A Lasting Spring by Jean Stubbs

Described as a war time saga this was so much more. A family story both pre and during the War and the pressures that were faced by each of the Fawley family members as they try to come to grips with a new world opening at their feet. New attitudes, new developments, different roles for women and men and the difficulties in adapting to them. Dorothy has just entered into a second marriage with Gilbert also a widower. Both have young children and it is the first thing that was different - they got on famously! In Michael Evelyn a shy girl found the companion and brother she needed and he proved to be her strength throughout. Dorothy her step mother was not unkind, but did not really understand the girl and her father Gilbert had his own set ways of looking at the world. The story progresses with the start of WWII and the complications of as first Michael the son goes off to join the Airforce, Gilbert joins the civilian force in charge of protection and Dorothy, a born organiser finds a niche for herself (something that she has solely missed all these years of being a wife and mother). Evelyn continues with her studies at the Music Academy finding love and heart break on the way The difficulties of loss, bereavement which is so hard on the whole family and still the need to just go on is well written in this story. War settings always have losses and each story is handled so well. Very descriptive of the area in which the Fawleys lived, it brings this small village to life. The changes wrought in those who go to fight and return. They are never the same people. But then neither are those who stayed behind to support and prop the family amidst such hard circumstances. The book was sent by Sapere Books for an honest review, courtesy of Netgalley.