War Brides

By: Helen Bryan

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

As war moves ever closer, the sleepy English village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. The nightly German air raids become grimly mundane. Rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge a bond of friendship that will change their lives forever in this engrossing novel of loyalty, loss, and love in the shadow of World War II.

With the hardships of war intensifying every day, the women band together to defeat formidable enemies and find remarkable strength within themselves to help one another. It is a war-forged loyalty certain to endure years and distance. When four of the women return for a celebration 50 years later, their mission is not simply to commemorate or remember. They’ve returned to confront a traitor whose actions cost countless lives — and to avenge one of their own at last.

©2011 Heley Bryan (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Heart wrenching

This book was not only the story of four war brides, but also of the courage and suffering of a nation. How the four brides come together and bravely help each other and their village during WW2 was sometimes too heart wrenching. The ending regarding Sir Hugo seemed out of place in the story. Overall an excellent book.

Wonderful

I love the narrator and how she changed her voice with the different characters with the proper accent from where they were from.

Wonderful Story

I enjoyed listening to this story very much. It has a great story line and is beautifully written.

History

I love stories like this maybe because I am 80 and lived through WWII ! Wish the end would have been a little different, but great listen!!

Wee worth the read!

Fantastic book! The narration is exceptional, like hearing a production on stage. The history lesson interwoven with the characters produces a very moving account of the times. Bravo! Don't miss this one!

ok read

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Would recommend to a friend who would be interested in WWII history of this nature

What did you like best about this story?

The perspective of WWII from the female POV

What three words best describe Tavia Gilbert’s performance?

Accents, voice changes are quite good

Was War Brides worth the listening time?

yes

Any additional comments?

Sync between voice and text was choppy and not always together; narrator's voice dropped the end of sentences at times that seemed more the fault of the recording, not the narrator's. The narrator's accent was so good and thick at times that I needed to read along for clarity. Story starts and builds slowly so that about a third of the way through I started reading from the last chapter and then back chapter by chapter. I do this with a lot of books that are slow reads. Story is interesting and worth the time.

good

it was good once I finally got to know the characters. But it was so hard to follow in the beginning. To much thrown at the reader to fast. not enough character building.

Wonderful story

I Love hearing the tales of the War. Easy to listen to, Loved the story!

Amazing world war two epic novel

This novel does a wonderful job of writing the stories behind the war of people who fought anyway they could to help their country defeat the Germans and the Nazis in World War II

Captivating representation

After keeping this book in my tbr list for the past 3 months I finally started it.
While some have complained about the narrator overdoing it with the southern accents these did not irritate me. For the location, as well as the time frame, the southern drawl that she did was fairly accurate in my opinion. Being a southerner myself I wonder if those complainers have spent anytime in the deep south speaking with older ones? The farther back you go the stronger the accents, due to the fact that people traveled less so accents were MUCH deeper and less muddled than today. As for the London accents I've no knowledge on whether they were location-accurate I can only say that it was very easy to tell each of the characters apart even before the speakers name was mentioned. That to me is an accomplishment in itself.
I really enjoyed the way Ms. Bryan allowed you to grow with the characters. From their initial hopes and dreams, to when these were replaced with reality, how reality changed their personalities, and then how they coped with these changes. It was also very interesting to see how each women turned out in the end. I'm always left with well what about when they're old, what happens then, do they get over everything? It was nice to see how it all ended up for them in the end. All in all a good listen.