Lissa Evans is a gem and a joy to read. She writes vibrant, evocative stories with a great sense of time and place and she creates wonderful characters who you really care about.

Her description of life during WW2 is poignant and accurate and she simply knows how to keep the reader turning the page.

A total delight to read.

I enjoyed this, a successor (but quite readable independently) to Old Baggage - I think I actually preferred this one.

Noel is a young boy living with his "aunt" on Hampstead Heath during WW2. There's clearly something a little bit secret going on as there are references to the past and hidden identities, but it's only as the story evolves that all the pieces fall into place.

Lissa Evans's characters are beautifully written, I felt I knew them so well by the end. The description of the war time scenes - air raids, rationing, the smells and sounds - were all well crafted and so clearly brought to life. I read this quickly, I cared so much about what happened next.

London in the winter of 1944, the Second World War is still raging, V-2 rockets and doodlebugs cause random devastation in the city. A stoic weariness is the predominant mood and everyone is on edge although the end of the war seems more and more likely.
Vee and her 14-year old ‘nephew’ Noel live in a big old house in Hampstead. Vee has taken in lodgers to make ends meet and to utilise them as tutors for Noel so he doesn’t have to go to school. They all muddle through as best as they can but when Vee steps out with an American GI and Noel has a surprise visit, they start to keep secrets from each other that threaten to derail their fragile community.

‘V is for Victory’ is the third novel set this world, following on from ‘Crooked Heart’ and the prequel ‘Old Baggage’. It’s not a straightforward trilogy and of course you don’t have to have read the previous books but you may enjoy it more as you already know some of the quandaries the characters find themselves in. (Also, I cannot recommend ‘Crooked Heart’ and ‘Old Baggage’ strongly enough, there are both fantastic reads!)

As with the previous books, the writing is sharp and witty with a good pace. Evans manages to create an atmosphere that feels completely authentic, often just with sparkling dialogue.
Evans’ writing is so effortless and has such a lightness of touch that it’s easy to underestimate the skill and the amount of research that brought it all together. There are heart-breaking scenes about the work of the wardens and I’ve learnt a lot more about the home front than from many a non-fiction book.

‘V is for Victory’ is charming, funny, tragic and a lesson in resilience and I loved every minute of it.

Oh, this book. Searingly excellent, deft and compelling, written with such wit, warmth and empathy. I'm going to have to go back and read trilogy again from the beginning because I want to sink back into these beautiful books.

Read at the speed of a snail so that I could savour - and resavour - every word. It's pitch perfect - funny, sad, moving, compelling and every character is beautifully drawn. I loved Old Baggage and Crooked Heart, but this is even better - an absolute masterpiece. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot (there will be other reviews like that out there!)

I was delighted to be invited to read this book, as I'd enjoyed "Old Baggage", the first novel in this series.

If anything, I enjoyed this novel even more. I love Lissa's style of writing - descriptive, evocative and very accomplished at observing and capturing the emotions and behaviours of a wide range of characters. The novel captures the attitudes and way of life of ordinary people in London during World War II - when they never knew if they'd make it unscathed to the next day.

In terms of characters, I loved Noel - he reminds me of my own son - with his enquiring mind, seeking out information on subjects that interest him (and often surpassing adults with his knowledge!). Winnie is another favourite (with her stoic and practical nature), closely followed by Vee. I was also pleased that Mattie was mentioned in this book.

Without giving away the ending, I'm hoping (fingers crossed!) that there may be another book in this series??

My thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC. All opinions my own.

I really loved 'Crooked Heart' when I read it, but sadly skipped the second part of the series, 'Old Baggage' because I didn't realise that it was part of the same story. Having now read 'V for Victory', I'm definitely going back for the other book!

The story is about Vee, a woman living with a secret, and the evacuee that she looks after, Noel. Vee runs a boarding house in Hampstead which is full of interesting characters who luckily can tutor Noel, now 15 years old. In another part of London, Winnie is a warden helping deal with the aftermath of the bombs destroying the city while burying her own worries about her prisoner of war husband.

It's really hard to give a plot summary of the book because it's more a peek into the lives of this diverse cast of characters. As in life, there are good and bad events, but the strength of the book lies more in its warm portrayal of people: Winnie's colleagues in the warden post, the lodgers at the boarding house, the American GIs...even Winnie's challenging twin sister are affectionately drawn and have a life of their own. The settings are also vivid and interesting, from the bombed houses of the city to the images of Brighton's sea defences.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a hearty slice of historical fiction. It's not sickly sweet and things don't always turn out perfectl; instead, it's authentic and charming and utterly engaging. This is a 4.5 stars from me!

I was thrilled to get an advanced copy of V for Victory, a return to the characters I dearly loved in Crooked Heart and Old Baggage.

My anticipation was fulfilled. We rejoin Noel and Vee, along with a parallel story of Winnie and Elsie and nods to the incredible Mattie and many others that we’ve read along the way. Noel is an utter triumph and we can only hope that the strands (but not loose ends) left will lead to another outing.

While V for Victory is character driven, it is also an astute telling of the tail end of the war. The waiting amidst ongoing peril. The wonderment but worry about the future. Lissa Evans is a master at evoking life through small detail but with a constant warmth, humour and intelligence.

I would thoroughly recommend V for Victory but suspect it would be a paler read without the backgrounds so beautifully told in Crooked Heart and Old Baggage. If you haven’t read them, I am envious. A highly recommended 4.5*.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of an incredible book.

After witnessing an accident in London, 1944, Mrs Margery Overs is left reeling from the consequences, which she must balance with running a boarding house and raising her 14-year-old nephew Noel. Only, he’s not her nephew, and she isn’t really Mrs Margery Overs…

This was such a fantastic read! I had read Crooked Heart prior to reading this, but not Old Baggage. However, I’m not sure you need to have read either to fully appreciate this story. It was lovely to revisit Vee and Noel and see how their relationship has blossomed since Crooked Heart. The characters of the boarding house are a delight; well-drawn and each adding something different to the story. I also really enjoyed Winnie’s story, which runs in parallel to that of Vee and Noel. Winnie’s relationship with her sister is very relatable, and role as a warden really sets the scene in wartime London.

I enjoyed this author’s style of writing immensely, and will be looking out for more of her titles.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

I did not realize that this was a sequel to Old Baggage, which I quite liked. For this one I have pretty much the same comments. It is well written, very evocative of the setting in time and place and full of quirky characters. However, nothing much happened beyond anecdotes of ordinary life until well after half way in the book. I really liked the character of Noel, who we met as a four year old at the end of Old Baggage, and the reveal of his past was the story I as interested in. I did not fully understand why Vee felt the need to hide, and why she was subject to the pathetic blackmail attempt - she hadn't really done anything wrong. Again, charmingly written but boring in parts.

A heart warming tale - it is the third in a series and it probably does help to have read the others, if anything because it is lovely to remeet the characters and see how their lives have developed.

Lissa Evans manages to weave together interesting characters in a historical setting. The gentle narration takes you through their trials and tribulations, and left me hoping for more for Noel and Vee.

In this third of Lissa Evans’ loose trilogy we have moved on to 1944, and are offered a strong depiction of the London home front in last full year of the war, a city bearing a resigned but stoic acceptance. The story revolves a house in Hampstead that will be familiar to readers of the previous books, its landlady and her ward (ditto) and a new supporting cast of lodgers who are well drawn and provide some excellent colour. There is a sense of danger throughout, with death unexpectedly coming out of the sky and a smaller, more personal, calamity for Vee and Noel, but there is also humour and good companionship. The charm of Crooked Heart and Old Baggage is still here, and this is a fitting capstone to the trilogy (if indeed it is a trilogy - there are, not loose ends, but throughlines to future novels at the end of this one).

The third, and possibly best, of Evans’ Mattie Simpkin novels sees Noel living with Vee in Mattie’s London house as the V2 rockets are landing towards the end of the war. Vee is pretending to be Noel’s aunt to get round the awkward situation of Noel’s guardianship after Mattie’s death whilst juggling the problems of feeding their lodgers when food is becoming increasingly scarce. Lovely, gentle story with good historical detail showing the soul-destroying drudgery and heartbreak of life in London towards the end of the war. Although it’s the third in the series it can be read as a stand-alone but I’d recommend reading the others first. The only thing that’s missing from it is Mattie.

I think because ive read the first book by this author, but not the second, it made things harder to connect to the story. However it was a great historical and atmospherical read

A lovely cosy easy read! It was what I needed. I read one of her previous books but you don’t have to have read any of the others to enjoy it.

What bliss! A new novel by Lissa Evans, and even better, a follow-up to Crooked Heart and Old Baggage.

There is so much to love about this book - a story that draws you in from the first page; warm, rounded characters; a sense of place so vivid that you can almost taste the dust and feel the shards of glass in the aftermath of the V2 bomb; edge of the seat jeopardy, and the sort of humour that makes you snort into your tea with unexpected laughter.

It was a delight to meet charcters from the earlier novels: Lissa Evans writers about people in a way that makes you really care about them, however awkward and initially unappealing they might seem.

I 've enjoyed both her adult novels, and her books for children. She really is someone who cannot write a bad word, and I cannot wait for her next book. I'd planned to pace myself to make this book last, but without success, but at least I now have the pleasure of going back to read this trilogy from the beginning.

I was very happy to be sent an ARC by the publisher and Netgalley ,as I loved 'Crooked Heart' and 'Old Baggage'. Set once again in World War 2 London,this book continues the story of Noel and Vee which began in Crooked Heart ,but also refers to the characters in Old Baggage,tying up the threads of both plots beautifully.I loved it- it has the witty,comic dialogue and observations I love in Lissa Evans' writing and also a lot of rich period detail .I love the way she incorporates all the small details of the time-food,clothes,speech- but there's also sadness in the descriptions of air raids that bring the setting to life,as well as lots of laugh out loud moments .
Highly recommended-I read it in a day because I was so keen to find out what happened to all the characters.I hope it's not the last we hear of them.

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
Having read the prequel to this book I was delighted to have the early copy and what a delightful story . I can highly recommend this book.

I had the chance to read this book as I had enjoyed it's prequel so much. This book is equally as good, so good I lost an afternoon to it and read it in one sitting. The perfect book to get lost in on a sunny afternoon it picks up the story of 15 year old Noel and his guardian towards the end of WW2.

I really enjoyed this book. I’d read Crooked Heart and Old Baggage so was eager to read the next instalment. I found the details about the wardens interesting and could imagine what life had been like then. I liked all the main characters and enjoyed the relationships between Noel and the lodgers.
A great read which I will recommend