Beyond the Blue Hills: A World War 2 Family Saga

by Katie Flynn

Laura Collins, a widow, is struggling to make a good life for her daughters, Tess and Tina.They are living with Laura's sister Millie and her seven children so when Laura is offered a good job, with accommodation, she is delighted.Life is very different for the Brewsters, living on Manor Farm in Herefordshire.Danny and his girlfriend, Sophie, intend to marry one day so that they can run Manor Farm together but his cousin and best friend, Phil Ryland, feels differently.He longs to get away from farming and intends to escape as soon as he can.Then war comes and changes everything.Tina is evacuated and Tess joins the Land Army.She means to be true to her boyfriend, Mike, but he is far away.Danny and Phil join the RAF, Danny to pilot bombers and Phil as navigator.They end up on the same airfield and fall in love with the same girl...But Phil has a secret which could end his chance of happiness, and Danny is the only person who knows what that secret is ...

Genres: Fiction, War, Historical Fiction, Romance, Family

480 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 7, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Katie Flynn was born in Norwich and attended Norwich High School, where she was extremely happy and extremely undistinguished. Published at the tender age of eight, in Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories, she joined a Writers’ Circle as an adult, publishing short stories, articles, etc; only turning to novels in 1971 because the postal strike cut off her main source of income!
At first she wrote under several different names – Judith Saxton, Judy Turner, Lydia Balmain, Judith Arden – but her Katie Flynn books were a delight to write and proved far more popular than she had dreamed. She has now published nearly ninety novels, twenty-seven of which are Flynns. Her most recent titles are: Lost Days of Summer and Christmas Wishes.

Reviews

[Angj Brooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm honestly not sure where to start with this review.

There's just something about this book that just did not sit right with me at all. Which is a shame as I'm fairly certain I've read some other of Katie Flynn's books before and quite enjoyed them. It felt like I had been reading this book for months so I'm quite surprised that according to dates on GoodReads it took me about a fortnight. The majority of the problems I have would mean I have to spoil the book itself but two really random issues I found was the blurb and the formatting.

Regarding the formatting there is hardly any breaks or paragraphs in the book. This made everything run on together and at some points I was very confused about what was happening and had to re-read a few sentences a couple of times to make sense. This made it a chore to read and honestly made me put the book down quite a few times because I was just getting annoyed.

I picked this book up as according to the blurb it sounded like a WW2 story, particularly focusing on how difficult it was to separate from those you loved with a possible love triangle in the mix. This is not the case because while these ideas are brought up they are quickly dismissed. To give more details would mean spoiling so I won't go into it here, but there were times reading this book where I re-read the blurb and then what was in the book. It felt like too different stories.

Spoilers contain sensitive subjects, that may be upsetting

Before I start talking about what really annoyed and upset me, this book is roughly 470 pages, so it's quite lengthy. Now, I don't mind lengthy books as long as I can see the reasoning for the length which is normally world building or character development. However, for me the beginning chapters could have been cut or heavily edited. There isn't any real character development, all it does for Tess, Tina and Laura's is to set up them moving into the shop and why. This could easily be explained in a few lines when they were already moved into the shop and we wouldn't have lost anything because the characters don't change throughout this book . As for Danny, Phil and Sophie's childhood slightly more might have been necessary, but again it's there to supposedly show the rivalry between Danny and Phil, but this doesn't work because Phil just tells Danny how he's feeling. It felt like padding and did not endear me to these characters.

Speaking of characters, I just could not care about them. Tina when she's a child was annoying and Tess is just sort of there alongside Laura. Mike (who later becomes Tess's boyfriend) was again annoying, until he just randomly matures and then he was okay. But because he's out of the picture so often there was very little to know about him. Danny is just your typical 'nice guy' who doesn't seem to have any flaws and Sophie is again just there. Phil is the only one that shows some character as he wants to become a pilot but is hindered due to his dad making bad decisions meaning he is stuck on the farm. So you can understand why he feels the way he does about Danny and his jealous outburst. However, even this is ruined due to an event that happens about halfway through the book.

Trigger warning - Rape Phil rapes Sophie when she is stuck at his farm due to a snow storm. I will fully admit that I am getting sick and tired of rape being nothing more than a plot point, to either trap the the victim or to make them 'stronger'. It's awful and there are few books that deal with the every effects of such a life alternating situations (Beartown and Us Against You being the exceptions. Read those books instead). Here, while it isn't swept under the carpet, Phil never feels remorse for his actions and Sophie almost acts as if it's one of those things. But then to make matters worse, Sophie becomes pregnant and Phil uses this to his advantage so he ultimately get what he wants! He deliberately tells other people that they had 'fallen in love' and couldn't wait, and now that Sophie was pregnant he wanted to marry her and 'do the right thing'. Sophie for a reason that makes no sense to me (something along the line of she didn't want to ruin him) goes along with this plan. So Phil marries Sophie and trains her to look after the farm so he can become a pilot. I was reading this, and I just could not fathom how I was suppose to like this character!

The book then somehow wants the reader to feel sorry for Phil who falls in love with Tess but can't do anything because he's married to Sophie. He then has an argument with Danny, who is sort of dating Tess but not really, about this. But then later he has an epiphany and decides he's going to make a real go of his marriage, and to treat Sophie better. I was just reading in disbelief at this point because surprisingly I don't want Phil anywhere near Sophie. I want him to divorce her and let her live her life Then he dies spouting something about redemption and asking Danny to look after her. Sorry, I'm not going to feel sorry for a rapist that then trapped his victim in a marriage and then felt bad about it a bit later on.

I started off giving this book two out of five stars but then after writing this review I dropped it down to one, which I don't like doing because I am normally positive. However, this with a rambling plot, some characters that were either boring or detestable, awful plot points and random formatting errors I just couldn't do it. I do not like this book and I can't recommend it.

[Mary Dasent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read hard to put down because you want t know what's happening to characters as you get to know them.
Set in 1934 and takes you through the war years.
Story of love and loss.

[Elaine Watson]

A typical Katie Flynn story of Liverpool - alls well that ends well - a nice read

[Ata K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I read by Katie Flynn which I accidentally found among a few books my mum bought more than a decade ago from a charity shop. Not knowing what it was about I just opened and started reading it. The storyline was interesting, set during WW2 and begins with the challenges faced by a widowed woman with her 2 daughters as they search for a place to live and work before continuing by introduction of other characters in the countryside. Of course there are love stories, particularly a love triangle with some dramatic moments.

The only issue I found reading this book was that, and I don’t know if it was just me, I often got lost and couldn’t follow the plot. Had to go back and reread entire paragraphs or even pages to get back on track. Also some parts were unnecessarily prolonged while others that needed more detail and elaboration were cut short.

Overall, I enjoyed reading it.

[Jazzmin Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took a while to become interested in the characters. Then the World War 2 starts. Children are sent to live away from bombings, young women become land girls (sent to work on farms for food production) or do things like go to work in factories, young men join the services. The story follows the characters as they get on with their lives during all this. For example, a young girl is sent to live on a farm where three other girls are sent. Then her older sister visits and decides to become a land girl. So we get to see what day to day life is like for both of them, as well as for all the other characters who are doing a variety of other things.

[Krisz · Rating 2 out of 5]

:(
I was disappointed. This book isn't as good as others I've read from KF. It just goes on and on and nothing interesting happens with the characters. You could say - but come on, people die, there is love, rape etc. Oh yes. But still.
In the beginning I didn't mind that the pace was slow, as it is usual with KF. But then the puzzle pieces didn't appear. The stories didn't really connect either. Sad to say, I'll be giving this book away.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This went on soooo long and although the odd twist and turn, it basically was as I would expect. The one thing that bothered me was the rape as the perpetrator never was very remorseful and the woman, who married him coz she 'had to' just thought she should keep it from his closest and carried it. I wasnt a fan of that, I wanted him found out.
But I still liked the historical detail and feeling like you could have envisaged it all during WW2 and wouldn't stop me reading Katie flynn .

[Layla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book some years ago when it first came out lovely story great writing as always from Katie Flynn. 5 *****

[E A Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart warming

Loved this book with its many unexpected twists and turns , characters brought to life in Katie's very descriptive way.

[r.eldridgeadimicroscan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartwarming

Couldn’t put it down.

[Rowlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great Katie Flynn depicting life in Britain during wartime.

[HM Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read as always with Katie flynn books

[Sammi Heslop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

[susan.c.evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick easy read

Quick easy read for train journey, half up half back. Predictable and a bit long winded in places, but kept me amused all day.

[jean sargent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyable read felt as though you were there with them. I’ve enjoyed all of Katie Flynns books that I’ve read she always seems to put so much detail into her stories you feel as though they are true. Well worth a read this one if you enjoy war stories with a love interest.

[P.D.R. Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those who love a big friendly read organised into nice neat chapters perfect for bedtime reading this is novel for them. It's a little different from the usual saga. here we have two groups of people, one family who is Liverpool based, the other family farming in Herefordshire, who find their lives entangled because of the Second World War.

It's a long and complicated read, spanning the late 1930s and the WWII years. Writing-wise it's rather more telling the story than showing it, but the information about life during WWII is well researched and the details are good. There are many other characters apart from the two families, but we mainly focus on Tess, who becomes a Land Girl, and links Liverpool to Hereford, and Sophie, who has to manage a farm with Land Girls. Phillip and Danny, the Hereford farming cousins who want to be fighter pilots, and Mike, the Liverpudlian sailor, are the male leads. If Sophie's meekness irritates occasionally, at least she is a typical 40s' women and not some 21stC heroine planted in the story.

Katie Flynn is a well loved saga writer and this is another novel from her for saga lovers and Liverpudlians everywhere.

[Rachael Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book as a paperback and also as an eBook and enjoyed reading this book either way. Beyond the Blue hills is a fantastic book that is based around two families one in Liverpool the other in Herefordshire who become entangled during world 2. The book follows the story of Tess who is the main female lead and who becomes a land girl in Herefordshire where you also meet Philip and Danny the two main male leads who want to be fighter pilots. This book gripped me from the beginning it is a story full of love and heartbreak that has been written so well by the author Katie Flynn that I found myself both laughing and crying with the characters. I love this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves world war romance novels.

[Nora MacLean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I'm not a fan of the "heartwarming" literature. It was long, but at the same time it just kinda skimmed through several events during the story without any real depth to what is happening. I was nice, but I just wasn't really into it, I believe.
Oh, and also there's rape episode in the book. Which I hated even more because the man was like it's not rape just seduction. And also everyone else just thought the woman must have wanted to sleep with him, otherwise she wouldn't do it. I mean... I'm just so tired of this rhetoric.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book. Easy to read. A typical world war 2 romance book.

[Charlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favourite book from this author.