The Silent Stars Go By - Sally Nichols (YA) (Release date: November 2020)

The Silent Stars Go By - Sally Nichols (YA) (Release date: November 2020)

I was thrilled when The Silent Stars Go By dropped through my letter box!  having read and loved Things A Bright girl Can Do, I was keen to dive into Sally's latest offering ... and I wasn't disappointed!

It's the December of 1919 and Margot ( a respectable vicar's daughter) is heading home for Christmas and to face Harry, the fiancé who'd been MIA in WWII.  She'd presumed, after many months that he was dead; however, several months after hearing he was alive, she will see him again ... but she carries with her a life-changing secret. 

This is a gentle YA novel that will sneak up on you and draw you in so that, by the end of the book, you won't want to leave Margot and her family!  This story is set in a huge time of change for everyone: men were coming back from the war and the country was getting back to normal, and for Margot and her family, there is so much more for them to get used to.  Margot is struggling: she has this huge secret, known on to her family and to 1 or 2 very close friends.  She desperately wants to change things and to tell Harry but that will shatter so many lives so she must decide what to do.  All this, in a time when family values were very different to today and the world moved at a much slower pace, where correspondence with Harry is via letter and they are chaperoned when they are together.  I just wanted to reach into the book so many times to hug Margot.

The story is set around a traditional family Christmas without modern commercialism; where courtship and the thrill of stolen moments will keep you hooked and hoping for a happy ending.  It's a warming tonic and you should read it curled up somewhere cosy with a mug of hot chocolate and allow yourself to be transported back in time.