This was an absolutely lovely read. I received it as an ARC. Unfortunately, due to illness it expired before I was able to complete it. I truly enjoyed the story of Hope. She was such an inspiring and believable character. Her story rang true to my heart and really resonated with me. I can’t wait to finish this book at a later date as it’s on my birthday list. This is one of those books that I will return to again and again.

My heart went out to Hope and her siblings living in poverty with a hopeless mother who thought only of her own pleasure.

I was heartbroken for her when she was abandoned by her mother and sister with absolutely nowhere to turn. Hope comes in the form of John, an ex war widower who is twenty years her senior. John comes up with an idea to help Hope and it is put into action. There is heartbreak in store but eventually happiness is in the horizon.

I liked Hope, her resilience and strength in tfe face of all the adversity she faced at a young age.

T S Traynor is a good writer. I have read a previous book but will look out for others.

Thank you netgalley.

The story begins with Hope and her sisters living with their hapless mother who cares for no-one but herself. When the family move out, making it plain that Hope is not included in their plans it’s not long before life gets too much for Hope who has just lost her job as well. That’s when she meets John, while they are saving each other. It’s a quickly read book, sometimes too quickly for me.
First time reading this author, will definitely read some more.

This is such a great book! I loved it and the characters. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

Hope Bennett has had everything go wrong for her she feels and nowhere else to go. She is considering suicide when John comes into her life and offers to marry her. She accepts and life is better for both of them. Hope is not happy with her life after a while, she wants love too. This was a story about two flawed people with a touch of humor throughout the book. I loved the story.

Hope's life has never been wonderful, but she's always had family. Now, her mother has remarried and moved, taking Hope's youngest sister with her, and Hope is not welcome - and her brother's just gone to sea and her other sister is going to move in with her boyfriend. Ready to give up, Hope plans to drown herself, but an older man stops her and makes an unusual proposition: a marriage of convenience. But as they spend time together, she begins to want more...

I wanted to like this - the blurb sounded interesting and made me decide to try this new-to-me author. But unfortunately the execution didn't live up to my hopes. The setting was presented quite well, which is a job well done - but I didn't really enjoy the visit. The writing was rough and disjointed enough that I wouldn't have kept going had I not agreed to review, but since I had, I kept going, hoping that the story itself would be worthwhile even if the writing wasn't to my taste. In the end, though, I had to accept that I didn't really care about the characters (they didn't feel real in any way) and didn't like the storyline. And Oh! that ending! It was utterly unsatisfying and felt quite farcical. To my mind, it tore down any point the rest of the story might have had. Finally, while clean, I sort of expected a Christian book to have more Christian content - Hope does end up Christian, but it occurs off-screen between the last two chapters and doesn't really fit. All in all, I won't be reading this author again.

Note that I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review and this is my considered opinion of the book.

Hope in Liverpool is nothing short of amazing. Set in 1958 Liverpool, Hope Bennett is served with one hell of a life that is a never ending heartbreak. Though she is very optimistic and loving of her neglectful mother, she feels that her life cannot get any worse than it already has; That was until her mother decides to marry her new beau, leaving Hope and Betty (Hope's sister) behind in their tiny, barely breathable “home” and taking their younger sister with her on the trip to her new life. Feeling hopeless and lost after Betty decides to run away and live with her companion, Hope decides to take a ride on a ferry that's sailing along the river to do the unbelievable and jump from the balcony. That was until depressed, widowed, John Walker comes along and gives her a proposition. To be safe, not lonely, fed and homed, Hope is to marry this strange god-fearing, older man. The only thing is, she is not to show him affection and she is not to fall in love with him. Only be a platonic companion to whom he would share the rest of his days with so that he would not be lonely.

As someone who is obsessed with anything Liverpool / Historical, this book gave me much pleasure and I was saddened to see that I had reached the end of it. The quirkiness of Hope is something I admired greatly because I myself saw a bit of myself in her, the hopeless romantic aspect of course. Hope and John's love is something I saw as unmatched to any other romance in a story, the fake lovers to falling in love trope is something I always find myself loving. There's so many little parts within this book that I loved, not to mention that Tracy Traynor mentioned the Quarrymen in the early chapters, and if you don’t know (Which I hope you do) The Quarrymen was one of The Beatles early band names. Although the ending of the story is not one that i wanted nor did i imagine, it was one that fit perfectly.

There's nothing else I can really say about this masterpiece unless I was to give away the ending or some of the beautiful and memorable moments that you just HAVE to read for yourself. Other than that I say this book deserves a good four stars.

A gritty romance, where life isn't always a bed of roses.

Can an alliance of convenience heal two broken hearts? A countless questions but only one answer.

So... Um... Well, for clean fiction that leans towards having d-mn and taking the Lord's name in vain this is pretty clean but not a Christian fiction as it's marketed.