When Christmas Bells Ring

By: Katie Flynn

Narrated by: Anne Dover

Liverpool, 1938. It’s Christmas in the Courts, and single mother Rosheen Clarke and her mischievous twin daughters, April and May, have no idea of the cataclysmic events which will soon overtake them.

When war is declared, April and May are evacuated to the countryside, and Rosheen joins the WAAF, where she befriends fellow Liverpudlian Cassie Valentine. While Rosheen worries about what trouble the twins will cause next, Cassie is fighting her love for her childhood friend, Andy. Because ever since he joined the RAF, he has become arrogant and remote. Will their love be another casualty of war?

Cassie and Rosheen support each other as best they can, but it will be many years before the Christmas bells ring out again.

©2015 Katie Flynn (P)2015 Soundings

Annoying

I like period pieces set before the war, and the writing on this story starts off pretty well. But the two main characters the twins are really selfish little girls. It is hard to care at all about their antics because their behavior is pretty bad and they care about no one but themselves.

If that was not bad enough, the author switches POV between these two children, and several other groups of characters.

I got bored because at the very least I wanted to listen to the story about the girls. Instead I head-hopped into the heads of Irish grooms living in Ireland, two strange girls they meet on the street, the friend of the girls mother. Whomever. It was distracting.

With audiobooks it is hard to skip ahead and follow when stories diverge into different POV's.

I don't recommend it unless you don't mind spoiled children and stories told with lots of different characters randomly opining about what is going on.