The Surplus Girls by Polly Heron

          Somehow the setting just doesn't manage to ring true, it all feels a little more late 1940s than early 1920s and I can't put my finger on why.  Yes it has situations that are very much of the time but it just all feels so much more "modern" than it's supposed setting.  Good job then that this is a book about people first and foremost.

Belinda Layton is having a tough go of it, her father turns out to be a ne'er-do-well who is rapidly dragging his family down with him.  Her eldest brother seems to think she should move back home to "do her bit" now he has moved out and her beloved fiance dies during the First World War.  Throw in a supervisor at the mill with wandering hands and a lecherous eye and she has to do something.  A chance meeting with her old teacher, Miss Kirby, leads her to the door of the Misses Hesketh and their newly minted Secretarial School and the perfect opportunity to pull herself out of the mire.

To be honest I got a little fed up with Belinda and her relentless optimism.  She is everything a "Northern Girl" is supposed to be but it just feels overdone.  Throw this against the foil of a worn down Mother and a surly sister and she starts to look even more "saintly".  It does become wearing after a time.

Strangely the people I found myself wanting to know more about, the Misses Hesketh, we are only given the odd tantalising glimpse of.  In the blurb it is mentioned that this is intended to be the first of a saga so hopefully we will get to learn more about them.

It isn't a bad read or a boring read it just is. 

THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA READERS FIRST.