This week, Susie Black’s Saturday Author Spotlight shines on historical romance author M. W. Arnold.
About the author: M. W. Arnold lives near Northampton, UK, and is known to his family and friends as Mick. He was in the Royal Air Force for 16 years, visiting many different countries and very much enjoying himself; thank you, Queen Elizabeth II. He began writing as these characters needed their own voices. For a few years now, he’s been a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, a wonderful group of writers who’ve welcomed this bloke into their fold with open arms. He’s active on Twitter and Instagram as @mick859.
This author specializes in World War II romance stories. With almost 400 posted reviews, The Lumberjills is one of the most popular books in the series. Here is a blurb to whet your appetite:
Berry Chambers and her co-workers have joined the Women’s Timber Corps—known as the Lumberjills—to do their bit for Britain. On their first day felling trees, they rescue an RAF pilot and become entangled in the loveless marriage of her new landlords. Danger is never far away, be it an ill-timed axe swing or the occasional activity of the Luftwaffe overhead. Add a psychotic farm cat, a couple of young runaway evacuees, a spate of malicious packages, and the jealousy of the Land Girls next door, and life for Berry and her friends is never boring. Can the girls find the balance between their vital war work and the natural pull of love?
Here is what readers have to say about this engaging tale:
Ginger, book geek: “Superb historical fiction. I have been a fan of M. W. Arnold’s work for quite a while now. I have read and loved all of his books. The Lumberjills is a cracker of a story, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I started reading and couldn’t stop. I only intended to read a chapter or two, but I became so wrapped up in the story and in the lives of the characters that I was still reading several chapters later. I couldn’t bear to miss a single second of the story. The more of the book that I read, the more I wanted to read and the quicker the pages seemed to turn. I found ‘The Lumberjills’ to be a gripping read, which certainly kept me guessing. ‘The Lumberjills’ is superbly written, but then I have come to expect nothing less from M. W. Arnold. He certainly knows how to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into what proves to be one hell of a story. M. W. Arnold clearly cares about his characters, and this shines through the vivid and realistic way he describes them. He makes the characters seem just as real as you and I. M. W. Arnold has clearly done an awful lot of research into ‘The Lumberjills’ as well as wider research into the time period in which the story takes place, and this makes the story seem that bit more authentic. I love the way in which M. W. Arnold makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story and at the heart of the action. In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Lumberjills,’ and I would definitely recommend it to other readers. I hope to read much more of M. W. Arnold’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well-deserved 5* out of 5*.”
Chris Day: “What I liked about this book is the knowledge you get of the life of these girls, doing a very hard job felling trees as their ‘war work’ and the camaraderie between them. This book is a really good read, which I would recommend to anyone who likes reading about the period of time around World War II. This book shows you how girls have done their bit, other than the services and munitions. Hopefully, another book will follow.”
Amazon Customer: “Brilliant. Such a marvelous story about women during the war working in the Timber Corps. Great characters, happy and sad. Kept me entertained until the end.”
SA 42: “This is a great read. Something happens all the time, so it keeps you interested. The characters are interesting as well; each has its own story to tell.”
Dawn l: “Warm and heart-rending. A treat to read.”
Sandra Smith “A real heartbreaker of a story, but I couldn’t put it down. An interesting story of the life of the Lumberjills during World War II. Told in a most interesting story about a little-known aspect of WWII”
https://www.amazon.com/Lumberjills-M-W-Arnold-ebook/dp/B0BPRFB94M/ref=sr_1_1?
