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One Woman's War
A Rags to Riches novel
Nuneaton, 1914
War is just around the corner and for Annie Lilburn and her adopted family, life will never be the same. Annie has never felt like she fits in, but since Levi Lilburn, the local rag-and-bone man, took her under his wing and she became a business woman in her own right, things have been on the up. Soon that is set to change again when World War I is declared and the men of the town enlist.
Annie trains to become a nurse and finds herself on the battlefields in France. Through the devastation of war, love starts to bloom as Annie meets a young officer on a dangerous mission. Could this orphan girl finally be finding her place in the world and someone to truly love her, or is her happiness set to come crashing down once again?
One Woman's War is the second book in a brand-new historical trilogy from Britain's best-loved saga author.
Nuneaton, 1914
War is just around the corner and for Annie Lilburn and her adopted family, life will never be the same. Annie has never felt like she fits in, but since Levi Lilburn, the local rag-and-bone man, took her under his wing and she became a business woman in her own right, things have been on the up. Soon that is set to change again when World War I is declared and the men of the town enlist.
Annie trains to become a nurse and finds herself on the battlefields in France. Through the devastation of war, love starts to bloom as Annie meets a young officer on a dangerous mission. Could this orphan girl finally be finding her place in the world and someone to truly love her, or is her happiness set to come crashing down once again?
One Woman's War is the second book in a brand-new historical trilogy from Britain's best-loved saga author.
412 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 12, 2026
85 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Rosie Goodwin
106 books380 followersBefore becoming a writer, I was a Placement Support Worker and foster carer, and worked in the social services department after completing a teacher training course. Many children have joined my family over the years. I still live in Nuneaton, where many of my books are set, with my husband, Trevor, and our beloved dogs.
I was thrilled to discover that I'd become one of the top 250 most-borrowed library authors in the UK, and would like to thank all of you who have taken out my books over the last few years! I love meeting my readers and am always pleased to hear from you. I hope you will all continue to get in touch and please do sign up for my newsletter!
I was thrilled to discover that I'd become one of the top 250 most-borrowed library authors in the UK, and would like to thank all of you who have taken out my books over the last few years! I love meeting my readers and am always pleased to hear from you. I hope you will all continue to get in touch and please do sign up for my newsletter!
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 20, 2026
This book had a solid five star rating and would've kept it if the Reggie plot hadn't been included. I'm happy that another reviewer on here sees the same thing in these books I do. I'm getting tired of the female main character being harassed and usually raped in every damn book. Especially when it really serves no purpose to the overall story. If the characters story arc is she joins law enforcement or becomes an advocate for victims of rape and the story is how she got there it's fine. Just throwing it into a story to add drama is lazy writing and frankly pisses me off. I skipped over most of the parts involving Reggie and missed nothing. The only decent twist was Annie didn't get pregnant and we weren't subjected to all women fall in love with their babies which if true would mean there would be no Diane Downs, Susan Smith and the foster system might not exist or at least look a lot different.
Onto to the story. It's the summer of 1914 and Annie has conveniently decided to take nursing course even though her work at the shop and caring for Maggie are keeping her busy.
Charlie has been officially outed as a gay man and for 1914 people are surprisingly open minded about it. They even knew back then it wasn't a choice shocking since there's still people today who think it is. Maggie is not happy about it, but then she's never happy is she?
Harry is unhappily married with a baby and Barney is still with the circus longing for Mercy who is still in prison for killing her fiancé who tried to rape her, an example of how that can actually drive a story.
War is declared and literally everyone joins up except for Charlie and Reggie. Ine as a pacifist one cause hes an asshole. They both do end up going to war, one cause his parents paid for a commission and the other doing top secret work.
Annie's nursing courses suddenly come in handy and she first works on the home front before being chosen to go to France where she nurses and drives an ambulance before being recruited for spy work. She helps smuggle wounded men from behind the lines across the channel. This part was the best part of the whole book as so little is known about WWI spy missions compared to WWII, especially the role women played in them. At first Annie is like Edith Cavell, only with a less tragic ending. Later after a bout with pneumonia sends her home and leads to the worst part of the book things look up again when Annie returns solely as a spy and lives with a French family in occupied territory. We don't ever learn what happened to the people she stayed with, one family is killed bar one and the other maybe we find out in book three or it's just another mystery of war that we never find out.
This part of the story is also significant because Annie meets Alex and falls in love. Sadly Alex has a wife and child and it can't be. Gotta love the old my wife doesn't understand me line. At least during the war years there's no cheating which is another thing that ticks me off in books and real life. Break it off or get a divorce why cheat? I know it wasn't easy to do back then but still possible.
The war eventually ends and the book goes on far too long after the war ends. I wish it had wrapped with the armistice but it kept going close to five years after, also no one seemed affected by that giant deadly influenza outbreak that spread around the world following the war. The post war years were a bit of a drag and mostly set up the third and final book where Annie gets married and probably finds her real family and I think I know who her mother is based on a small scene with Ellie toward the end of the book. Parts of the ending I didn't like, Reggie being around still even though him being there is useless and makes the story predictable and not as engaging. And Annie's meeting with Alex I guess was supposed to be romantic but I wasn't a fan. But 95% of this book was excellent. Loved learning more about the resistance during WWI definitely a part of the war that is little known. Very engaging and enjoyable overall except Reggie who really didn't need to be there.
Onto to the story. It's the summer of 1914 and Annie has conveniently decided to take nursing course even though her work at the shop and caring for Maggie are keeping her busy.
Charlie has been officially outed as a gay man and for 1914 people are surprisingly open minded about it. They even knew back then it wasn't a choice shocking since there's still people today who think it is. Maggie is not happy about it, but then she's never happy is she?
Harry is unhappily married with a baby and Barney is still with the circus longing for Mercy who is still in prison for killing her fiancé who tried to rape her, an example of how that can actually drive a story.
War is declared and literally everyone joins up except for Charlie and Reggie. Ine as a pacifist one cause hes an asshole. They both do end up going to war, one cause his parents paid for a commission and the other doing top secret work.
Annie's nursing courses suddenly come in handy and she first works on the home front before being chosen to go to France where she nurses and drives an ambulance before being recruited for spy work. She helps smuggle wounded men from behind the lines across the channel. This part was the best part of the whole book as so little is known about WWI spy missions compared to WWII, especially the role women played in them. At first Annie is like Edith Cavell, only with a less tragic ending. Later after a bout with pneumonia sends her home and leads to the worst part of the book things look up again when Annie returns solely as a spy and lives with a French family in occupied territory. We don't ever learn what happened to the people she stayed with, one family is killed bar one and the other maybe we find out in book three or it's just another mystery of war that we never find out.
This part of the story is also significant because Annie meets Alex and falls in love. Sadly Alex has a wife and child and it can't be. Gotta love the old my wife doesn't understand me line. At least during the war years there's no cheating which is another thing that ticks me off in books and real life. Break it off or get a divorce why cheat? I know it wasn't easy to do back then but still possible.
The war eventually ends and the book goes on far too long after the war ends. I wish it had wrapped with the armistice but it kept going close to five years after, also no one seemed affected by that giant deadly influenza outbreak that spread around the world following the war. The post war years were a bit of a drag and mostly set up the third and final book where Annie gets married and probably finds her real family and I think I know who her mother is based on a small scene with Ellie toward the end of the book. Parts of the ending I didn't like, Reggie being around still even though him being there is useless and makes the story predictable and not as engaging. And Annie's meeting with Alex I guess was supposed to be romantic but I wasn't a fan. But 95% of this book was excellent. Loved learning more about the resistance during WWI definitely a part of the war that is little known. Very engaging and enjoyable overall except Reggie who really didn't need to be there.
February 26, 2026
WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD
This was definitely better than the last one in the series, as instead of going all over the place and being all scattered and messy it seemed to actually focus on a more linear, coherent story, and was definitely more gripping with more adventure.
It was definitely interesting and gripping following Annie's adventures during the war and embarking upon different career paths, along with her personal life and the Lilburn family and their friends. However, I was really annoyed to see Reggie still continuing to harass Annie as he did in the previous book, feeling that Goodwin's recycled trope of the horrible, vile male antagonist who constantly harasses our female protagonist and ends up raping her (or at least attempting to) to get a bit tired now. Reggie raping Annie was very predictable, especially if you have read Goodwin's previous novels where this same thing happens many times, with this same vile, male antagonist always seeming to find the only and immediate way to antagonise our beloved female antagonist is to harass and rape her. Still, the most unpredictable thing that really took me by surprise was that our beloved female antagonist didn't actually end up getting pregnant this time as a result of being raped, so that was something very refreshing for a change.
The thing that most annoyed me though was us being led to believe that Reggie had died in battle, yet he miraculously ends up coming back from the dead! I just found this most ludicrous as they even received a telegram saying that he was dead, so how on earth did he suddenly survive, as how often were these telegrams reporting a family member's death actually wrong?! This just didn't make any sense at all and the fact this wasn't even addressed was really annoying. It was very infuriating to giving us false hope like that, as I was rejoicing when Reggie was apparently killed, only for us to discover that he is actually still alive, to such great dismay, and stays that way. Hopefully he will be killed off in the next book-for real this time too! Ugh it just annoyed me so much as he really deserved to die and should have died, and just after we have been rejoicing at his death, we find out he hasn't actually died after all, and this was just really unfair to mess with us and deceive us like this!
I also found Monty's continued obsession with Annie really annoying, as while he is supposed to be the polar opposite of Reggie being a much nicer and gooder guy, I found the way he basically pressured and forced Annie to be with him just because he is madly in love with her and stubbornly refuses to be with any other girl just made him less likeable. I mean he is meant to be the good guy yet he basically forces Annie to be with him just because he loves her so much, not considering that she may not want that. Yes he does give her time but even so he simply doesn't take no for an answer and expects her to be with him whether she wants to or not. I'm guessing with the constant mention of his life constantly hanging in the balance with the shrapnel possibly moving towards his heart he is going to be killed off in the next book, but who knows.
I wasn't too crazy about the ending, but I guess the point is we're not supposed to be as of course there's more to come in the next book, though not sure I can wait 'til September! I also found the parts with Maggie's unbearable sister Flo calling at theirs to scrounge away to be unnecessary, as it just didn't add anything to the story or have any relevance at all.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and all the adventures it took us on. There was definitely a great mixture of emotions, an emotional rollercoaster you could say, and despite several annoyances, it was a great book overall!
This was definitely better than the last one in the series, as instead of going all over the place and being all scattered and messy it seemed to actually focus on a more linear, coherent story, and was definitely more gripping with more adventure.
It was definitely interesting and gripping following Annie's adventures during the war and embarking upon different career paths, along with her personal life and the Lilburn family and their friends. However, I was really annoyed to see Reggie still continuing to harass Annie as he did in the previous book, feeling that Goodwin's recycled trope of the horrible, vile male antagonist who constantly harasses our female protagonist and ends up raping her (or at least attempting to) to get a bit tired now. Reggie raping Annie was very predictable, especially if you have read Goodwin's previous novels where this same thing happens many times, with this same vile, male antagonist always seeming to find the only and immediate way to antagonise our beloved female antagonist is to harass and rape her. Still, the most unpredictable thing that really took me by surprise was that our beloved female antagonist didn't actually end up getting pregnant this time as a result of being raped, so that was something very refreshing for a change.
The thing that most annoyed me though was us being led to believe that Reggie had died in battle, yet he miraculously ends up coming back from the dead! I just found this most ludicrous as they even received a telegram saying that he was dead, so how on earth did he suddenly survive, as how often were these telegrams reporting a family member's death actually wrong?! This just didn't make any sense at all and the fact this wasn't even addressed was really annoying. It was very infuriating to giving us false hope like that, as I was rejoicing when Reggie was apparently killed, only for us to discover that he is actually still alive, to such great dismay, and stays that way. Hopefully he will be killed off in the next book-for real this time too! Ugh it just annoyed me so much as he really deserved to die and should have died, and just after we have been rejoicing at his death, we find out he hasn't actually died after all, and this was just really unfair to mess with us and deceive us like this!
I also found Monty's continued obsession with Annie really annoying, as while he is supposed to be the polar opposite of Reggie being a much nicer and gooder guy, I found the way he basically pressured and forced Annie to be with him just because he is madly in love with her and stubbornly refuses to be with any other girl just made him less likeable. I mean he is meant to be the good guy yet he basically forces Annie to be with him just because he loves her so much, not considering that she may not want that. Yes he does give her time but even so he simply doesn't take no for an answer and expects her to be with him whether she wants to or not. I'm guessing with the constant mention of his life constantly hanging in the balance with the shrapnel possibly moving towards his heart he is going to be killed off in the next book, but who knows.
I wasn't too crazy about the ending, but I guess the point is we're not supposed to be as of course there's more to come in the next book, though not sure I can wait 'til September! I also found the parts with Maggie's unbearable sister Flo calling at theirs to scrounge away to be unnecessary, as it just didn't add anything to the story or have any relevance at all.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and all the adventures it took us on. There was definitely a great mixture of emotions, an emotional rollercoaster you could say, and despite several annoyances, it was a great book overall!
March 25, 2026
I knew exactly what was coming with that one bad character because it’s the same as every other storyline in every book Rosie writes now 😅
March 15, 2026
I really enjoyed this second book in the 3-part series following Annie’s story during the First World War, where she trains to be a nurse and goes to help at the field hospitals in France. We learn more about what is happening in Susan’s life now as well as with Peggy, Levi and Maggie and the other characters from the first book, as well as follow Annie’s life through to a few years after the end of the war. There are many changes to the characters’ lives, many tragedies as well as many good times, and it makes you feel very emotional hearing their experiences. What I love is that many of the characters look after each other, especially during the war when times are difficult. Their attitudes fit well with the societal and political beliefs and expectations of the time, but also shows how attitudes, especially towards women were beginning to change. Annie is a very hardworking, kind and generous person who cares about everyone, and I look forward to reading more about her in the next instalment of his series.
March 27, 2026
Great book that’s made such a great series by the characters. So many lovable and interesting characters fill the pages and always so much drama.
Set during WW1 with Annie in France and most of the men folk off fighting, there was plenty of action, good times and bad as the years went by.
Dare I say that I felt sorry for Maggie after all this time, she never made it easy to like her, but she’s really a grieving mother and has never got over the loss of her daughter Penny. The couple of moments of Annie and Penny were nice.
I’m glad the story went the way it did in the end as I never liked her with the other man (not wanting to give spoilers away) I just never seen them together.
Look forward to the third book in the series.
Set during WW1 with Annie in France and most of the men folk off fighting, there was plenty of action, good times and bad as the years went by.
Dare I say that I felt sorry for Maggie after all this time, she never made it easy to like her, but she’s really a grieving mother and has never got over the loss of her daughter Penny. The couple of moments of Annie and Penny were nice.
I’m glad the story went the way it did in the end as I never liked her with the other man (not wanting to give spoilers away) I just never seen them together.
Look forward to the third book in the series.
March 7, 2026
Boxes and boxes of tissues at the ready
Wow I wish I didn't have to wait so long for the next book to come out poor Annie I don't know anybody that's had has much heartache as she has had Levi and Peggy Davey and his wife at least he came back from the war and another kiddie on the way and isn't karma a bitch Reggie deserved what he got and I hope he gets a lot more I just hope Annie doesn't come to regret her engagement I love Rosie 's books and as ever this did not disappoint if you haven't already read rags to riches then you are missing out big time and you'll definitely want to read one woman's war five stars and then some get ready to be blown away
Wow I wish I didn't have to wait so long for the next book to come out poor Annie I don't know anybody that's had has much heartache as she has had Levi and Peggy Davey and his wife at least he came back from the war and another kiddie on the way and isn't karma a bitch Reggie deserved what he got and I hope he gets a lot more I just hope Annie doesn't come to regret her engagement I love Rosie 's books and as ever this did not disappoint if you haven't already read rags to riches then you are missing out big time and you'll definitely want to read one woman's war five stars and then some get ready to be blown away
February 28, 2026
I am totally invested in Rosie Goodwin. I have basically read all her books and love how she gets you gripped in. I seriously can not wait for book 3 in this series. I truly believe Goodwin books should be discussed more. Grab any book and give it a try because I guarantee the book are totally worth it.
February 20, 2026
What a story
This book wasn't boring, there was much to pull you in,the war with its dangers and Alex and of course Monty. Definitely a book worth reading. Just sorry it has ended
This book wasn't boring, there was much to pull you in,the war with its dangers and Alex and of course Monty. Definitely a book worth reading. Just sorry it has ended
February 20, 2026
War is terrible
In this book Annie takes on nursing as WWI hits. This war is horrible with conditions no one should endure at INE point Annie meets Alex, A spy and falls in love. But he is married and while the attraction is mutual it cannot proceed.
In this book Annie takes on nursing as WWI hits. This war is horrible with conditions no one should endure at INE point Annie meets Alex, A spy and falls in love. But he is married and while the attraction is mutual it cannot proceed.
March 3, 2026
As usual, Rosie Goodwin didn't disappoint with this second book in the trilogy. Looking forward, very much, to reading the third book when published.
March 4, 2026
Lovely Read
Follows on beautifully from the first book. I can't wait to read what happens next to our lovely heroine x
Follows on beautifully from the first book. I can't wait to read what happens next to our lovely heroine x
March 5, 2026
Wow. What an absolutely stunning story. Couldn't put it down
March 8, 2026
Book 2 in the Rags to Riches trilogy, fabulous, once started I couldnt put it down until finished!!
March 23, 2026
Oh wow this was an amazing book very sad in places, so she'd a few tears reading this. Cant wait to read the last one in this trlogy now.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews