A different sort of home front tale. Set in a forest it's the story of Connie, who is working in the Women's Timber Corps (who knew?) and Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war. It's thoughtful and sensitive- and a good read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Early spring 1944.
In a clearing deep within an English forest two lost souls meet for the first time.

Connie Granger has escaped the devastation of her bombed out city home. She has found work in the Women's Timber Corps, and for her, this remote community must now serve a secret purpose.

Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war, is haunted by his memories. But in the forest camp, he finds a strange kind of freedom.

A beautiful telling of such a simple story and I absolutely loved it. A great timeline to explore when everything was in turmoil but there is shelter to be found, if you only look for it.

I was unaware when I received this novel that this was set in WW2. I am not a fan of historical novels and therefore didn't read much. It was however very well written

Shelter is very much not what I expected and I feel bad that I didn't particularly enjoy it because I received two electronic ARC's as well as a paperback ARC. The universe really wanted me to read this work. Initially, I really enjoyed the idea. It's such a fresh take on a very well covered area of history but there was just some vital spark that was missing. It felt as though I was being held at arm's length when I should have been in amongst the trees. I also found Seppe to be the more interesting character even though both he and Connie fell flat. I would definitely pick up another book by Franklin.

A beautiful slow-burner of a read, with the most tremendous sense of place and time. I was completely drawn in to the lives of the characters, and it was great to have a war story told from a new perspective.

So historical fiction is my favourite genre- however good the writing and story is- this book fails quite heavy in the editing and structure. The pace was poor and tbh the story was a bit all over the place.

Ww2 in the country, a timber Jill and a pow- relative undiscovered territory for a story. It’s a shame Connie and Sepp’s story wasn’t better plotted,

Goes to show that writing and ideas aren’t everything- editing can in fact make or break at book.

All in I’m a bit disappointed, I really wanted to love this book.

This is a fantastic read. Its a captivating, it swipes you from this world back to a small rural place during WW2. I was oblivious that these lumberjils existed and what they contributed to the war effort.



This debut (I love discovering a new talent to add to my reading repoirtoie) is the tale of a male & female thrown together after both having horrific experiences. I found the female protagonist, hard to warm to, but this didn't hinder my enjoyment from the book, and think her jarsh character was developed from her experiences previous.



I would highly recommend this to any reader of womens fiction, not sure it can be defined to a narrow genre, but it's gripping and unputdownable. Also I enjoyed the fact there wasn't an abrupt ending... Not saying any more as you need to read it.

A powerful character study set in the English countryside during WWII. The relationship between two people develops slowly but with a quiet strength. Any fan of historical fiction will enjoy this intriguing novel.

Oh I absolutely loved this story! It's set in WW2 in the Forest of Dean. Connie, leaves Coventry behind, a city girl whose heart is broken. She becomes a Lumberjill in the Women's Timber Corps and finds herself partnered up with Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war. They slowly become friends and he's there that day when she needs him the most. Amos, who Connie stays with (his son Billy is away fighting) and Frank and Joyce are there for her too. But something is missing from her life and she goes back to the city leaving behind something really precious which makes her whole. A really beautiful story which I highly recommend.

Shelter by Sarah Franklin is a world war two drama set in the Forest of Dean telling the story of an Italian prisoner of war and a land girl fleeing a tragedy. This is a beautifully researched and atmospheric novel, a love story about the people who inhabit the forest and the forest itself. It was a gift to learn about an episode in history and the contribution the foresters made to the war effort and the lives of Italian prisoners of war.

I found this quite difficult to get into - and I so wanted to read it as I have personal connections to both women who worked on the land in the war and prisoners of war. I do feel like I need to go back and reread, in one long stretch and this might help. Not giving up on it yet.

This is a novel with a backdrop of World War2 novel and I generally do not like such novels.
Though I struggled with parts of it, I like the way Sarah Franklin has described her characters (they are multi faceted) and the settings in this book.
The story is slow moving and well developed and would be a great read for people enjoying this genre.

Set in the Second World War, Connie is left alone after her family are killed. She wants to escape it all and have an exciting life. She signs up to the Women's land army and ends up in a forrest felling trees.
The night her family dies comes back to hit her in the face. She doesn't know how to grieve their loss but now has a new beginning on the way after an encounter with a GI.
She meets Seppe an Italian prisoner of war who she works with in the forrest. They grow closer although not as close as Seppe would like. Connie wants to run away from everything again but can she turn her back on her son.
This is a story of the pressures women faced and still face being stuck at home to look after the family and the day to day jobs. Connie wants to live an exciting life like the men and go off to war and see other countries.

I received the book in exchange for an honest review.

So, this book deserves about 3.5 stars but as I can’t add half a star so I rounded it down a bit (because it’s not really 4 stars book).

The story is happening in 1944 and it is an interesting take on the World War II as it does not happen in the bigger cities or any similar places, but it takes part in the forest.

Connie, a forester who took the job as a ‘lumberjill’, a part of Woman Timber Corps, who took the part in the war effort when men were out fighting the war. Another character that is very important is the Prisoner of War, Seppe, who later starts to help her felling trees.

There are also people who live in the forest, the small group of tightly knit people for whom the forest is their home and what they practically worship.

Connie suffers some consequences from her easygoing life in Coventry where she worked in a factory before she came to the forest, and she has to decide what way she’s going to take with her life.

It is an interesting take, showing the society of people living in the forest. It has different characters from different backgrounds, but all affected by the war in some ways. Maybe it’s their son that went to war, or maybe they have lost family or became a prisoner of war.

What made me take it that 1.5 stars was the switching of characters which was sometimes confusing as well as time periods. I was also bothered with the end a bit, but in general, it was a great and quite unique take on the war.

It is not an easy take on the war, but it is interesting and, while it does not show the more grisly aspects of war, such as actual fighting at the front, but there are consequences even in the calm of the forests. Nothing and no one could escape the war.

A different take on a WW2 story. It follows the lives of two people Connie and Seppe who come together in the countryside in England. Connie has gone to work there as a landgirl and Seppe is a prisoner of war. It is a heartwarming and emotional story and I would thoroughly recommend it.

This was an enjoyable story about life in the Forest of Dean during World War 11. It describes the relationships between the POW's, the local residents and a Lumberjill. The ups and downs living under the demands of the war and the lasting friendships between different nationalities during such difficult times. Very moving, well written story that seemed so real and a satisfying conclusion.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written with believable - if difficult -characters.

As my parents and grandparents lived through the Blitz in Coventry I immediately felt a connection, and that continued when Seppe and his friends appeared as we retired to live in Italy some 12 years ago.

Some of the subject matter was difficult but it was handled well and was convincing. Most enjoyable.

Set in world war 2 you would naturally assume this book to be set in a bombed out city bug rather tefreshingly its not. Set in the country it focuses a lot more on the developing relationship between Connie and prisoner of war Seppe. Its a well written contemporary read and I for one enjoyed getting to know ghe characters and the stories that formed who they are

This book is full of trees. The Forest of Dean to be exact. ‘Shelter’ by Sarah Franklin is the story of two outsiders who find themselves in the forest during World War Two. As they struggle to survive, to learn about their surroundings, how to get by from day to day, each finds a way to live the rest of their lives.
Early in 1944 in Coventry, Connie Granger’s life is changed in the course of one night. Escaping the bombing, city-girl Connie takes a job with the Women’s Timber Corps. Unable to follow her dreams, she resents the change of direction. Sent to the Forest of Dean for her training, she turns out to be so good the manager keeps her on. Meanwhile, in the forest, a prisoner-of-war camp is built for Italian soldiers captured during fighting in Africa. Neither prisoner Seppe, nor Connie, know one tree from another but together they learn to fell trees and work timber. And they get to know each other.
The themes of nature, change and new birth are strong throughout ‘Shelter,’ symbolised not just by the trees but by the growth of Joe, Connie’s baby, and the increasingly fluency of Seppe’s English. Both are odd-ones-out. Both feel they don’t ‘fit’. Except in the forest. Connie lodges in the cottage of farmer Amos, who worries for the life of his absent soldier son Billy. Seppe, though he lives in the camp, exploits the lax guards and spends more time amongst the trees. These three, with timber manager Frank and his wife Joyce, completes the cast of characters.
The story of the wartime lumberjills was fascinating. This is a well-written debut novel by a writer brave enough to allow Connie to be determined and selfish, unsure, selfish again, before working out what she wants. There is something honest in Connie’s selfishness which makes her seem real. The switching around of the timeline at the beginning was unnecessarily confusing, but after that the story swung along as Connie transforms from someone who doesn’t recognise bluebells as she walks through a wood, to a woman who stops to watch a hawk swoop in for the kill.
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I must confess to being pretty ignorant about the Forest of Dean's association with the Women's Timber Corps (a separate branch of the Women's Land Army), and in fact the Forest's involvement in World War Two as a whole. I had no idea for instance that there were Prisoner of War camps in the area, pretty shocking as I don't live very far away. But it seems that the Women's Timber Corps or WTC (much like the Forest's involvement in WW2) have sadly been largely forgotten. This is one of the reasons that this book is so special!

The Women's Timber Corps (WTC), was a civilian organisation created during the WW2 to work in Forestry replacing the men who had left to join the armed forces. Women who joined the WTC were commonly known as 'Lumber Jills'.

Constance (Connie) is posted to the Forest of Dean after losing her previous job in a factory following a family tragedy. Connie is alarmed to be chosen to be in the WTC, she struggles in the classroom and is convinced that she will be sent away, jobless and penniless.

But then she goes outside and meets Frank a forester, who is about to show the girls what they have learnt in the classroom. Connie thinks that she won't be able to put in to practice what she couldn't quite grasp in the classroom. Frank however sees that with her first attempt that Connie is a natural and quickly lobbies to keep her in the forest and not have her billeted elsewhere.

Connie knows that after her devastating past she should be grateful to have a roof over her head, but she feels so alone in the strange forest, the other lumber Jill's are friendly enough, but it just isn't the same as home. The secrets she is harbouring just seem to make it all worse. Then Connie meets Seppe, an Italian Prisoner of War who is being held at nearby Camp 61, he too has secrets that he wants to keep to himself. They shouldn't like each other, the brash outspoken Connie, and the shy, retiring Seppe, but they do, almost instantly.

Despite the odds, they start working together, Seppe quickly learns both the skills of the work, and when to keep his mouth shut and not aggravate Connie's moods. But in a world where the changes come at a breathtaking pace, can they really be friends, or even something more?

Shelter is a beautifully written novel, obviously thoroughly researched and I can't wait to hear more from this author.