It’s 1968 and Maura has just married a handsome doctor. She’s disappointed to give up her retail job but excited to start a family. That desire changes when the doctor shows his true colors.

A great historical fiction that uses the fictional story of a 1960’s housewife to tell the real tale of Dublin’s (and other area’s of Ireland) fight for women’s rights, specifically contraception. The story of Maura was heartbreaking but a page turner. We meet her as a young working girl and see her vibrant, stylish, and vivacious personality. When she marries the wrong man all of this changes, but she learns about herself and the world and uses it for good. Major trigger warnings for abuse, suicide, and abortion.

“We need the ordinary housewives of Ireland to stand alongside us. We need every woman in Ireland to fight.”

The Women on Platform Two comes out 3/11.

It's hard to love a book while hating the subject matter, but this book was so well done!

Saoirse just had the same old argument with her partner and took off for a walk to think about it. When the rain starts, she ducks into the train station to wait it out. She sees a photo on the floor of the train station and hops on board to return the old photo to the women she thinks must have dropped it when the train suddenly departs.

Maura is thrilled to be reunited with the photo and says Saoirse can hear the story of the photo as they ride to the next stop where she can get off. Of course the story is too interesting to get off, so the story unfolds for us as well as for her.

Maura and Bernie had such different lives, but the friendship was a strong and good one for them both. Maura had the outwardly easy or comfortable lifestyle, envied by many since they didn't know what else was happening in her "perfect" life. Bernie was raising 3 children with a 4th on the way when they met. The timing was perfect as they both really needed each other and Ireland needed them, too, for birth control was against the law, even for married people. Constant pregnancies meant no control over your own body and it also led to deaths as constantly being pregnant takes a toll on a woman's body and there was nothing she could do about it.

Time for a change!!

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy. Honest opinions expressed here are my own and are freely given.

This book was so informative about a part of history that was not that long ago.. Women’s contraceptive rights was the basis for this emotional story which takes place in Ireland but could very easily be the United States. It showcases a woman’s role in marriage and what was expected or demanded of her in the sixties. I applaud this group of women who banded together to fight for not only their rights but those of their daughters and all women in the future.
The author did a great job sharing this part of history. I paused while reading certain parts to reflect and let it sink in.
All opinions expressed are my own. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review.
#TheWomenOnPlatformTwo #LauraAnthony #NetGalley

While trying to make decisions about her life in present day, Saoirse encounters Maura who tells her the remarkable story of the women who fought to give other women a choice with their selves and their bodies in Ireland. In the 1970s, women weren’t allowed to work after marriage and contraception was illegal, even though it was readily available in Northern Ireland. A brave group of women banded together and one day they rode a train to Belfast and returned with contraception, thus paving the way for Irish women to have control over their lives. Maura, who married "well" but whose husband turned out to be an abuser, recounts her life along with Bernie’s, a beloved wife and mother of three who is told that she could die if she conceives another child.

While the characters are fictional, this book is based on true events.This is an important story. So many younger people don’t realize what it was once like and the sacrifices that brave young women and some men made to give them the life, freedom, and choices that they are living now.

This is a well written story that takes you in and won’t let go. I found it heartbreaking, charming, poignant, infuriating and I couldn’t put it down, reading well into the night to finish it. With well developed and captivating characters, these women's resilience is inspiring. This is a story that needs to be recounted no matter where you reside for women the world over have to be aware of the history that provided their present day freedoms and how easy it is to have their options limited.

This story moved me to tears as I recognize the forces in the country in which I live who want females to go back to, as the author describes it, “the dark ages.”

I highly recommend this book. It is truly a #Timely #CautionaryTale.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Unputdownable!

A powerful fictionalized account of the fight for contraception and equal rights waged by the women of the Republic of Ireland in the 1960s/1970s. So relevant as American women are battling for their own reproductive rights in our upcoming election.

I will recommend this book far and wide!

Thank you Gallery Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this digital ARC!

This is absolutely the right moment to read this compelling novel about the struggle of the women of Ireland to be allowed to use contraception. No, this did not take place in the 1800’s, but in 1970. The author has set this novel within a modern day encounter between a young woman and a dogged feminist rights leader on a train.

An old photo encourages the retelling of the moment that women, taking a train, demanded the right to obtain contraception. Of course, this became the catalyst for women of Ireland to obtain other human rights. The story is told by a survivor, Maura, who struggled under the physical abuse of her doctor husband. It is Maura and her intrepid friend Bernie who lead the way, bravely, to allow women to make the personal decisions about their families.

I enjoyed the novel and the very interesting way it reminded me of the basic need for women to determine their futures free of abuse, physical, emotional or legal. I highly recommend this novel. I think our woman’s studies seminars and book clubs can use this novel as a jumping off point for discussions about the past and the FUTURE.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC which is both engrossing and timely.

This was one of my favorite books that I have ready this year! I was so engaged in this story. This is an emotional and beautiful story that I will recommend to everyone!

I both adored and devoured this book! A lovely storyline about friendship that turns into progressive thinking about contraception in Ireland where it was illegal. The characters have real depth. The plot is told in dual timelines and the writing is marvelous. A must read!