Dear Mrs. Bird

Dear Mrs. Bird takes place during the London Blitz. Emmy is a young woman who jumps at the opportunity to work at a newspaper, and accepts a job there before she realizes she is simply going to be typing up the questions and responses for an advice column. Mrs. Bird, the columnist, Emmy soon learns, has a long list of issues she refuses to address in the column, and Emmy finds herself longing to help those who are struggling with these difficult issues.

I figured out exactly where this story was going from the start, and usually that puts me off a story. But this story had such wonderful characters and so much humor that I ended up loving it anyway.

My full review is here: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/09/review-dear-mrs-bird-and-yours-cheerfully-by-a-j-pearce/

When I found out I would be able to receive an ARC of Yours Cheerfully in exchange for an honest review, I decided that I'd read Dear Mrs. Bird first. Although it's possible for Yours Cheerfully to stand alone, I definitely think reading them in order helped me enjoy the second one more. Although it goes over some of the big points of what happened in Mrs. Bird, I'm glad I read it first.

When I started Dear Mrs. Bird, I had a little bit of a hard time at first getting into the writing style. It's different than what I've read in historical fiction before. The author chooses to capitalize some things, and that's a style that put me off a little. For instance, Emmy might explain something as “having become Quite the Big Thing.” However, as I kept reading, I got more used to it and it didn't bother me quite so much. Still, the grammarian in me had kind of a hard time!

The plot was really light to begin with, but it got deeper and less fluffy for sure. Still, even when the subject matter got heavy with war fallout, Emmy is so good-natured and talks in such a...sweet? way that it's heavy without feeling too gloomy.

Overall, I found Dear Mrs. Bird light, yet it tackles difficult subject matter. The portrayal of friendship was so heartwarming, it was just a fun read. I gave it 4.5 stars overall.

While sheltering-in-place, I wanted a book that was not too heavy and was “somewhere else”. No post-apocalyptic tales, no murder.... it was a tall order and Dear Mrs Bird, while set during WWII ended up being perfect. Yes, there was a war on but the characters involved sat on the fringes of the war, despite often wishing to be “where the action” was.

It was a peek into a different part of war-torn London, both sad and sweet. And nowhere near the world I currently inhabit.