The Ship Of Brides

I haven't been reading all that much since my mum died, I've found it quite hard to concentrate on anything and I believe reading does take a certain amount of focus. Since reading Me Before You back in 2016, I've become a big Jojo Moyes fan, I've read quite a few of her books now, so when I saw The Ship of Brides in a charity shop, I grabbed it. I have to say that my reading mojo was swiftly reestablished as soon as I began reading.

'The year is 1946 and all over the world young women are crossing the seas in their thousands en route to the men they married in wartime, and an unknown future. In Sydney, Australia, four women join 650 other brides and hundreds of naval officers on an extraordinary voyage to England - aboard the Victoria.

Rules of honour, duty and separation are strictly enforced, from the aircraft carrier's captain down to the lowliest young stoker. But the men and the brides will find their lives intertwined in ways the Navy could never have imagined...

And Frances Mackenzie, an enigmatic young bride whose past comes back to haunt her thousands of miles from home - will find that sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.'

This book is based on a true story, that of Jojo Moyes own grandmother, who made this same journey. I didn't know anything about brides, married during wartime, being shipped across oceans to be reunited with their husbands when the war ended so I was really interested in this part of the story. The book follows the fate of four brides, each one of them very different.

One thing I would say is that the very beginning was a little slow and I didn't know where the story was going, but that soon changed.

This is the best book I've read in a long time, I absolutely loved the story and it's so well written. A definite recommendation from me.