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I finished this one up at the end of August and forgot to post. It was good, but I didn‘t love it. The Summer After the War really worked for me, but neither this one nor Major Pettigrew's Last Stand have lived up to my first experience with Simonson's writing. This was my August #Bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

4.5⭐️

I enjoyed listening to The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson. It's set at the end of WWI on the seaside in England. I thought the characters were well developed. I loved Poppy and the way she stood up for women's rights. She was my favorite character in the book. This was my first book by Simonson, but it won't be my last.

#bookspinbingo ##Serieslove2025

I tried not to, but I‘ll have to bail on this one (gave it 100 pages). Perhaps it‘s the timing. The plot is promising, the characters have potential but the writing feels clichéd and unnatural. It maybe unrelated (or not) but I read two pages of Ann Patchett and I can‘t stop thinking about that book now. #currentlynotreading

I won a book from #goodreads !

4.5/5
Well-written historical fiction about how war changes society and social rules. I found the characters diverse and well-developed, and I liked the evolution of the different characters.
While not everyone gets a happy end, it's still a feel-good book, full of humor. It offered me a perfect escape ;)

Immersive historical fiction set in an English tourist town just post World War I, as a competent young woman, a naturalized German citizen, and a now-disabled fighter from the upper class try to find their places in a changing world that's still chock full of classism, sexism, ableism and bigotry. Well drawn, lovable characters, lively action, and some slow-burn romance make it very much my cup of tea, but I was thrown by the ending (cont.)

#WhereAreYouMonday I'm in post WWI England - twice, since I'm also reading The Secret Adversary. It's a rough time but perhaps things are looking up.

This book was everything I want in a historical fiction book. A young woman in post-WWI England makes a bold new friends running Hazelbourne's Motorcycle and Flying Club who changes her life. It's a book about class and war and pandemics and societal change and feminism and racism/ xenophobia and so many other things. I absolutely adored it.

This is the second book of Simonson‘s that I‘ve read with my book club—& though I liked this more than THE SUMMER BEFORE THE WAR, I still didn‘t love this slow-paced novel. Set just after WWI, the book centers mostly around Constance, visiting the seaside for the summer season as the caretaker of her passed mother‘s wealthier best friend‘s mother, Mrs.Fog. Constance needs to figure out her next steps but the final party spoiled the romance for me!

This is a light historical fiction set in England in the years just after WWI. Women are facing the hard facts that as the men come home, they are losing jobs and misogyny is once again alive and well. People seem to ignore the fact that women need to eat and some do not have husbands or family to support them. The book also looks at racism, snobbery and includes some romance. The characters are varied and really fun (I loved Mrs. Fog). 4/5 !

Lovely story.

Y‘all! This book is adorable!

https://reecaspieces.com/2024/05/13/the-hazelbourne-ladies-motorcycle-and-flying...