Heartache for the Shop Girls. Joanna Toye

The third book in the gripping wartime drama series set around a town’s department storeIt’s Summer 1942, and Lily Collins and her fellow shop girls from Marlow’s department store are throwing a party. Beryl’s husband Les is coming home from the Desert War, and, despite grim reports on the wireless and rationing hitting hard, the girls are determined to keep smiling through.But Les is a changed man from his time in North Africa, and Gladys worries for her own fiancé’s safe return. Marlow’s is losing staff to the war effort and Lily’s young man, Jim, is torn over where his duty lies.Then comes the knock on the door that everyone dreads. Her family, always the heart of Lily’s world, is rocked to the core. And as the year unfolds the small Midlands town – and Lily’s beloved Marlow’s – must face their greatest challenge yet.