We learn about life on board in trying times, and the crew that is charged with getting our brides there safe and sound. I also enjoyed the character of the captain, and Henry too. With characters so real they feel like dear friends and a compelling storyline, this is a beautiful, special novel. I loved it and didn’t want it to end!” Anyway, that puts my reread count at twice for Me Before You, and probably 12 or 14 times for The Ship of Brides. The story is about four Australian war brides on their way to join their British husbands at the end of WWII. The British Navy sends them on a converted aircraft carrier, turning the ship’s storage rooms and liftwells into dorms for the young women. There’s an amazing amount of research into how the brides spent their days and the sheer logistics of transport, including clips from newspapers of the time, but it always feels like fiction. The systems of wartime rationing, postal delivery, and military hierarchy are intregrated smoothly into a story about relationships and change. Premise: The year is 1946. The war has ended. This is a fictionalized account of the transport of 100’s of wartime brides from Australia to England aboard a ship filled with 1,000’s of young men Marines. Many of the women have spent very little time with their husbands and almost all are leaving behind the only life they have ever known. The 6-week journey is filled with many emotions. But it is the journey that the novel plays on. Really, it is almost hard to believe that Jojo Moyes chose so perfectly the stories which portrayed us, humans so aptly.

The story follows four cabin mates as they try to each manage new experiences, new people and new fears. Moyes does a very good job of weaving these stories into a fine tapestry without missing a stitch. Each line of the book makes sense and each character is absolutely believable. The story begins in India in 2002 (which initially threw me a bit) as an elderly grandmother on vacation stumbles across the broken hull of a once great British warship, now in the process of being dismantled for scrap on an oily, debris littered beach. She has come upon a ship graveyard and can just make out the name on one of the rusted hulls “Victoria” and at once is overwhelmed by memories…

Rich in history, with well-developed characters and a strong sense of place, this book will fit well in any library’s fiction collection.For fans of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephantsor Catherine Marshall’s Christy.” This novel is set in the time period just after World War II. During the War many people from all over the world met one another and got married quite hastily, to people that they wouldn't see until the War was over. This novel starts off in Australia, where over 600 Australian brides need to be transported to their English husbands in England, to go and live as a married couple now that the War is over. Jean reminded me of Lydia from Pride & Prejudice, though not quite as annoying. I actually like Jean. She’s young and acts before thinking, but she would’ve been the one I would’ve wanted to hang out with on the ship. She’s a party girl who wants to flirt, even though she’s married. What’s wrong with flirting? She’s not cheating on Stan, whom she really, genuinely loves. Moyes is at her most charming here, writing with a sense of humorous affection about family dynamics among working-classBrits. . . a Maeve Binchy for the 21st century.”

I must confess from the outset that my mother was a New Zealand American War Bride and because of that I was curious after reading the title--so I bought it to read! Australian brides form friendships as they make their way to England aboard an aircraft carrier in this novel, originally published in Britain in 2005, from Moyes ( Silver Bay, 2014, etc.).

It isn't a light, cheerful book, but it isn't also a book which leave you crying. I have finished it with the feeling that life can be difficult and painful but most people are good. They sometimes simply are in hard situations, make wrong decisions and so on. But there is happiness in life too! Although, once I got to chapter 26 and read 9 words I completely balled my eyes out.. I couldn't believe that 9 words could instantly bring me to tears. I actually took a bit of a brake and let the information sink in and had a really good cry. I realised I probably wasn't going to get my HEA. I forced myself to continue, crying along the way, those tears stopped and I started smiling, grinning, laughing, racing to the point where what I was crying over wasn't what I thought it was. I swear! my face hurt from all the emotions a felt during that last chapter!! OMG Author!! really?!! Incredible!

Zu diesen Büchern zähle ich grundsätzlich auch jene von Jojo Moyes. Mir gefällt ihr Schreibstil - nicht zwangsläufig die Erzählform. Ihre Geschichten ziehen mich sofort in ihren Bann. Die Art, wie sie beschreibt, ist unglaublich lebendig! Einfühlsam, spannend und flüssig reiht sie die Sätze aneinander und spinnt so ein eindringliches, berührendes Netz um den Leser. I loved reading about every one of these women, even Avice who I hated, which is the sign of a well-written book. Even though I hated Avice, I understood her and why she behaved the way she did, especially when she gets into a popularity war with another rich bitch on board. But every one of these women came to life for me like starlets on a screen. With vivid detail, I could see them and feel their anxiety and nervousness about leaving home and what laid ahead. I was was fully immersed in their stories and I didn’t want to let them go. After You] left me thrilled by the possibilities of fiction to entertain and inform, and astounded by [Moyes’s] deep well of talent and imagination.”An adventure story grounded in female competence and mutual support, and an obvious affection for the popular literature of the early 20th century, give this Depression-era novel plenty of appeal. . . There’s plenty of drama, but the reader’s lasting impression is one of love.”

Masterful . . . a heartbreaker in the best sense . . . Me Before Youis achingly hard to read at moments, and yet such a joy.”I would definitely recommend this book to fans of historical romance and even WWII fiction. This book tells a story some people might not know, I certainly didn't. It's a story worth telling, how these hundreds of women promised themselves as wives to soldiers on the front lines, women who were expected to meet those obligations. That the burden of the promise was seen as theirs alone to carry, well it makes a good story, but sad history. Bestselling authorJojoMoyeshas a unique way of using her prose to make her readers feel great emotions – love, passion, sadness, and grief – and her latest novel The Giver of Stars–does not disappoint in that respect.” Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 (Extended OCR) Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.11 Ocr_module_version 0.0.14 Old_pallet IA18192 Openlibrary_edition What a wonderful book that I've just finished. One of those that really mean something. It was a pleasure to read this book, the first of Jo Jo Moyes that I have had the pleasure to read. This is a beautiful story that is based on a factual voyage, each chapter starts with an non fictional extract based on experiences of war brides, or those who served on the 'Victorious'.