Ambulance Girls At War

Ambulance Girls #3

by Deborah Burrows

Young Maisie Halliday has escaped the grinding poverty of the northern town where she was born to live in the glittering world of professional dancing.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, she volunteers as an ambulance driver, finding joy both in helping the wounded during the Blitz and also in her friends among the other drivers in the Bloomsbury Auxiliary Ambulance Depot.

Maisie is at the Cafe de Paris nightclub when it is bombed. In the chaos, she attempts to help an injured man, and by this charitable act she becomes mixed up in what may well be a murder. A series of incidents, all connected to a handsome, arrogant American, throw Maisie's life into a dangerous spin. Is anything what it seems in wartime? With one serious misjudgement, Maisie risks losing everything she holds dear...

Genres: Historical Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Published September 6, 2018

About the author

I was born and grew up in Perth, Western Australia, and am the author of five popular novels set in the Second World War. The latest is Ambulance Girls Under Fire, which is the second of a trilogy set in the London Blitz. And my non-fiction "Nursing in Australia: The Illustrated History" will be published by the National Library of Australia in November 2018.
I am a former lawyer with a passion for history (and three history degrees to prove it!!). And although I love the clear skies, beautiful beaches and easy-going atmosphere of my home town, I also adore the dreaming spires of Oxford, UK, where I read medical history.
I now see myself as a proud citizen of both cities, but for the time being am living in Oxford (although I go to Perth as often as I can).
I use my research and legal skills to make my historical novels as accurate as possible, and my imagination to make them as entertaining as I can.

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maisie Halliday was enjoying her work at the Bloomsbury Auxiliary Ambulance Depot; the companionship and camaraderie kept them all going when the raids were bad, when the bombs fell, and people were killed. Maisie felt a grim satisfaction at being able to help others through the Blitz. But when she was with friends in the Cafe de Paris nightclub one night and a bomb fell directly on the club, the chaos and mayhem saw Maisie stumble across a man who was dying, and in trying to help him, found herself embroiled in a dangerous game which could end her life.

Michael Harper was an American from Pennsylvania, attached to the Embassy and doing his bit to help the British overcome Hitler. As Maisie walked back to the apartments she called home after a long twelve-hour shift, she often bumped into Michael. She would have a cup of tea with him, but also told herself she didn’t particularly like him. Would Maisie survive through the horrors of the war? Would it ever end?

Ambulance Girls at War is the 3rd and final in the Ambulance Girls trilogy by Aussie author Deborah Burrows and I loved it! The ambulance girls were tough, resilient and determined to keep as many people alive as was possible. Maisie and Celia would do run after run to the local hospital in their old Studebaker, dodging craters, live wires and debris, trying to get their patients into care. I’m sad the trilogy is over as it was exceptional. I’m going to find more by this author now 😊 Highly recommended.

[Ali Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the first two in the series, sadly had to give up on this one halfway through as it just wasn't holding my interest like the others did.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, at times quite chilling, account of the London Blitz and ambulance service, mixes fictional characters with some based on reality, mainly spies. We follow a Sheffield dancer who was on the stage in Paris before the war and now drives a lumbering ambulance around craters, debris and glass. Interestingly a TV studio decides to make a short film about the ambulance service and its cheerful, brave and attractive workers.

The research is detailed and must have been challenging to write. This book is third in a series and I had not read the others, but that wasn't a problem.
This is an unbiased review. I borrowed this book from Raheny Library.

[Iesley Rowe Rowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth reading

You need to read all three books together. I really enjoyed them and getting to know the ambulance girls in order

[Shreedevi Gurumurty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Young Maisie Halliday has escaped the grinding poverty of the northern town where she was born and now lives in the glittering world of professional dancing.At the outbreak of the Second World War, she volunteers as an ambulance driver, finding joy both in helping the wounded during the Blitz and also in her friends among the other drivers in the Bloomsbury Auxiliary Ambulance Depot.
Maisie is at the Cafe de Paris nightclub when it is bombed. In the chaos, she attempts to help an injured man, and by this charitable act she becomes mixed up in what may well be a murder. A series of incidents, all connected to a handsome, arrogant American, throw Maisie's life into a dangerous spin. Is anything what it seems in wartime? With one serious misjudgement, Maisie risks losing everything she holds dear...Soho is an area of the City of Westminster,part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy,it has been one of the main entertainment districts since the 19th century.Manette Street links the Charing Cross Road to Greek Street.It was named after Dr Manette in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities,who lived on a quiet street corner "not far from Soho Square".The Café de Paris was a London nightclub,located in the West End, beside Leicester Square on Coventry Street, Piccadilly.On the outbreak of WWII,the venue became less socially exclusive.On 8 March 1941,the café was bombed soon after the start of a performance.The Tiller Girls were among the most popular dance troupes of the 1890s,first formed by John Tiller in Manchester, 1889.In theatre Tiller had noticed the overall effect of a chorus of dancers was often spoiled by lack of discipline.Tiller found that by linking arms the dancers could dance as one;he is credited with inventing precision dance.The Crown Film Unit was an organisation within the British Government's MOI during WWII.Its remit was to make films for the general public in Britain and abroad.The steam passenger ship the City of Benares was transporting evacuees,when it was torpedoed in September of 1940 by the German U-48 submarine, resulting in a heavy loss of life.

[maze · Rating 3 out of 5]

i’m not entirely convinced but it was cute enough.

i don’t really get the relationship between maisie and michael, thought it was too fast and not shown enough. she goes from not wanting anyone in her life and being content with herself to falling madly in love with a stranger who might be involved in something nefarious. bc that’s the thing, she convinces herself michael isn’t a bad guy (and he isn’t apparently but he’s an fbi agent in the 40s i trust he’s involved in some shady shit) but she doesn’t have much proof other than some vibes she’s getting. and more importantly, she’s also scared of falling in love with someone during the war. she’s said that throughout the three books but, just like lily, once it’s established that she’s infatuated with the man, we don’t see her slowly accepting that falling in love can’t be helped and yes there’s a war on but life goes on. no there’s no growth

i appreciate that we got closure with all the characters, though i do believe that lily and celia naming their kids david is a bit silly despite the reasoning behind it. i don’t believe for one second that maisie would have enjoyed living in the us and running a dance studio. i don’t believe that for one second, she longed for meaningful purposes and dancing. the spy job worked so well for her, and having her being a spy around the world and a dancer would have made a lot more sense but no you gotta have babies and settle in that suburban life

it was not the best of the series, it really lost the plot after the 50% mark. and it turned kinda sad when they were going through all the years to the end of the war and them being apart… also i hate to say it but if michael was amongst the first on the beaches in france he couldn’t have survived. the whole subplot of the propaganda movie was truly unnecessary. it slowed things down even more, didn’t serve the story and took too much space in the narration. i didn’t see the point of it

i’m intrigued to see the resistance girls but i can’t find any information about it

[Ike Levick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 8: Ambulance Girls at War

I am so sad to finish this series, even though most storylines were neatly wrapped up towards the end. This time the story was written from Maisie’s perspective, and we learned a bit more about the nuances that existed between the States and Great Britain and their respective involvement in WWII. This book was quite fast paced compared to the others, and some scenes were actually too short – especially those that had my heart pounding. Literally. I had to look away, I was so worried! I would have loved to be strung along a bit longer, like sweet torture, in places.

Deborah Burrows is a great storyteller – carefully weaving in historical facts, language, biases, politics and little anecdotes that really made me stay in the story and the 1940s. The food people ate, the black market, the desperation, the rarity of silk stockings, the way girls shared their dresses because no-one could afford new clothes…

If you love historical fiction, and a little bit of romance and intrigue, this series is perfect. I loved the girls, their individual adventures, the relationship with each other and their men, and the overall bravery I know permeated right through London to endure the awful Blitz. Edna and Rosie were also firm favourites of mine, I would have loved to get to know then a bit better. Broken but incredible characters both. Looking out for each other, and for Maisie.

Also, this was my first book on my little Kindle, and it was awesome! A great experience, though of course not as special as turning actual pages, but it came close!

9.5/10

#ambulancegirlsatwar #deborahburrows
#bookreview #historicalfiction #wwii #books #bookstagam #bookgram #bookblogger #bookreviewer #booksofig #booknerd
#Londonblitz

[C.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into how some people spent their time during the blitz during WWII.

Deborah always puts so much research into her projects, and helpfully puts a list of books and research materials she has consulted in the back of each book. That way if you want to find out more about the events in her book, you can find out more. Her historical notes, also make interesting reading.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Ambulance Girls At War and getting to know the main character Maisie’s Halliday.
I was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected twists and turns the story took.
I would recommend the Ambulance Girls trilogy to anyone interested in historical fiction.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. I LOVED reading it. I was completely swept up in the tragedy, and stoicism of the London Blitz, and I loved the insights into both the characters and war-time. The plot was terrific, too. One of my favourite books of all time.

[Layla · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last in the Ambulance Girls series,

Loved this book. another great book in the series, I hope there are more of this series to be written.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic series of books

[Gill James · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a joy to read. Good evidence of research. I know the era well but I still learnt a lot. A great story. Beautifully well-developed characters.

[Yvonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was very well written

[Carys · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice easy read.