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The Girl from Bletchley Park: Heartbreaking and gripping WW2 historical fiction 

322 pages November 3,2021 publication date HQ Digital publisher

ABOUT THE BOOK

Will love lead her to a devastating choice?

1942. Three years into the war, Pam turns down her hard-won place at Oxford University to become a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. There, she meets two young men, both keen to impress her, and Pam finds herself falling hard for one of them. But as the country’s future becomes more uncertain by the day, a tragic turn of events casts doubt on her choice – and Pam’s loyalty is pushed to its limits…
 
Present day. Julia is struggling to juggle her career, two children and a husband increasingly jealous of her success. Her brother presents her with the perfect distraction: forgotten photos of their grandmother as a young woman at Bletchley Park. Why did her grandmother never speak of her time there? The search for answers leads Julia to an incredible tale of betrayal and bravery – one that inspires some huge decisions of her own…

Gripping historical fiction perfect for fans of The Girl from BerlinThe Rose Code and When We Were Brave.

Grab a copy here

Lots of information about Bletchley Park and the Codebreakers/WWII

MY THOUGHTS

What an excellent read. I’ve had this in my tbr pile for several years and I’m so glad I finally had a chance to get to it.

A beautiful time-slip historical fiction novel taking place in 1942, Bletchley Park and modern times. I know when I read a time-slip I usually connect with one of the time periods more but in this book, I’ve enjoyed reading both time periods equally.

A young married woman, Julia is frustrated. She has two young boys, an inattentive husband, jealous of her being the breadwinner in the family. He just doesn’t seem to have the time or interest in her anymore though she tries to hold it all together, cooking, cleaning, being super Mom, working and being there for her husband.

Her brother thinks he’ll help distract her and gives her forgotten photos of her grandmother during a family clean out after her death. Once she starts investigating, she finds out so much. Pamela, her grandmother has given up a fantastic schooling offer at Oxford University to become a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. Julia had no idea her grandmother had done this because she never once spoke of this.

The older generation kept secrets of this tragic time they were told to never talk about even to family members and their secrets died with them. While at Bletchley Park, two men vie for her attention, but she makes her choice and the other remains her friend. As Julia finds out more information from her grandmother’s best friends daughter things become clearer.

The secrets are slowly unwrapped like tissue paper, not too much is revealed at a time. Each story progresses in its time period, I could hardly put this down and read it in one day.

Some very surprising events happened to each woman, but these women are strong and have the support of family. They know what’s important is not themselves but their family. Heartbreaking but the light shines through with these women’s resilience.

Pub Date 03 Nov 2021 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Frugal Wartime Recipes to See You Through Challenging Times!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathleen McGurl lives in Christchurch, UK, with her husband. She has two sons who have both now left home. She always wanted to write, and for many years was waiting until she had the time. Eventually she came to the bitter realisation that no one would pay her for a year off work to write a book, so she sat down and started to write one anyway. Since then she has published several novels with HQ and self-published another. She has also sold dozens of short stories to women’s magazines, and written three How To books for writers. After a long career in the IT industry she became a full time writer in 2019. When she’s not writing, she’s often out running, slowly.

Website: kathleenmcgurl.com

Twitter: @KathMcGurl

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