This was so good! I teach a Women's History course at the high school that I teach, and this book was such a cool concept and helped me show the students the complexities of that time. Great book.

Emmy Lake has big dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent and when she finds an advertisement for a job at a Women’s Friend magazine she’s ecstatic. Unfortunately her boss is the formidable Mrs. Bird who is the agony aunt for the magazine and Emmy’s job is to sort out the letters that are fit to be answered and printed in the magazine. Looks like her dreams of reporting serious stories are dashed.

However, when she finds out that Mrs. Bird doesn’t want to deal with any unpleasantness like answering a letter to a woman who wants to elope or offer any other relationship advice, Emmy thinks she may be able to help after all. It’s not long before Emmy is taking letters home and answering them herself.

Part of the novel is all about how she tries to keep the ruse going, but also Emily maturing after tragedies affect those she loves most. I liked Emmy’s plucky spirit even though that did get her in trouble quite a bit. There are some very serious events that happen so it’s not all fun but overall I found this an entertaining read and I know the author has a new follow up, Yours Cheerfully, which I do look forward to reading. Honestly I’m most curious to read about Emmy’s friend, Bunty.

"Dear Mrs. Bird" has been in my Kindle for sometime - I am so sorry I didn't get to it sooner! What a treat (if WWII in London can be a treat). Narrator and main character Emmy Lake is about to get her big professional break in journalism - or so she seems. Through not one but many misunderstandings, Emmy isn't exactly on her way to winning a Pulitzer Prize, however, she is on her way to maturity while navigating how to secretly be of assistance to the people who reach out to Mrs. Bird's advice column, a fiancé away at war, doing her "bit" for the war effort at a fire station, and being a good friend. Emmy's friendship with Bunty (Marigold) couldn't be any deeper if they were sisters and how they work through this time period is a challenge all to itself. The kindness of strangers and ordinary people during those extraordinary times makes this a wonderful novel. Thank you to AJ Pearce, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Set in London during WWII, this book was automatically one I wanted to read, since my mother grew up in that time and place. It reflected the sensibilities of the day and the growth of women during the war years. A smart heroine with a dream and a knack for writing, set in WWII London...just my cuppa tea. Oh sure, she's not without her flaws, but she learns and grows and, ultimately, succeeds.

A bonus for me was the description of the bombing of the Cafe de Paris in London. My grandfather was the manager of that nightclub for several years after it re-opened. That makes this book extra special to me. Even if it didn't have that, I will definitely read it again.

This was a lovely, engaging story! The balance between the darkness of wartime London and the lightness that these characters try to bring to their lives was exceptionally well done. There were a few things that bothered me about the plot and the characters' decisions, but none of them was serious enough to really impact my enjoyment of the book.

CW: death of a major character, wartime violence

Unfortunately, this book fell prey to It's a wartime book and I've recently discovered that this is just not the subgenre of historical fiction that I enjoy reading. I used to when I was in high school, but as I've learned my reading tastes as an adult in the past couple of years, it's just not it. If you like that era, you will probably like this, but it was just a "it's me not the book" problem.

"Dear Mrs. Bird" is a great departure from the ultra-depressing tones of most historical WWII fiction (a la "Lilac Girls' and 'The Nightingale.') Pearce creates a jolly vibe for a time and place in history that was bogged down with sorrow. The story is told from the perspective of Emmy, a young woman in London who hopes to become a first-rate female wartime reporter. By accident, she ends up taking a job as a typist for a Dear Abby-type women's magazine, where she becomes drawn to letters from women seeking advice for their troubles while trying to survive in a city plagued by air raids and bombs. At first, the tone felt out of place to me - the lightheartedness and jokes felt contradictory to accounts of people being displaced and injured by bombs. Ultimately, the book really came together for me when a tragic event changes Emmy's perspective on the world around her. It was only then that I was able to truly appreciate Pearce's blend of cheekiness mixed with the horrors of war. I did thoroughly enjoy Pearce's inclusion of so many historically accurate details (especially the real-life bombing of Cafe de Paris in London and the spot-on British slang). The ending did feel a little rushed, but I suspect Pearce is writing a sequel to this.

In A J Pearce’s novel, Dear Mrs. Bird, the plot gets rolling with a goofy misunderstanding. Young Emmy Lake tries to become a war correspondent in WWII London, but ends up getting a job assisting on an advice column. Assisting Mrs. Bird means opening her mail, and throwing away anything with “inappropriate” content, ensuing that only the blandest, mildest queries are read by Mrs. Bird and publicly answered in the women’s magazine. As Emmy starts to read and secretly answer some of the rejected letters, warm laughs will follow.

What a breathe of fresh air this book was! I was initially drawn to the cover, but it was such a pleasant surprise all the way around! Emmy was one of those characters that I felt drawn to immediately. I couldn't help but want to keep reading to find out the rest of the story. While the book took place during WW2, it was refreshing new take on a subject that it written about all the time. But what I thought was just going to be a straightforward story turned out to be so heartwarming and I can't recommend it enough!

* I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce balances the adventures of a young woman against a story set in wartime London. It is a light-hearted story of friendship, social outings, conversations about bosses, and family. It is also a serious and often heartbreaking story of war and the death and destruction it brings. Ultimately, Dear Mrs. Bird is a story of friendship. It seems odd to characterize a book set in the middle of wartime London as sweet, but that is the note this book strikes.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2019/02/dear-mrs-bird.html

Reviewed for NetGalley

I'm not usually one for historical fiction, but I really enjoyed this book for it's compelling main character and wonderful writing. With the war as a background that intensifies things, the focus in on one woman and her desire to become a journalist and do what she can for her friends and the war. It is charming, genuine, and refreshing. I highly recommend it.

Dear Mrs. Bird: A Novel by [Pearce, AJ]

A bit weak in character development, but still great fun.



Review copy provided by publisher.

What a delightful book! I loved Emmy and her quirky personality and the way she talked herself into doing things that she talked herself into doing.

The anxiety of World War II was made real. But you were also drawn into Emmy's life and the adventures she has. She is a strong person and has a strong need to make a difference in the war effort. She experiences intense emotional distress and yet finds a way to continue on her path to being a self-sufficient and accomplished woman.

I really enjoyed the book and look forward to additional books by A. J. Pearce.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

A fun book set during WWII is a unique title. Loved how adventurous and risky Emmy Lake is and how she defied the rules of Mrs. Bird to come into her own. You won't regret picking the funny title up.

Well, this was just what I was in the mood for. It felt fun and charming and, like the reviews say, a wartime romp through London. But it wasn't silly! There were scary and sad parts. But I definitely smiled through a lot of it. My bookseller mind thinks "this will be SUCH an easy paperback sale." 4.5 stars.

Dear Mrs. Bird, the witty and delightful debut novel by AJ Pearce, conjures up a world of courage and perseverance during the London Blitz of the Second World War, and does so in a positive and upbeat way—quite a feat for a novel set in this era. I loved this book, and think you would too.

As the novel opens, life in the UK and London are literally hellish, and we, the readers, know that the war will not come to an end for another five years. But, thanks in a large part to the narrator and protagonist of the novel—young Emmeline Lake, the never-say-die spirit of this small island nation dealing with death and destruction on a mass scale and standing firm against Hitler shines through in an astonishingly endearing way. It amazed me the way that the author could take this setting, be true to it, and write a page turner that was so uplifting.

Emmeline Lake, in her early twenties, goes about her business under “a weak but plucky sun”. She lives in a smart flat with her best friend, Bunty, and dreams of becoming a lady war correspondent The flat they share in a property owned by Bunty’s grandmother means a frantic dash to the shelters every time the sirens go, but they are “awfully lucky to live there for free”. She cares far more about other people than she does about herself.

When she sees a job opening advertised at a women’s magazine, Womens’s Friend, it seems like the perfect step to take to get her closer to her goal. Unfortunately, the job turns out to be that of typing up letters for a women’s magazine advice column run and written by a crochety tyrant in a feathery hat, Henrietta Bird. An example of the book’s humor can be seen in this description of Mrs. Bird’s favored manner of dress: “an ancient and vast fur coat, which gave her the appearance of a large bear that had just failed to catch an especially juicy fish”.

Emmy is to examine the letters asking for help that the magazine receives and pass on only the ones not dealing with Mrs. Bird’s “Topics That Will Not Be Published Or Responded To” which is an extremely extensive and outdated list.

Emmy finds herself moved by her correspondents’ troubles (myriad in wartime Britain), and begins first to answer some of them by personally writing back, and then rashly by printing a couple in the magazine when there is no return address—in the hopes that busy Mrs. Bird won’t see them. Emmy is so charming, and so caring, that you want her to get away with it.

From the book ( a conversation between Emmy and another secretary Kathleen):

“You know these are the type of people Mrs. Bird won’t entertain.”

“Type of people?” I said, thinking of Kitty and her little boy. “For heaven’s sake, Kathleen, it could happen to you or me. It’s not just a Type Of People. Listen to this one: “

‘Dear Mrs. Bird,
When they first evacuated the kiddies from London, I couldn’t bear to let my little boy go. Two months ago we were bombed out and now my boy has been crippled for life.’ ”

I stopped. I was not a crybaby, but I felt my voice catch in my throat. I had shown this letter to Mrs. Bird. She’d said the woman had only herself to blame.

“Honestly, Kathleen,” I said. “What’s the point of Woman’s Friend having a problem page if we don’t help anyone out?”

I knew I was speaking to the wrong person. I should be trying to persuade Mrs. Bird.

Kathleen sighed.
“Emmy, look,” she said in her quiet voice. “I know it can be awful. Sometimes I feel terrifically glum about it as well. But there’s nothing you can do. If Mrs. Bird says to ignore someone who has, um, you know, is having . . . a baby, then that’s what we have to do.” She shook her head and her hair joined in sympathetically. “Even if we don’t like it.”

Emmy even manages to stay upbeat when things in the romance department are no better and her fiancé, Edmund, sends a telegram from the front to say he’s run off with a nurse. At least he’s not dead, Emmeline thinks. But things look up when she meets the brother, home from the front, of one of the likeable staff at the magazine, Mr. Collins.

The grim reality of war is accurately portrayed through a description of Emmy’s volunteer APS work in the evenings. “Tonight the sky was clear as anything. Mr Collins was right: the Germans would be busy later.” About one of her fellow volunteers:: “I knew Thelma didn’t eat a thing so she could give more of her rations to her children.”

Bunty’s fiancé works with the fire bomb brigade that deals with the effects of the Blitz and the Luftwaffe’s shelling of the city. And Emmy sees her fair share of heartbreaking sights : “I didn’t see his face, but I saw that his hands were gone.” And afterwards, when the dust has settled and the deaths have been tallied: “I wanted it to be 10 seconds ago when I still didn’t know.”

From the Author’s Note at the end of the book:

“The idea for Dear Mrs. Bird began when I came across a 1939 copy of a women’s magazine. It was a wonderful find—a glimpse into an era and world where I could read about everything from recipes for lamb’s brain stew to how to knit your own swimwear.

But the thing I loved the most was the Problem Page. Among the hundreds of letters I went on to read while researching the novel, there have been many that made me smile—such as asking what to do about freckles, or trouble with people who pushed into queues. Most of all, though, I was struck by the huge number of letters in which women faced unimaginably difficult situations in the very toughest of times.

Readers were sometimes lonely, hadn’t seen their loved ones for years, or knew that now they never would. Others had turned to the wrong man or lost their heads and found themselves in trouble with no one to help. Some faced problems any of us might relate to, but of course in circumstances I hope we never will. Many wrote in for advice about decisions they knew would impact their lives forever.

It was clear that wartime women’s magazines provided even more to their readers than making do, getting the most out of rations, or knitting and sewing—important and necessary though these all were.

The replies from the agony aunts surprised me, too. They weren’t just clichéd Keep Calm and Carry On responses. More often than not they were sympathetic, supportive, and suggesting practical help.

Slowly the magazines became a bridge into a world I wanted to write about, an inspiration for characters that wanted to speak and the adventures they wanted to have.”

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book and for allowing me to review it.

I enjoyed the historical setting of this book but wasn't really that interested in the story. I ending up skimming through parts of it just to finish.

Totally charming historical novel set in London during the Blitz, where the main character, a plucky young woman named Emmeline, ends up taking a job working at a woman's magazine (where she types up the advice column) along with her work as a telephone operator for the Fire Auxilliary Service. It's written in a bit of an old-fashioned style which took a tiny bit to get used to, but once I did, I found it just added to the quirky charm of this book.

Enjoyable quick read set during WWII in London. The book centers around a young girl (Emmy Lake) and her dreams of being a war correspondent and her best friend and their boyfriends / fiances. Emmy lands a job working at a magazine, but her job is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from that of a war correspondent. The book brings the bombings from the war and resulting casualties into it, and how people had to pick up their lives after tragedy. I look forward to ready more from AJ Pearce..

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

Dear Mr. Bird is a cute, lighthearted look at life in London during the bombing raids of WWII. The story follows Emmeline Lake as she goes about her life working at a woman's magazine, answering calls at the fire station and managing life in bombed out London. She falls in love, almost loses a friend in an air raid and must make the best of things as London braces for the worst. Fans of novels like the Alice Network or The Women in the Castle will definitely enjoy Dear Mrs. Bird.