One day in 1940 Rene Hargreaves walks out on her family and the city to take a position as a Land Girl at the remote Starlight farm. There she will live with and help lonely farmer Elsie Boston.

At first Elsie and Rene are unsure of one another - strangers from different worlds. But over time they each come to depend on the other. They become inseparable.

Until the day a visitor from Rene's past arrives and their careful, secluded life is thrown into confusion. Suddenly, all they have built together is threatened. What will they do to protect themselves? And are they prepared for the consequences?

I am not sure what to think about this book. It most certainly wasn't what I expected. I found it quite slow and sometimes dragging along. I didn't like the chapter about Ernest at all. Even though it was responsible for the happenings which followed.
I wasn't sure about the relationship between Rene and Elsie.. Especially Elsie.. Her behavior seemed sometimes so strange to me, so subdued.
The part about the Landgirls was interesting though, not something which one learns about in school (at least not here).
All in all not my book.

Edit to say that I (in this case) would have liked to know before that this is partly a true story and happened to the author's grandmother!

On its way to France now..
and then off to penelopewanders please :-)

Thank you kiki !

Two women with strong but different characters who are linked by chance and attracted by each other in difficult times. We don't know really about their relationship and that's a bonus.
The village people liked them and so do I.

Edit to say that I'm sorry, I forgot it was a ring/ray ? and it's due to go to penelopewanders. It w'll be in the mail shortly.

In my letterbox to be picked up by the mailman and send to penelopewanders in the company of Harry.

This ray (?) has arrived safely here in central France after a relatively short trip from the coast. It looks like I might be at the end of the ray.. I have a few other books I have to read first, so this will move to the back of the line.
Thanks so much for sending and thanks for making it available, Kiki. (If I'm wrong and it has to travel on sooner rather than later, please set me straight).
Hope everyone is having a happy summer.

This came to me at the end of a bookcrossing ray (which means I'm free to do with it as I wish)... so it sat on a TBR shelf for a few months.
I'm not sure what to say about this - there were parts I found very slow, but the sense of being drowned in obstacles as women of that time and place came through -just as it must have for those affected...
The tenuous hold on the farm, and Elise's inability to fight for what was hers, and then the need to keep moving on. Fortunately the two women were able to find each other, and as Elise said (with less than ideal effect) - they were rich.
I felt the connection with the other women in Upper Rosenys was strangely truncated. We can surmise that it bolstered Rene in ways, but the reasons behind her inability or unwillingness to talk about that encounter with Elise left a great deal to imagination. Indeed, much of the book's strength is off the page, what can surmise from what is there.
The Ernest episode is quite horrific, and again, the consequences for the two women somewhat surprising, but again accentuating their impotence.
A rather strange but interesting book.