REVIEW: Dear Miss Lake by A. J. Pearce
Plucky wartime advice columnist Emmy Lake discovers that sometimes it takes losing everything to find what we need most.
London, July 1944. After nearly five years of war, the readers of Woman’s Friend magazine are relying on the support of Emmy Lake and her team more than ever. With the city under attack, the magazine staff decamps to the countryside for the summer. Determined to help the women of Britain carry on, Emmy and friends are hard at work finding new ways to inspire resilience.
With her army officer husband Charles posted close to home, and best friend Bunty by her side, Emmy happily throws herself into rural life, juggling children, magazine assignments, and plans for a very important wedding. And then a call comes that means she may finally fulfill her long-held dream of becoming a war correspondent.
But when disaster strikes, Emmy needs her friends, her community, and her readers more than ever. Filled with courage and compassion, a lovable cast of characters, and winning wartime details, Dear Miss Lake is an enormously uplifting testament to the power of friendship and hope.
Dear Ms. Pearce,
I was kind of expecting two more books in this series to take us through the last two years of the war but when I saw this is the last one, I knew it would be a whopper. There is trouble, there is (still) making do, there is heartache, and there is joy. Just what I expected.
The book starts out feeling like the Phony War. There is a war on, remember but, in a bid to evade the new German rockets, with everyone from Woman’s Friend now holed up in the country at Bunty’s grandmother’s grand estate and someone finally popping a question and a wedding to plan, it feels a bit like waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is too idyllic, too charming and funny and delightful. It made me happy but also nervous about what is on the horizon.
Everyone is thinking that with the D-Day landings followed by the liberation of Paris, the war has to be over soon. Okay, maybe not by Christmas but things are going to wrap up and return to normal, right? Sadly not. While Emmy is finally getting her chance to go overseas on a brief jaunt to Belgium to interview some Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nurses, Charles – who has been stationed back in the UK for a while – is sent on another mission which, of course, he can tell Emmy nothing about. Gotta love Bunts for daring Emmy to try and get one last visit with him first.
Meanwhile Hester and Clarence have found love and plan their January wedding hoping for Clarence to get a quick leave before being sent overseas. Before this can happen, the Germans mess with everyone’s plans in late December. Can our crew at Woman’s Friend keep carrying on and helping an exhausted nation do the same in the face of personal tragedies?
Whew. There is so much to keep a reader inhaling this book. Bunty and Harold kick off the story with a happy scene before Bunty pops a question to Emmy about the staff of the magazine. George, Marg, and Stanley are still waiting for their widowed father in the Royal Navy to come home but are enjoying living in the country with Stanley getting a dog which his rat isn’t too thrilled with. Bunty’s grandmother Mrs. Tavistock displays true noblesse oblige as well as showing us how Bunty has been brought up to become the generous, true friend she is to Emmy and everyone Emmy pulls into their circle.
Then several Events occur and the Looming Shadow, that I thought must be coming over the horizon, arrives. Actually there are two of them to bring the staff into the thick of what many other people in the country have been coping with – some for years. Emmy and Guy must stiffen their upper lips in public and worry in private. Two other characters are waiting for something to happen but with differing experiences and public opinions.
Guy, Emmy, another military wife, and a mother are forced to hector government ministries for information as well as balance being truthful with the readers of Woman’s Friend vs only writing the pablum that the government flunkies expect in order to Keep Morale High. Then when Emmy loses her patience with some of the letter writers to her column, disaster strikes leading her, Guy, and Monica to desperately devise ways to reverse the fallout from Emmy’s mistake.
The optimistic “the war is almost over” feel at the start of the book is definitely tempered fairly soon. As this series hasn’t avoided some characters being lost to war, I held my breath to the end. And while the staff at the magazine are fairly broad minded and accepting, some of the wider public isn’t and of course dealing with the government is always a joy. It was delightful to settle into another, and final (sob) book with these wonderful people. I feel as if I’ve come to know them over the course of four books. Most of them mean well, try hard, and when they stumble, they pick themselves up and keep going with the help of this wonderful found family. I will truly miss them. A-
~Jayne
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I loved the Chronicles of plucky Emmy, loyal Bunty, dashing Charles, etc. Hester was a late entry for favorite secondary character. Emmy matured so much from the first book to the final one. I wonder what A.J. Pearce will do next. It might be hard to follow up such a successful series.
@SusanS: The last little bit of this one seemingly looks forward to some events in the future. At first I thought perhaps Pearce was setting up another post-war book but her afterward puts paid to that. Ah, well. Maybe she’ll revisit this world at some point.