During the Great War, Constance managed the accounts and staff at a large estate in Surrey, but when the war ended and soldiers began returning home, she found herself brutally shifted into a position caring for Mrs. Fog, the elderly mother of the estate's mistress, as she recovered from influenza. It's in the capacity of this continued convalescence that Constance finds herself at a grand hotel in the seaside town of Hazelbourne, and, oddly enough, making friends with a group of women who turned their wartime motorcycle delivery skills into a quirky taxi service. But with more and more men coming back from the front, it's harder and harder for the women to maintain their jobs — or find new ones, as Constance learns as she prepares to leave Mrs. Fog.
This is an interesting, and generally lighthearted, look at the way women's lives changed after WWI, albeit in a very small slice of Britain. While I'm sure there will be gobs of fans of this book for that very reason, it wasn't really my cup of tea and there were a few elements of the last few chapters that felt out of sync with the rest of the book. Still, I'd recommend it for fans of historical fiction featuring women with moxie.
*This book will be published May 7, 2024.
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