Land Girls: The Homecoming

the story is engaging and full of tension as we wait to see just what will be the final choices

I am addicted to period dramas, and plenty from the World War II era are plentiful, particularly BBC productions. The creator of Land Girls (you can see it on Netflix), Roland Moore, has planned a series of follow-up stories where the stories continue. Women assigned to the Woman’s Land Army in the UK were relocated from the city to farms throughout the country: working the land in support of the war effort. Women from all walks of life were brought together – and this story focuses on Connie Carter, now Connie Jameson, a woman from London’s East End.

Connie’s life before the land girls was one where she was focused on survival: abandoned as an infant and raised in the local orphanage, she’d progressed from singing on street corners to working multiple scams with Vince then Daniel, never quite feeling safe or secure and always in danger. Relocating and joining the Land Girls gave her a chance to change her life: away from the dangers of the London streets, and to live a normal life. Throughout the show, Connie was always trying to polish off those rough edges and with her new marriage to the town’s vicar, it looks as if things are finally starting to settle for her. No, marriage isn’t easy for Connie, but she loves Henry, even as the local older parishioners are disparaging and judgmental. But Connie’s selfless act after a train crash, and the subsequent news story that went national bring trouble to the doors of the vicarage, in the form of Vince – on the run from a failed scam, wounded and dangerous.

Connie has always kept much of her past a secret and for the second time, a man from her past has come to intrude on the life she and Henry are struggling to make. Used to the brash, rough and alpha approach, Henry’s quiet and reasoned mannerisms are a change that she’s still acclimating to: even as she struggles with the secrets she hasn’t shared and her belief that the women of the parish just may be right – she isn’t good enough. When things upend and Harry disappears after several harsh words, there is no other suspect but Vince: and only Connie can get the answers she needs.

Full of Connie’s interior voice, readers see her struggle with past and present; her desire to make her marriage work even with the difficulties, and her surprise (and dismay) when she slips into the more deceitful and selfish approaches to problem-solving that were second nature in London. With a lovely secondary plot involving a young girl from the train accident, and a new Land Girl at the farm, the story is engaging and full of tension as we wait to see just what will be the final choices for Connie, for Henry and their marriage.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.