The Clippie Girls by Margaret Dickinson

With the outbreak of the second world war, the women in the Sylvester family volunteer to take on jobs vacated by men who have joined the armed services.  Sisters Peggy and Rose both worked in the canteen serving food to the tram drivers and clippies of Sheffield.  First Peggy and then Rose become clippies themselves and work on the trams all day.  

Peggy begins to date Bob, the driver with whom she is regularly paired on the trams.  Rose can't understand why Peggy does not seem too excited about her relationship with Bob.  Rose thinks Bob is wonderful and is secretly in love with him herself.  

Peggy meets a young soldier who helps her when her tram is involved in a bombing and she suddenly falls in love.  Rose is horrified by the way Bob is being treated and refuses to talk to her sister.  The atmosphere in the household, with three generations of women, gets very tense and when Peggy finds that she is pregnant things get even worse.    

This is the first Margaret Dickinson novel I had read.  It was a very easy read, I enjoyed the story and the developing and tense relationships between the different members of the family were quite entertaining.  

It Started With Paris by Cathy Kelly

Leila has been heart-broken for the last year since Tynan, her husband, unexpectedly packed his bags and left.  Following a car accident her mum, Dolores, is hospitalised with a broken hip.  Leila is called back to the family home to help out.  She realises that she had spent so much time trying to make Tynan happy that she had not been supportive to her mum and sister when they needed her most.   

Michael and Katy have known each other all of their lives.  Michael asks Katy to marry him and they begin to plan their big wedding day.  The wedding preparations bring together a number of friends and the two families.  Michael's parents, Grace and Stephen, have been divorced for many years and have ensured that they maintained a good relationship for the sake of their children.  They are thrown together again more frequently as the wedding gets nearer. 

The story has a number of key characters, some are divorced and getting along as best they can, others are divorced and making each others lives a misery.  Leila is happy that her best friend is getting married to a man who truly adores her.  It is time to sort out her own life, support her mum and sister as best she can and find her own true love.  

Other books by Cathy Kelly I have read are 'The House on Willow Street' and 'Christmas Magic'.