Shop Girls

For Lily Collins and her fellow shop girls at Marlow's Department store, another Christmas with ration books, shortages of goods and staff — not to mention a store coping with war damage — will be a real challenge. But the girls rally round and put their worries aside to make this, the hardest wartime Christmas yet, one that their families, and their town, will never forget.

As the Allied forces push closer to longed-for victory, Lily Collins yearns to join up and do her bit. But her best friend Gladys faces having her first baby alone, with her beloved Bill back with the Navy. And their other great friend, Beryl, is run off her feet building her bridal-hire business amid the bomb damage. Yet for Lily, no amount of helping with a new batch of evacuees matches up to the lure of the ATS. And while wedding bells are ringing for others at Marlows Department Store, where the girls met, will they be heard for Lily and her young man, Jim — or does fate have another twist in store? '' Annie Groves 'Family drama, community spirit and love...{a} '

Summer 1945. After victory in Europe, best friends Lily, Gladys and Beryl are looking to the future. But even with this happy news, their lives are far from simple... Despite Lily's joyful summer wedding, she has doubts over what her heart wants now. As she adjusts to her role as young wife, could this signal the end of her position at Marlows? The return of Gladys's husband, Bill, raises questions of their family life, as he struggles to find work after the navy, and for Beryl, big changes at her bridal shop are afoot. As the girls start to move on with their lives, they have never needed to stick together more...