A Mother's Hope for the Cornish Girl's by Betty Walker: 

 

This is the third book in a popular series. Romantic fiction is always popular, and this is an amiable, well-plotted and entertaining read.  

 

We're headed to Cornwall. St Ives to be precise. It's 1943 and the Second World War is at its height. The framing device is Symond's Hall, a convalescent home. Lily a cockney, is presented with a moral dilemma when she cares for her first love. Meanwhile, Mary falls in fall with Dick - who is the schoolteacher of the evacuee her parents are caring for. Most interestingly of all, is Sonya. The daughter she gave up after a teenage pregnancy comes back into her life and she is forced to confront her past; to secure a better future.  

  

If that sounds like a lot of plot, you'd be right. There is a lot going on for a novel that is just shy of 400 pages. But Walker is always in control of a sprawling narrative. In that sense, she switches between the three narratives, cross over them occasionally and ties them all neatly together in a neat bow at the end.   

 

She's also very good on the discussion of what love is. Again, not something that's been ignored in this genre, but it's three very different definitions of what love is and how its perception is determined by the people in the relationship. Lily falls in love as an act of duty and gradually accepts love on her own terms. Mary falls for a phlegmatic, but idealistic man. Mary struggles with becoming a grandmother in middle age, let alone her "spirited" grandson.  

Walker is also as good on the wartime period as much as she is on Cornish culture. There's also the framing device of the married couple working at the orphanage, which is reminiscent of Call the Midwife. In an age of constant content, it would be interesting to see this on TV.  

 

Ultimately, it's a poignant fairy-tale. There's even a fairy godmother. It's a comforting read that reminds the reader; even in wartime or an ever-changing world love can both thrive and survive.