Cover Image: Dear Mrs. Bird

Dear Mrs. Bird

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Member Reviews

The thing about reading historical fiction as a history buff is that the story is often spoiled a bit before you’ve even started. In this case, the book was so very evocative of its time and place (London during the Blitz), that I felt quite nervous as I read. And yet, Emmy and her friends were so charming, the book felt much lighter than it was. It has a bit of a chick-lit feel that I really enjoyed. I loved this book - highly recommended!

This review was based on an ARC ebook received in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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There's lots to like in this light historical WWII novel set in 1940's London during the Blitz. For me, it was enjoyable to the very last page. Emmy Lane, the main character, wants to be a war journalist but lands a job working as a junior typist for a women's magazine. Her supervisor is the cantankerous Mrs. Harriet Bird who writes an advice column for which she maintains a long list of "unacceptable" topics. Although Emmy has been hired to say nothing at all, she soon finds herself secretly sending compassionate responses to some women who write in. Her volunteer job as a telephone operator for the Auxiliary Fire Service adds drama to the story. Fans of Bess Crawford, Maggie Hope and Maisie Dobbs will enjoy this one!

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I moved this novel to the front of my TBR pile after a colleague told me I must and I am so very glad I did. The writing is humorous, kind and so very British; I enjoyed it so much I was devastated when I got to the end. Emmy is one of those characters that readers will fall in love with; the writing style was reminiscent of A.A. Milne and the adventures of Pooh Bear with Emmy being very much like Pooh. I will be recommending this book to everyone.

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AJ Pearce’s debut novel Dear Mrs. Bird is a touching look into the lives of several twenty-somethings living in London amidst the blitz of 1940. The protagonist Emmy Lake has always wanted to enter the exciting world of journalism, and with the war on, she sees herself reporting in the most dangerous of locations. But the job she interviews for and accepts is far from dangerous and far from what she expected.

Emmy’s new position entails combing through the mail of a cantankerous advice columnist who has very strict rules as to what types of letters to which she will respond. Emmy empathizes with the women who write into the magazine and may take matters into her own hands. Pearce adds healthy doses of romance, heartbreak, and tragedy as Emmy and her friends make their way through war-time London.

Pearce’s writing is a welcome trip back in time, and is good for an interesting turn of phrase and many well-chosen British idioms. While reading the character of Emmy Lake, one can picture Honeysuckle Weeks in her role as Sam Stewart in Foyle’s War. She is full of pluck and gumption in her job with Mrs. Bird as well as her time taking calls for the local fire brigade.

While the novel might be predictable at times, the character of Emmy is too good to not keep reading. At its heart, Dear Mrs. Bird is wonderful little book that posits work, romance, friendship, and a stiff upper lip during a time of great strife, and comes away a very enjoyable experience.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Scribner, and AJ Pearce for the advance copy for review.

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This book was NOT what I was expecting it to be. I expected the character of Emmeline to be more mature. At first I was disappointed and then irritated that she was a very naive character. I wanted her to be more than that. But then the story developed into a description of what it was like for young people during a most terrible time to be living. Emmy becomes a likeable, normal human being. Thank, Ms. Pearce, for a good story.

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I read Dear Mrs. Bird* by AJ Pearce. It was light and fluffy which was exactly what I needed. Emmeline has ambitions to be a wartime journalist but somehow ends up working on the advice column of a women's magazine instead. She gets herself into all kinds of scrapes while WWII rages around her in London. The resolution was predictable but the book was cute. It is not high literature but I did enjoy it.

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I really enjoyed this book! Set in WWII London, Emmy Lake works at a law firm but has always dreamed of being a dashing foreign war correspondent so she can do her bit for the war just like her brother and fiance. When she sees a job opening for newspaper work, she seizes her chance and takes the job. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Emmy, her job is to be an assistant to a magazine's agony aunt, Mr.s Bird, for the "Henrietta Helps" column.

Mrs. Bird is very picky about which letters she chooses to answer and Emmy sees a lost opportunity to help the letter writers whose letters get thrown away. So, she answers them herself, signing them in Henrietta's name. This leads to all kinds of trouble for Emmy. At the same time, she is volunteering on the phones at the local fire brigade and witnesses the horrors of the Blitz and its effects on the people of London.

The book starts out in a lighthearted manner but gets more serious as the bombings increase and hit closer to home. The plot was strong and the writing was well-done. I was a little annoyed by the random capitalizations in the middle of sentences, but I got used to it as the book progressed.

I highly recommend this book, Thanks to Scribner/Picador Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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I was presently surprised how much I liked this book when I started it. I was a quick read for me, and Emmeline was a great and interesting character. She's a very strong-willed woman, and progressive for her time period. I truly wanted her to be happy, but I did have problems with her going behind people's backs. However, she did it for a moral reason, and it is interesting to think about what I would've done in the same situation.

If it had been longer, I wish Pearce would have explained Mrs. Bird's past and why she was the way she was. I know a lot of it had to do with the time period, but I feel like Mrs. Bird could've been a more developed character.

Overall, I think this book will stick with me. I definitely recommend checking it out. And hopefully it's the beginning of my dive into WWII historical fiction!

*Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for the ARC, for which I have given an honest and unbiased review*

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She had taken the wrong job!

London, 1940. Thinking she would become a "lady war correspondent" Emmeline answers an advertisement for a part-time position at The London Evening Chronicle. However, much to her disappointment she is to be a Junior Typist, not for the Chronicle, but for Woman's Friend magazine. To make matters worse, the formidable Henrietta Bird, the advice columnist, has less than sympathetic feelings for those who are sending in letters to her column. With a list of "don'ts" and pages of words "not to be used" in answering these letters, Emmeline is mortified. Taking a chance that Mrs. Bird won't see that she has been betrayed, Emmiline secretly starts answering these letters and signing them as Mrs, Bird. The "fun" begins. Along with her friend Bunty, both girls are out to save the world!

Given the fact that London was so badly "blitzed" and some of the letters were heartbreaking, the English attitude of "keep calm and carry on" came shining through. This book is charming, witty and delight to read. My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review. 5 stars,

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This book was cute and I enjoyed it well enough while reading it. It was one of those "didn't love it, didn't hate it" types of books. I was a bit disappointed because I felt there was a lot of lost potential with some aspects of it, and I felt there was unnecessary drama in a lot of parts too.

The parts of this book that focused on the magazine and Emmy writing back to readers was really charming and I liked those parts a lot. Her enthusiasm for what she's doing and her care for the readers who write in reveal a really plucky, friendly, bold, courageous and compassionate character, and it makes Emmy so much fun to read about. The entire story revolving around the magazine makes for some fun, light-hearted historical fiction focused on women.

The aspects of this book that I didn't like revolved more around the parts of the book dedicated to Emmy's personal life. I can't exactly get into details without spoiling a lot of the book, but essentially, as is bound to happen when London is getting bombed like crazy in WW2, some bad things happen that have disastrous effects on Emmy, Bunty, and William's lives. Emmy blames herself for some of these bad things, and the book got incredibly frustrating at this point, because it's clear to the reader that absolutely none of what happened is Emmy's fault. Now, in another book, this might not be frustrating. A really strong writer can turn a character's self-loathing and blame into a really emotional, powerful experience to read about, even as the audience knows the character shouldn't be blaming themselves. This book did not live up to those standards. Emmy was a likable character, and she's got some great qualities that I listed above, but I didn't feel the writing was powerful enough to connect me to her on an emotional level in the way I would have needed to for this book to truly stand out. Because of that, the self-blame and pity got a bit old for me and I found myself going "Honestly, Emmy, if you think about it logically for all of 2 seconds, you'd realize this is not as dramatic or end-of-the-world as you might think."

Overall, though, I still had fun reading this book, so I give it 3 stars. Like I said, the women's magazine part is quite fun to read about, and Emmy is a likable character with a fun internal voice (the random capitalizations of words threw me off at the start of this book, but it just adds to Emmy's voice and makes this book more charming). She's resilient, and it was nice to read a book set from the home front in London during WW2 for once: I feel like we see a lot of WW2 women's fiction focused on women in America. However, as I hinted at in my critique of this book, this isn't the most powerful WW2 book you'll read either. If you're looking for strong emotion, something to make you cry, or something that captures the atrocities of war, this is not that book. If you want a lighter story about women persevering during WW2, this might be a bit better. If you have the right expectations going in, you'll enjoy it a lot more.

This is a solid debut from AJ Pearce and I think she's definitely someone to watch out for in the genre of historical fiction if she continues to write. There's a lot of potential in this book that I think could really shine in future novels.

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A story of friendship and doing all that you can when the going gets tough. Emmy dreams of being a War Correspondent so when she see an advertisement for a Junior she leaps at the chance. The job, which she gets, is for a typist for an advice column in an old fashioned woman's magazine. The columnist, Mrs. Bird, will not even look at any letter that she considers unacceptable, scandalous or immoral and usually her advice consists of stop complaining and do what is necessary. The letters touch Emmy and she starts to answer a few on her own but signing them as Mrs. Bird.This is all happening in London during World War II and when the bombing hits too close to home Emmy will make a choice that could end her fledgling career. A lovely story of a strong woman trying to make the right choices in a world gone mad.

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"I had taken entirely the wrong job."

Emmy Lake *thinks* she's interviewing for a war correspondent job. Finally, she will become the hard hitting journalist she's always dreamed of. But she doesn't quite pay attention enough during her job interview to realize she's really taking a typist position at a stodgy women's magazine. Far from being on the front lines, she'll be producing copy of Henrietta Helps, an advice column that does not offer much useful advice at all. Henrietta refuses to deal any reader problems that involve so-called "unpleasantness," which is just about anything apart from table settings and nylons. Feeling boxed in by restriction in a job she didn't mean to take and wanting to help the women who write in desperate for advice, Emmy starts impersonating Henrietta and responding to letters. It's a victim-less crime. Right?

This book is charming a lot of fun. It's chick-lit meets the London Blitz. The only real detraction is the random capitalization of words and phrases that's A Bit Strange. Readers who enjoy fluffy books now and again will find a lot to love about "Dear Mrs. Bird."

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.

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A charming book that gives real insight into the difficulties women in England faced during WWII.

An aspiring journalist, Emmy Lake, takes a job she thinks will be at a newspaper. It turns out to be for a dying women's weekly edited by an old-fashioned matron who is full of good works and wants to avoid all "unpleasantness." That includes almost all topics written about by readers to her "Agony Aunt" column. Emmy feels for these writers, perhaps too much, and takes steps to deal with it.

When her activities to help others and to protect her best friend end up in seeming disaster, how will she make them right?

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A lovely book that starts out feeling a bit frivolous but when the London bombings begin, it gathers strength.

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Dear Mrs. Bird is an engaging and warm first novel. Readers who enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society are almost certain to rate this book highly. Mrs. Bird is an out of touch editor at a woman's magazine during WW II who is responsible for the agony column. Sadly, she deems most letters "unsuitable" for answering. Enter Emmy; young, naive, and trying to cope with bombs and disasters in London. She begins to answer letters as Mrs. Bird and you need to read the book to learn what happens. This novel at first seemed like it would be light but it has substance. Themes of love, friendship and how to relate to others all have their place. I highly recommend Dear Mrs. Bird! I would like to write her a fan letter. Thanks for this read NetGalley.

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When I was growing up, we had Dear Abby in the newspaper. There was also Anne Landers. People would write letters in, about their troubles, and the advice columnists would well, give advice. Sometimes it was cleaver, sometimes sad, sometimes funny. To this day I still read advice columnists, and try to see if their answers match mine. In the UK, they were/are known as Agony Aunts, and in this book, there is one such advisor, who is very firmly set in her ways, which appear to the turn of the 19th century.

Emmy is only hired to type the letters, but as the blurb about the book says, she starts replying on her own, because Mrs. Bird refuses to touch the problems that young women are having, during the bombing of London, during WWII. She refuses to answer any questions that are about relationships, or about sadness, or anything helpful.

This book pulled at my heart strings, made me cry, even if I guessed what was going to happen, which I did, and was a “jolly good read”. The author said she was inspired by reading magazines from the war years, and all the problems that women were coping with from 1939-1945. It is amazing what they had to put up with, and this is covered as way of course in the story, worked in well.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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This WW2 historical novel covers a lot of familiar ground but has a fresh twist and a lighter tone because of the principal character's career challenges . Instead of accepting disappointment when a job in journalism wasn't what she expected it to be, our protagonist takes a creative approach to her clerical position and the complications (and fun) ensue.

The story has lots of light moments, but any novel set in London during the Blitz is going to have a serious side too. Dear Mrs. Bird reminds the reader that neighborhood after neighborhood in London were endangered on a regular basis and very few lives were untouched by the war. Young women routinely lost their sweethearts and men who were not enlisted felt inferior for not being on the battlefield defending their country.

Although the story was predictable in many ways, it was also satisfying and well-paced. A. J. Pearce's characters were beautifully crafted and I thoroughly enjoyed this light historical novel.

NetGalley provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Charming and surprisingly touching book that provides a fresh and youthful point-of-view from WWII England I didn't even realize I was missing.

Unequivocally darling and sweet, Dear Mrs. Bird follows vivacious Emmeline Lake as she Does Her Bit for the War. The sheer Britishness of the book and its crisp, clear messages add to the delightful nature that exists in Miss Lake. She's plucky and perky in just the fashion of a composite 1940s-era young English lady, and yet she never feels pieced together or out of character. She reminds me vaguely in spirit and determination to meddle of Jane Austen's Emma—in more than just name. While the story isn't similar—apart from the I'm Sorry I Meant Well meddling—her own self-confidence is breathtakingly new in a world normally bogged down by the sad, grey London enduring the Blitz. Don't get me wrong, those stories, heavy and dramatic, have their places, too. But here we have another look—one I didn't recognize as absent until it was shown to me—another facet of life during that time in history. Other stories also seep through from the letters the magazine Women's Friend receives. Some are simple and some more complex, but each one offers yet another view of life during a time and place which is often perceived as already pretty well known.

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When I first requested this book, I noted that I enjoyed the cover. How nice that I also enjoyed the read! As this is a debut novel, I can't wait to see what A.J. Pearce does next.

Set in London, 1940. Emmeline "Emmy" Lake is a volunteer [answering telephones] for the Auxiliary Fire Service. She dreams of becoming a war correspondent. And, when she applies for --and accepts a job at the London Evening Chronicle, she thinks she's on her way. But the job is not what she thought.

Turns out Emmy's a typist for Mrs. Henrietta Bird, a formidable woman, who is the acting/"editress" of the magazine, Woman's Friend, -- which offers advice--with very limited parameters. Mrs. Bird declares most subjects off limits--e.g., premarital, marital, and extramarital relations, political activities and opinions, religious activities and opinions, and more. And, there are words to avoid--such as affair, amorous, ardent, bed, bedroom, and so on. You get the picture. Letters with such unpleasantness are to be cut up and trashed. But Emmy has problems with this stricture thinking that the women seeking advice should receive answers. And so, Emmy answers some of them, signing Mrs. Bird's name. She posts most of them, but a few also get into the magazine-leaving her ever fearful she'll be found out.

The novel follows Emmy and her best friend, Bunty, around London during wartime--bombings, rationing, and so on. Bunty is engaged to a firefighter, Bill, who works where Emmy volunteers. Emmy is engaged to Edmund, but fairly early on we learn the engagement is off.
The book has both poignancy and humor. For example, when Emmy feels a letter worthy of consideration, she shows Mrs. Bird -- who rejects it. "Miss Lake, your moral standards belong in the gutter. They are quite extraordinarily low. She made it sound as if I had been brought up by a group of exceptionally awful prostitutes."

Mrs. Bird is described as having "impressive mobility for a woman of large stature and certain age…"

Harold … "held out a large ham about the size of a tennis bat, which, it turned out, was one of his hands."

A charming read especially the first two-thirds. Then, as it is set in London during bombings, it turns darker. No spoiler alert from me but it does it end rather sweetly and perhaps a bit tidily. Still, I enjoyed this book quite a bit.

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The story was quite good and at times very funny, even in the midst the horrible setting of World War II. Mrs. Bird needs to have her mind set straight, and Emmy thinks she is just the one to do so. Then there is the side of the book that covers the war in its terror and how exactly how close it is to Emmy and her friends.

I did enjoy the book, but as somewhat of a grammar snob, I could not get over the fact that so many words were capitalized when they should not have been. It was quite distracting to me as a reader and actually knocked down my review by one star.

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