Review: The Lost English Girl

I’ve been reading Julia Kelly’s books since 2020 and I always eagerly await her latest release. This year she gave us The Lost English Girl, which was published back in March of this year. I know I’m going to get a well-researched and well-told story from Kelly and while this new one didn’t quite live up to my high expectations, I enjoyed it and was very invested in the characters and their lives as they tried to make it through World War II with as little hurt - emotional or physical - as possible.

Here’s the book’s description:

Liverpool, 1935: Raised in a strict Catholic family, Viv Byrne knows what’s expected of her: marry a Catholic man from her working-class neighborhood and have his children. However, when she finds herself pregnant after a fling with Joshua Levinson, a Jewish man with dreams of becoming a famous Jazz musician, Viv knows that a swift wedding is the only answer. Her only solace is that marrying Joshua will mean escaping her strict mother’s scrutiny. But when Joshua makes a life-changing choice on their wedding day, Viv is forced once again into the arms of her disapproving family.
Five years later and on the eve of World War II, Viv is faced with the impossible choice to evacuate her young daughter, Maggie, to the countryside estate of the affluent Thompson family. In New York City, Joshua gives up his failing musical career to serve in the Royal Air Force, fight for his country, and try to piece together his feelings about the family, wife, and daughter he left behind at nineteen. However, tragedy strikes when Viv learns that the countryside safe haven she sent her daughter to wasn’t immune from the horrors of war. It is only years later, with Joshua’s help, that Viv learns the secrets of their shared past and what it will take to put a family back together again.

Kelly’s latest few books aren’t for readers who want fast, action-packed historical fiction. Her books are quieter and focus on more of the day to day impact of historical events, in the case of The Lost English Girl it was World War II, instead of the flashy, big moments we all know about. I personally don’t mind that at all but I know some readers expect a faster paced historical fiction and I’d advise them to try other authors instead of Kelly.

Viv’s family drove me up the freaking wall. I cannot stand any story where the female main character is completely controlled by their family. It gets really hard when there’s a time or cultural difference and I try to keep my expectations in check but, oof, I struggled with this one. I hate that women had no powers, that they had to report to their father and then their husband, and that women like Viv, who found themselves unexpectedly pregnant, were shamed (hell, some women are still shamed nowadays). It enrages me, quite honestly. So, it’s no surprise I was totally rooting for Viv as she tried to make a life for herself and her daughter that didn’t include her parents. I desperately wanted her to succeed.

I had a feeling that this book was going to rip my heart out and it most definitely did. But I wasn’t as sure that Kelly would put it back together again. Eventually my assumption was proved correct and the characters had to work hard in the post-war chaos to put their family back to rights. (Is that vague? Good. I was trying to be. Read the book to see what I’m alluding to!)

The Lost English Girl isn’t just a book about how World War II affected the people of Liverpool. It’s about families - made and found - and motherhood. There’s pain and loss, of course, it’s a book set during war, but there’s hope, too. Julia Kelly has written another interesting and emotional novel and I’m already looking forward to what she writes next.

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*