Dead to Me by Lesley Pease
Publisher & Release: Agora books, February 18, 2021
Setting: WWII, England
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 459 Pages
Heat Level: 1 Flame
Rating: 5 Gold Crowns
Book Description:
Hampstead Heath, Spring 1935. Two girls meet by chance and become fast friends. They share their romances and heartbreaks, their struggles and dreams. But most of all, they share a sinister secret.
Upon their meeting, Verity and Ruby could not be more different: Verity is the epitome of money and class; Ruby lives a life of squalor and survival. Despite the disparity, an instant affinity forms a resilient bond between the two girls.
Yet, as the outbreak of WWII rumbles throughout Britain, Verity and Ruby’s relationship starts to develop fault lines. Ruby finds herself blissful and in love, while Verity is haunted by a shadow from her past. Separated by more than just distance, the two friends struggle to maintain their relationship until Verity does the one thing she can never take back.
With Britain blitzed by the raging war, will Verity and Ruby find a way back to each other before it’s too late?
In this sweeping wartime saga of friendship and love, Pearse explores the depths of lifelong bonds, compassion, betrayal, and forgiveness.
Buy Link:
Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/Dead-Me-Lesley-Pearse-ebook/dp/B08PS7NTV3
Add to Goodreads:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56636007-dead-to-me
Vikki’s Musings
Thanks go to the publisher and Net-Galley for the electronic copy of Dead to Me by Lesley Pearse. An historical fiction novel set in WWII England. I voluntarily agreed to read and review this book prior to publication. My opinions are my own, and nothing has influenced my rating of this book.
Dead to Me is a wartime saga that follows Ruby and Verity from the tender age of thirteen into adulthood. It’s a sweeping tale of friendship, betrayal and recovery from a childhood destroyed by uncaring mothers and an abusive father for Verity. The pacing pulled me in from the start and kept me enmeshed until the last page.
Verity is the main protagonist. She’s living a posh life with all the advantages a child could want. She meets Ruby, a child who lives in squalor and has to fight to survive. On the surface the two have little in common.
When Verity ends up in trouble for trying to help Ruby, her life is turned upside down when her father almost beats her to death, then disappears before the police can arrest him for embezzlement. Verity and her mother move in with her mother’s sister, Aunt Hazel.
Verity is a flawed character with dark secrets that make it difficult for her to trust, especially males. She makes unwise decisions that have a lasting effect on her life for years. Her teenage years become a struggle when her abusive father disappears, and she and her mother move in with Aunt Hazel.
Ruby is the second protagonist of this tale. At the beginning of the story, she almost a feral child. Her drunken prostitute mother doesn’t protect her, but Ruby quickly learns to keep away from the men who frequent her mother’s bed. When she gets in trouble with the police, she is sent to Devon to live with a woman who helps troubled teens, and she has a chance for a different life.
Even though Ruby and Verity weren’t together long, they formed an unbreakable bond that even distance could not break. Even when Ruby’s unwise decisions appear to break it, it’s not permanent.
In the midst of war-torn England, the girls grow into young women. Verity in London where she works for the telephone company, and Ruby works at a hotel that is turned into a hospital in Devon. After years of separation, Ruby and Verity reunite and live together with Wilby, the kind woman who helped Ruby.
Wilby is a wonderful character. She loves with her whole heart and does not judge or condemn. She’s generous to a fault and has no hidden agenda. When the war breaks out, she’s the first to open her home to the children fleeing London when the German Blitz starts.
Ms. Pearse vivid descriptions of London and Devon during the war put me right in the middle of the bombing. When a church is bombed taking twenty-one children’s lives, I had an amazing visual of what it must have looked like because I saw a bombed-out shell of a church in Devon on a trip to that area in 2016. The tour guide explained that it had been left that way so British citizens would never forget the harsh reality of that brutal war.
If you enjoy historical fiction with unforgettable characters and amazing descriptive writing woven into a fantastic plot, then you will love Dead to Me as much as I did. This is the first book I’ve read by Ms. Pearse, but it will not be the last. Happy reading!
Author Bio:
Born in Rochester, Kent, Lesley Pearse has lived a life as varied as the adventures in her novels. After working in various offices as a lowly clerk, a children’s nanny, then moving into the more glamorous work of Promotion and a spell as a Playboy Bunny, Pearse eventually turned her hand to writing and published her debut novel, Georgia, in 1993. Now living in a cliff-top house in Devon, alone with her King Charles Cavalier, Stan, Pearse has published over 25 titles and sold over 10 million copies worldwide.
Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LesleyPearseAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lesleypearse?lang=en
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lesley-pearse
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/458937.Lesley_Pearse
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