The latest saga set at Beach View Boarding House in Cliffehaven.
It is 1943 and nineteen-year-old April Wilton has joined the WRENS and is busy servicing ships’ engines in Portsmouth. Here she has found freedom, friendship, and fulfilment.
April meets Daniel, a young American soldier, whose mother is Sioux and father is of African descent, The attraction is immediate, and coming from strict racial segregation in South Carolina, Daniel finds the freedom he has in England overwhelming.
But with war and race both involved, their relationship was never going to be simple.
Rejected by her mother and facing an uncertain future she travels to Cliffehaven. However, she carries a secret, one that could change her life for ever.
Can the warmth and support of Peggy Riley and those at Beach View Boarding House heal the wounds of April’s past and bring her hope amid this time of turmoil?
This is my first encounter with the characters of Beach View Boarding House even though it is Ellie Dean’s eleventh family saga. However, it didn’t matter that I hadn’t read any of the others as I was soon swept into the warm and welcoming arms of Peggy Riley and the members of her hotch-potch household. It quite easily stands alone but it did make me curious to find out the back stories of the other members that now reside at Beach View – which can only be a good thing.
Ellie Dean handles a wide range of characters and makes you warm to each one of them – no mean feat at all. She takes us back to a time when life was difficult enough fighting a war and dealing with rationing, let alone the complications that relationships bring. A heartwarming and uplifting story for lovers of family sagas.