When We Danced at end of the Pier by Sandy Taylor

When we Danced at the end of the Pier by Sandy Taylor

Published: 31st March 2017

Publisher: Bookouture

Pages: 352

Available in Paperback and on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Rating: 5/5

Blurb

Jack and Nelson have always been dear friends to Maureen. Despite their different backgrounds, they’ve seen each other through thick and thin.

As Maureen blossoms from a little girl into a young woman, the candle she’s always held for Jack burns bright. But just as she’s found love, war wrenches them apart. The man she cherishes with all her heart is leaving.

When the bombs start to fall, Maureen and her family find themselves living in the most dangerous of times. With Jack no longer by her side and Nelson at war, Maureen has never felt more alone. Can she look to a brighter future? And will she find the true happiness she’s dreamt of?

Review

If you’ve been following my blog for a while it will be no surprise to you that I loved When we Danced at the end of Pier just as much as I did Sandy Taylor’s previous two novels in the Brighton Girls trilogy. I just adore Sandy’s writing as it’s so emotional and realistic, I felt like living Maureen’s life alongside her and what an emotional rollercoaster of a life she had.

In When we Danced at the end of the Pier we go back to the beginning of the story with Maureen O’Connell as the main character. If you read the previous two novels by Sandy Taylor you will know that Maureen is the mother of Dotty. To begin with I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this book as much as the previous two as I had an idea of how the story was going to end. But oh the journey to get there was so worth it, Maureen’s life is told in great detail and shows various emotional upheavals young Maureen goes through to become the strong and caring woman she is in the other two novels.

The story starts back when Maureen is eight years old and first moves onto See-Saw lane, which is where she first lays eyes on Jack, who she instantly declares to Sister Brenda is the man she is going to marry. As they grow older Maureen and Jack along with his best friend Nelson become inseparable so when war finally breaks out Maureen is left on her own as the two men in her life go off to fight she has to be strong and wait and hope they both return safely.

This is a book which is full of the highs and lows of growing up and at times is heart-breaking for poor Maureen. It’s written so well that as a reader I felt each and every emotion that Maureen felt, Sandy Taylor really does have a gift at knowing how to pull the heart strings as there are parts of this book that had me in tears. It’s not all sad though, overall I found it a very uplifting novel and with the introduction of little Gertie sometimes even funny.

I urge anyone who hasn’t read the Brighton Girls trilogy to pick them up, they are all wonderful and I hope not the last books we see from Sandy Taylor.

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for this copy which I reviewed voluntarily.