Lily's War

by June Francis

With a father who hits the bottle, four younger brothers and sisters, and the family dairy to run, it is no wonder that Lily sometimes dreams of a tall, dark hero. When Lily meets Matt Gibson he asks her to return with him to his native Australia as his wife. Lily agrees, but as they are due to leave tragedy strikes and Matt finds himself traveling alone. Eventually Lily follows, only to find that Matt has gone missing. Rumours of the war reach Lily so she returns home and when Matt unexpectedly reappears in England she longs to believe his story. But is her husband the principled, idealistic man she married - or does he have feet of clay? S et against the backdrop of wartime Liverpool, LILY'S WAR is a heartwarming story of loyalty and love.

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

Although, June was born in the seaside resort of Blackpool, she has lived all her life in the port of Liverpool, home of the Beatles. One of four children, her love of stories began when her father told her 'The Little Match Girl', which left her in floods of tears, but also with a desire to make up stories, herself. As soon as she could read she was doing a three mile walk to the local library. She passed the scholarship to Liverpool Girls' College where her English teacher told her that she had a great imagination. Despite this, June did not believe she could ever be an author, so on leaving school, she became a cash clerk. She married at twenty-two, has three sons, ran a church playgroup for ten years and it wasn't until her youngest started school that she joined a Writers' Club and turned her hand to writing articles about What She Knew for a woman's magazine. But her first love had always been books and eventually she wrote her first two medieval romances for Mills & Boon. After doing another two, she had an urge to write a family story set in Liverpool during WWII. This was bought by another publisher. Since then she has had thirty-three books published.

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book. It's about Lily and her family, who live in Liverpool and is set before and during the second world war. The only downside for me was the ease that the main characters travelled to and from Australia, so many comings and goings and the journey was hardly mentioned.

[A Red Headed Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first June Francis book, i have to say I actually enjoyed it. Wasn’t as predictable as I thought, kept me captured and didn’t wanna put it down.

[Lynda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fairly standard pre to post-war story of hardship, boy meets girl, separation and happy ever after.

[Leah Hyndman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was better reading than I thought it would be. Just enough suspense to keep the story interesting so I had to keep reading.

[Audrey Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

An very intriguing and different WWII romance!

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

It must have been hard to move to another country and not be able to phone family, and just have letters

[Dianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this and couldn't finish it. Very unrealistic story.

[Annie Burrows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lily has a really gruelling wartime experience - you will need tissues as you read this book!