The Girls from the Beach by Andie Newton ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

"A single diary entry dated 1945.  'We'd heard stories about the nurses in tent seven.  A secret mission, stolen money, and spies, some of them posing as soldiers.  One thing I know for certain:  Kit was involved.  She might be the only person who can shed light on those five days in September and tell the world what happened when he women went missing.'"  (loc 19)

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July 2021; Aria; ebook (261 pages); historical fiction

I enjoy reading historical fiction set during WWII.  It could get redundant but most authors give a view of the war from a different perspective.  The Girls on The Beach is about nurses who landed on the beach 5 days after the D Day invasion.  I never realized that nurses arrived so soon after the troops and this book shows the bravery and strength of the nurses who were an important part of the invasion of France.

Kit and Red didn't know each other but when they landed on the beach during D day, they became fast friends.  While they were working in a field hospital, they share tent seven with Roxy and Gail.  Their work is grueling and heartbreaking and they all depended on their friendship to get through the rough days.  When the OSS finds out that two of them can speak German fluently, the four nurses are asked to go on a secret mission behind enemy lines to infiltrate the Reich and steal something the Nazis desperately need to win their losing war.  Their mission was very dangerous and even though they knew it would be, they were aware that they had to do whatever they could to defeat Germany.  They were gone from their hospital for 5 days and they didn't all comeback.  The section of the story when they are behind enemy lines is tense nonstop action as I was hoping that their mission would be successful.  Despite the fact that they were all scared their mission was heroic.

The Girls from the Beach is told in dual timelines - 1945 was told mostly by Kit and was about what the nurses faced on a daily basis as they tried to save injured soldiers as well as information about their secret mission. The other timeline is in 1989 when Evelyn (Kit) who is still suffering from what we call PTSD has been asked about the real story behind the missing days for a newspaper article. Even though she now has a normal life, the memories of her time during the war haunt her on a daily basis.

This is a book about the brave nurses who went above and beyond their duties to help the Allies win the war.  It's about strength, love, and friendship and the danger the nurses faced.  This is my first book by this author but definitely not my last.  I've just ordered her two earlier books.

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Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina with her husband of over 50 years.  She grew up in Michigan but now calls North Carolina home. Since her travel plans had to be canceled for this year, she is starting to make plans for travel in 2021. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and historical fiction. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter.

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