This follow up to Crooked Hearts tells us what happens next to Vee and Noel as they continue to live In Hampstead, now in a house full of lodgers, some of whom are tutoring. Noel.

Like the earlier book this is a feel good novel with engaging characters and a sound plot.

London 1944. In a large house in Hemstead Heath, Vee Sedge is just about scraping by. She takes in lodges so that she can feed, clothe and educate her young charge, Noel. She witnesses a road accident and finds herself in court. But this could be potentially disastrous for Vee and Noel as neither of them are who they say they are.

I read and loved the prequel to this book, Old Baggage but I've still to read Crooked Heart, the other book in this trilogy. This is a character driven story and what a fabulous cast of characters. Some of the characters have been brought back from previous books books. Vee is a good strong woman. The story is beautifully and descriptivley written and the pace flows smoothly. We also learn of the job the wardens had to do during WWII. Noel is an intelligent young man who has a thirst for knowledge. Winnie was my favourite character who now works as a warden. An end of the war story that covers: mistakes, love, loss, happiness, and sadness.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House UK and the author Lisa Evans for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was great. I love books about the war anyway but they and this seem to take on a greater meaning in the world we currently lived in. Was completely enthralled and loved it.

I love this book, didn't want it to end, I want to spend all my time with Noel and Vee and Winnie and yes, I will take the rationing and lack of internet to be with them. Noel is a most extraordinary and mature young man, finding love for the first time and hungrily devouring his education from the lodgers as well as cooking for them. Vee is his protector and his rock but has needs of her own. All of the characters spring from the page and bring the book to life. Gentle, poignant, funny, this is delightful and I now will go back and re-read the previous two in the trilogy just to indulge myself.

This book transported me back in time to the domestic life of ordinary people living extraordinary lives during WWII.
Lissa Evans’ evocative tale of family life and some dark secrets drew me in at the start and as more detail about the main characters were slowly revealed I become more and more invested in their outcomes.
This is how I picture real life during London during the war. Shortness of goods, rationing, poverty, bombings, bravery and family disputes, it’s all here,
Winnie and Averil are the twins who can’t get on together,
Vee is the lynchpin of the story, an ordinary woman with secrets, lodgers and a foster nephew.
There’s a lot doing on, and it’s brilliantly told.
If you loved ‘ShineOn Harvey Moon’ this is for you!
Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review.

It’s 1944 and doodlebugs are falling randomly on an increasingly crumbling and dirty London. Noel and Vee, whom we left at the end of Crooked Heart about to set up home together in the large Hampstead house which Noel inherited from his godmother Mattie, have been living there for four years. Vee has changed her name illegally so that she can say she’s Noel’s aunt and lives in constant fear of being found out. She takes in lodgers to make money but not any old lodger will do. These have to be able to offer some specialism so that they can tutor young Noel, who refuses to go to school. So, a doctor bombed out of her own home tutors him in science, a journalist in English and Latin and so on. As well as being academically brilliant, Noel does most of the cooking in the house, whose inhabitants are like a family.

Oh, Noel. So extraordinarily intelligent, so mature for his years and apparently sophisticated but with a vulnerability that melts your heart with love for him. At one point in the book, Vee reflects that if she died now, she would never find out what happened to Noel, which would be like not knowing the ending of a film. Unlikely as she seems as a mother-substitute for such a child, Vee has done a good job looking after him and keeping him safe. In this novel, Noel finds out something about his parents and, like Vee, you so long for him not to be hurt.

Another interesting thread introduces Chief Warden Winnie. The bravery and stoicism of her colleagues, the awful responsibility she carries, are a tribute to the people who did this work during the war. The connection with Noel is that she, her twin sister, best friend and another important character were all once members of Mattie’s group of Amazons, as described in Old Baggage.

I read this very quickly and, as soon as I’d finished, went back to the beginning and read it all over again. That’s how much I love Lissa Evans’ writing, her sense of time and place (no infuriating anachronisms here) and her wonderful characters. Many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the preview. The book will be out on 27th August.

This is the first book I’ve read by Lissa Evans and it won’t be the last. I hadn’t realised that there are two more books in this series, Old Baggage and Crooked Heart. I was able to read this as a standalone novel but I do now plan to go back and read other two books.

The book starts in late 1944 with Noel growing up in Hampstead, being tutored by the paying guests in his house, whilst being looked after by his ‘aunt’ Mrs Margery Overs, aka Vee. Early on in the story, he meets a ARP warden called Winnie, and the stories of Noel, Vee and Winnie become interwoven through the book.

Loved the mixture of characters, from the guests at the boarding house to the American GI’s. Some of the story is harrowing – how quickly the V2 bombs could destroy a road, but this is interspersed with humour so doesn’t feel as dark as some of the historical fiction I’ve read recently.

Noel is a very intelligent young man, who loves to find out more about everything and tries to make meals out of their very limited rations. He reminded me of the young Gerald Durrell from the TV series and books, a young person who was better educated than many of the adults around him.

Winnie was one of my favourite characters, loved the scene in the posh restaurant when she is given a copy of Avril’s book. It was good to see the work of these brave people recognised, helping those injured and made homeless by the bombings.

An enjoyable novel set in wartime London. Thank you Doubleday for the early preview copy - a 4.5 star read for me

This book is a victory in itself. Loved it, loved the characters and just lost myself in it.. Such a good read and would highly recommend and now intend to seek out all other novels from this author.

Every now and again a book comes along which gets me so overexcited I want to hurl every possible positive adjective at it and V for Victory is one of those. It is funny, smart, touching, (see I’m doing it already!).

Set in the UK at the end of the Second World War this is the continuation of the story (see Sacred Heart) of Noel and his ‘aunt’ Vee, who, along with their motley selection of lodgers at Vee’s boarding house, are doing the best they can through the privations of the war. We also meet Winnie, now an ARP Warden, who featured as a young girl in the author’s book, Old Baggage.

V for Victory perfectly captures the atmosphere of London during the war with a wonderful authenticity, the research behind the novel is meticulous and I learned a lot about life on the home front and the work of the ARP wardens. I really invested in the characters who are beautifully brought to life. The humour is kind and gentle as well as very amusing. Some scenes bring a lump to your throat. My review cannot do justice to this fantastic book.

This novel works very well in its own right, however, if you haven’t read Old Baggage and Sacred Heart I would urge you to do so, they are just as delightful.

I can’t thank Random House and NetGalley enough for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

'V for Victory' is the third book in Lissa Evans' trilogy charting the lives of suffragette Mattie Simpson present here in this book via flashbacks), irrepressible yet enterprising surrogate mother turned landlady Vee and precocious ten-year-old, Noel. The story picks up (but works just as well as a standalone read) where 'Crooked Heart' left off and finds Vee and Noel running a bed and breakfast in Mattie's former home on Hampstead Heath, which she bequeathed to Noel. The story is brimming with charm, the dialogue is witty and razor sharp, whilst the characters have been evoked with such tenderness and deftness of hand that the narrative is utterly compelling. Despite a surfeit of available wartime fiction, Lissa Evans novels stand apart for their believable characterisations and authentic period detail, which avoid mawkish sentimentality and cliché. The twists and turns of Vee and Mattie's life together, combined with the touching sentimentality of their developing closeness, is an absolute treat to read and I will actively seek out future publications from this wonderful writer. Thank you to Netgalley for the advance review copy and I truly hope this book reaches the wide audience it deserves (it would also be wonderful if at some point in the future it was made into a film like 'Their Finest').

This is a great read which I thoroughly enjoyed. Set at such a difficult time, during the Second World War, the characters are totally believable as are the differing patterns of their lives. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I was given this book from netgalley - an immense thank you to the publisher and author!

I am so chuffed to have got to read this book early! I met Lissa Evans at a literary festival last year and she promised a further instalment about Vee and Noel but that it might be a while in coming so imagine my delight when I saw this book and then was accepted to review it! An absolutely lovely lady whose writing is a dream.

This is, as I say the next bit of Noel’s story and follows on four years after the end of Crooked Heart. It’s 1944 the blitz is over but London is now dealing with doodlebugs and V2s. Vee runs a boarding house in Mattie’s house - the mouse hole - where Noel was looked after and where the Flea lived with Mattie in the old days. The four lodgers teach Noel who is safe from a children’s home because Vee is now using the name Margery Overs. The starting point for Vee’s story is her witnessing an accident whereas Noel’s narrative is to do with his longing for more knowledge of Mattie.

We are also reintroduced to Winnie one of the Amazons from Old Baggage. She is now a warden in charge of a team who responds to the damage inflicted by the V2 rockets. She struggles with a complicated relationship with her beautiful twin sister and the fact that her husband of only a month was captured four years prior and has spent the war in a POW camp.

It is brilliant to be back in the world of these people again. They are so well created that you can hear their individual voices as you read. Vee in my opinion is particularly strong. A good woman who really doesn’t know she’s good and kind. And her relationship with Noel still brings the same heart warming poignancy it did in Crooked Heart. But the characterisation is so remarkable that this is a rounded, complete human being who steps out of the book.

The same with Mattie who obviously is not in this book but who’s incredible characterisation bursts from the pages. We need to find out about her as much as Noel does and horde the information in the same way.

The human story of the war, of love and loss and mistakes is what makes this novel special. It has a plot and it is never slack but it really isn’t the point of the novel - this is time spent with old friends. All of it is tongue in cheek, lightly humorous despite its grim topic, it never lets you forget that humans can’t live in a state of tragedy without some comic relief.

Lissa Evans writes as though instructed by Mr Bennett ‘For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?’. We laugh along with Noel in his closet! And dread when Mr Reddish starts on about a young lady he used to know.

There are some beautiful descriptions here that are written with pinpoint accuracy, Winnie’s sister is described as ‘striking rather than beautiful – seemingly drawn with a stronger pen than everyone else.’ So simple but gets exactly the point across whilst her description of bombed Edwardian villas as ‘reduced to crenellated bungalows’ really seemed to capture the destruction but with a lightness of touch that fits with the whole tone of her work.

Of course the best bit for a reader like me was when Noel states our truth that: ‘Hobbies are for people who don’t read books’! I might have that quotation on my grave...!

I read a lot of books but few are as pleasant to read as Ms Evans’ and I look forward to everything she writes in the future. My only complaint - and it is a serious one - is that the book was too short!

This is a lovely book. Set in London in 1944, WW2 is coming to an end. Vee and Noel are living in Green Shutters, taking in lodgers to make ends meet. A stranger appears who is keen to spend time with Noel. Is he to be trusted? The author writes so well about this time period, you can easily picture the scene through the descriptions and it brings it all to life. This is the 3rd book in the series, and I'm definitely going to read the others! The story does still stand well on it's own merit. I loved the period descriptions and the characters that you really care about and can easily relate to. Heartwarming and thoroughly enjoyable.

What a wonderful finale to this brilliant trilogy. Noel has been a delight throughout and Vee finally proves what she's really made of. Lissa Evans writing just pulls you along with wonderful characters, great stories and some very interesting and well researched history. I am sorry to have to say goodbye to the characters and hope that maybe an adult Noel might appear in future titles.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review and e_ARC of this title.

I rattled through this book. Having read 'Old Baggage', I was looking forward to this and I was not disappointed. Set in the same house as the earlier book, Green Shutters, near Hampstead Heath, it also features some of the minor characters from that book. The twins, Winnie and Avril, were children when Mattie ran The Amazons, a kind of girl scout troop, and they turn up as adults in 'V for Victory'.

It is now 1944 and we have a new characters in Vee herself - Margery Overs - and her 'nephew' Noel, who was a very young child in the earlier book. Into Vee's life comes US Corporal Mario O'Mahoney, bearing down on her in a truck on the wrong side of the road. This violent meeting results in an unusual friendship that shakes Vee out of her ordinary life.

Green Shutters is now a boarding house and the various residents provide background to the intrusion of Mario into Vee and Noel's lives.

Winnie, one of the twins, is now an Air Raid Warden, and her story alternates with that of Vee and Noel. Her irritating sister, Avril, has written a book featuring air raid wardens and Winnie is none too pleased. However, she goes about her duties with responsibility and enthusiasm, while she waits for her husband to return from the war.

There are secrets to unravel, fears to overcome and relationships to develop. Told with verve, this novel is another triumph. If I have any quibbles they are that Mario did not show much regret or remorse for what he did, and that the account of the start of Vee and Noel's aunt/nephew relationship was brushed over rather rapidly. I would have liked to know more about this.** This does not in any way lessen the book's power, though.

An extremely enjoyable read and great fun.

**I have just realised there is a middle novel in this series that I have not yet read (Crooked Heart) which I must now go and acquire! The three books can be read as standalones though.

My Book Club read Crooked Heart in 2015. I didn't realise when I got #VforVictory that it was a continuation of the story, and in fact the third in the series which started with Old Baggage. I was delighted when I realised as I had very much enjoyed Crooked Heart, as did the Gloucester Lit Lovers and Yummy Scrummy Pudding Club. (Yes, that really is our Book Club's name!) I read Old Baggage shortly afterwards and it was good to understand some of the back story. Having said that, I think that V for Victory could certainly be read as a stand alone novel. so do go ahead and read it even if you have missed the other books. Although if you fancy reading the three you should, they are all really good.
This new book finds Noel a few years older and still as wise and clever as he was in Crooked Heart. He is a delightful character and one that stays with you long after the last page is read. The book has warmth, humour and depth. The characters, the history and the location are all beautifully written and It makes you really care about what is going to happen.
I highly recommend this lovely book and do not hesitate to give it 5 stars. Thank you to Lissa Evans, the publishers and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it prior to publication.

Lissa Evans does it again. Another superb and unputdownable novel, well written and enjoyable follow on novel.

V for Victory’ is the third novel of a trilogy set in England during the Second World War. Whilst it probably would be sensible to read ‘Crooked Heart’ and ‘Old Baggage’ first, it’s perfectly possible to thoroughly enjoy Lissa Evans’ latest story without knowledge of the first two.
The central characters, Vee who runs a boarding house and looks after fifteen-year-old Noel and Winnie, an air raid warden, in charge of her section, are depicted as real, multi-layered women. Capable and humorous, yet vulnerable and sometimes uncertain, their situations depict both the opportunities and the challenges faced by women during the War years. Lissa Evans has a particular talent for showing her characters’ personalities through dialogue. Precocious Noel is sophisticated one minute and gauche the next; Winnie gives orders commandingly yet her internal dialogue reveals doubts about her marriage. Vee is down to earth and practical yet has her head turned unexpectedly.
As the story unfolds the author celebrates many acts of quiet courage whilst also suggesting that, ‘…perhaps the truth was that after five years, everyone was simply bored of bomb stories. Everyone was bored of everything really; it had all been going on for far too long.’ She depicts the drudgery of London life in 1945 lightly, a thin layer of dust over everything until another bomb explodes or a rocket lands and more people die. Through the vivid descriptions of the skeleton houses, the grubby cafes and the churned-up tarmac, it is very easy to imagine the ravaged landscape of the city and appreciate just how long it will take to re-build the capital.
An engaging, warm and often funny read.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

It is such a quiet read that will not let you go. It's pace is slow, but the characters are great and they let you to get to know them, so they feel like friends after a while. It takes place in the last year of WWII, but even though it influences the story it doesn't overwhelm it. On the other hand you also can't say that this story would work without this time and setting. So everything fits perfectly together.
I've read Old Baggage and this story is a kind of next part, even though Mattie doesn't live anymore, but her house is occupied by two main characters, Vee and Noel and her heritage still influences the life of Winnie, the third protagonist of the book. And it's great to see how Hampstead Heath and its inhabitants continue to live their lives through the perils of war.
A clear recommendation from me!

This brilliant book continues the story of Noel and Vee, first encountered in Crooked Heart. Although those who have read about Noel & Vee before will pick up on certain details of the plot, it's not really necessary to have read Crooked Heart or Old Baggage (back story) to enjoy V for Victory because it is so wonderfully written, with fabulous comic timing and some beautiful turns of phrase, plus absolutely believable characters. Lissa Evans is also excellent at writing about the human condition, particularly what makes people tick and how we all rub along together.

Lissa Evans is one of the best novelists in the UK at the moment in our opinion and we will be pressing this book on everyone who likes good fiction.