Beautiful story, that is well written. This is my first book read by this author, but I would happily read more from her.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Maddy Belfield is meeting her aunt and grandmother after being sent away from London following the blitz. Her aunt Plum runs a hostel for children escaping the war. She meets and forms a strong bond with two of the children who live there, Gloria and Greg. But the bond is threatened by Maddy's post-war romance with a German visitor. The repercussions for all three of them will change their lives. Most of the events tale place around the "victory tree", the headquarters of their games. It later becomes the home of a dark secret.

There was a lot of information that wasn't really necessary to the story. It was also a bit predictable. Thw story starts in the present time and ,looks back during the war years. They were a mixed bunch of characters. Some I liked others I didn't. I did enjoy this book, just not as much as I hoped.

I would like to thank NetGalley, HarperCollins, Avon and the author Leah Fleming for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was good but was drawn out too much. The journey through the lives of many children who are evaluated to Southerwaite and a home for vaccies. There was much information that could have been discarded, but other things should have been covered.

A decent read but not one of my favorite books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Publishers for an ARC for my honest review.

This was a good book to read. I enjoyed learning about life of evacuees in the war. It is written with compassion and feeling. There is a storyline which is easy to follow. I do recommend that anyone who loves war related books reads it.

Orphans of War follows the lives of three children who were evacuated to Yorkshire during WWII. The book spans roughly a 60 year period and follows their triumphs, failures, and the ups and downs life throws at them.
Whilst it is an interesting read, I have two main criticisms - it was too long and it was predictable. Regarding the length, it meandered in places. There was a lot of repetition especially when it came to the inner monologues of the main character

A good historical fiction book that I might read again at some point. I really loved the dual timeline as it was a smartly executed and made sense for this type of story.
The only negative (for me at least) is that I felt that it was dragging a bit too long for me liking in some parts so I was not paying full attention. I think it could have been much better if 70-100pages were taken out as it is a. If chunk of a book to begin with. (As the genre usually dictates)

Netgalley provided me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Another fabulous story from Leah Fleming that will take you on a journey with Maddy, Greg and Gloria and of course Aunt Plum.5*

This story follows the intertwining lives of some evacuees and maddy. A young girl who goes to live with her wealthy family.. The evacuees that arrived with her shaped and affected her life story.
Follow Maddy, Greg and Gloria and Aunt Plum.
I thoroughly enjoyed this new novel by Leah Fleming. It's written in an easy to follow style and the story flows well throughout.
Definitely one I will recommend.