It’s always wonderful to catch up with the Shipyard Girls, the fiery, feisty, courageous and strong women who people the captivating and addictive novels of best-selling author Nancy Revell and they are back in another page-turning instalment that will touch your heart, make you laugh out loud and keep you reading way past your bedtime: Christmas with the Shipyard Girls.

The bottom had truly fallen out of Polly’s world when she had received the shocking and devastating news that her beloved fiancé Tommy had died on the front line. Heartbreak and anguish had become her constant companions, yet Polly had refused to give up hope. Even though she cried herself to sleep every single night, she had never stopped yearning to be able to hold Tommy in her arms again. But just when all hope had been nearly lost and Polly had begun to resign herself to never seeing Tommy again, the man she loved had returned back to her. In hospital recovering from a serious injury, Polly feels as if all her Christmases have come at once. The man she loves most in the world is alive and he will soon be with her again and she can finally have the winter wedding she had always dreamed of. Can happiness finally be within Polly and Tommy’s reach? Is their love strong enough to survive all the obstacles that will be standing in their way? Or will they fall at the final hurdle?

Shipyard manager Helen has had the year from hell yet she refuses to be beaten. Helen refuses to dwell on the past and is intent on focusing on the future and on making a success of both her personal and professional life. After one romantic disappointment after another, Helen has met the dashing Doctor Parker, a man who seems to be as attracted to her as she is to him. As the two continue to grow closer, could a future be in the cards for the pair of them? Or will their chance at happiness be thwarted? Not only is Helen’s personal life going great guns, but the determined ship manager also wants the yard to break the production record and nothing and nobody is going to stand in her way. But will Helen end up paying a very dear price for her ambition and determination?

Head welder Rosie is in for a shock when she finds her younger sister Charlotte on her doorstep one dark winter night. Why did Charlotte leave her expensive boarding school and come all the way to Sunderland? Why has she made it perfectly clear that she is not about to go back to her school? If Charlotte wants to make her own way in the world, then Rosie is going to show her that being a grown-up is no picnic, so she takes her with her to the shipyard and puts her to work. Will Charlotte sink or swim? Is she going to stick around the shipyard? Or will she return back to her boarding school with her tail between her legs?

The run-up to Christmas will once more be fraught with drama and excitement for the Shipyard girls, but their friendship and support for one another will see them through the darkest and most challenging of days.

Nancy Revell’s books are always a joy to read and Christmas with the Shipyard Girls is certainly no exception.
Full of warmth, humour, heart and exquisite period details that sweeps you back to wartime Sunderland, Christmas with the Shipyard Girls is a well-written, emotional, dramatic, uplifting and captivating read that celebrates women’s friendships, triumphs, tragedies and strengths with terrific flair and style.

Nancy Revell juggles multiple characters and plotlines with deftness and skill and each storyline is written with care, sensitivity and compassion and you will be unable to choose a favourite as each one is so fantastically written and bursting with realistic characters that jump off the pages.

As addictive as ever, Christmas with the Shipyard Girls is another addictive and engrossing saga by the immensely talented Nancy Revell.

This is book #7 in the Shipyard Girls series. It can be read as a standalone book, but I would recommend reading the series in order for continuity of the storyline. In this book we are back in Sunderland, 1942. War is still raging and we again meet the welding women working in the shipyards, experiencing their highs and low at Christmas time.

The story begins with Tommy, Polly’s fiancé who was reported to be missing. The story grabbed me from the first page and I found this first meeting with Tommy particularly heart-breaking. At the beginning of the book, however, there are a lot of characters to reconnect with and this took me a while to remember who was who! The book focusses mainly on the characters of Polly, Rosie and Helen although all the women from the previous books have a part in the story. The women certainly have their ups and downs and you find these emotional and sad at times yet uplifting and heart-warming at others! I particularly loved Polly’s character and was so happy for her at the beginning where she’d received news about her fiancé, Tommy. She goes through so much upset and bad times that it would be lovely for Polly to finally get her happy ending! Unfortunately, as the bombs are still falling on the country and the men are still at war, this proves to be difficult not just for Polly but for all the ladies of the shipyard!

The story isn’t just based on the lives of the women, but also the work they do and the difficulties they face during wartime. These stories show the friendship and camaraderie not just between the main characters but also amongst the whole community. They also show how difficult it was living through the war years.

Whilst I’ve never been to the North East, through this series of books I feel like I’ve come to recognise the area well and the author has done a great job of researching the industries that were there during, and probably after the war. I’m assuming the author is also from the area as the local knowledge throughout these books is outstanding! If I was to recommend a wartime saga series of books then I’d have no hesitation recommending this one!

Great writing.
Fantastic characters. A very entertaining plot that continues the tales of the girl who work in a shipyard. A fun historical book. I recommend this book. I received an arc from the publisher and this is my unbiased review.

'Christmas With The Shipyard Girls' is the seventh instalment of the bestselling 'Shipyard Girls' series. I have adored each and every book in the series. I read the synopsis for 'Christmas With The Shipyard Girls' and I just knew that I was going to in for one hell of a read. I wasn't wrong either. I totally, utterly and absolutely ADORED reading 'Christmas With The Shipyard Girls' but more about that in a bit.
It somehow feels unfair to single out a single character for further analysis so instead I will focus on the two women welders Polly & Rosie and the lady in charge of the shipyard, Helen. Poor Polly has been through the mill a fair bit. She lost one of her brothers in an incident, whilst he was overseas. Her other brother also suffered whilst fighting for his country and he has been left with a disability. If that wasn't enough for the poor lass, then her handsome fiancé Tommy, who joined the navy, has been posted as being missing. Polly has found it hard to carry on, which is no wonder. I really felt for Polly and I so wanted her to get her happy ever after ending after all the trauma she has been through. A miracle happens and it emerges that Tommy is actually in a hospital having suffered quite serious injuries. Polly is over the moon but it emerges that the Tommy she knew and loved is different to the Tommy that she meets up with in the hospital. Tommy has suffered some quite severe emotional, mental and physical trauma. Will Tommy and Polly get married? Is there another twist in the Tommy and Polly story? Well for the answers to those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out.
Now for Rosie, who is the other female welder. Rosie has a sister called Charlotte (or Charlie for short), who was at a private school in Harrogate. What Charlotte doesn't know is that Rosie originally worked as a prostitute in order to fund Charlotte's education. Rosie isn't in that line of work as such any more but she has an interest in the business as she does the books for Lily, who is the owner of the bordello, and Rosie has some shares in the business. Plus of course, Rosie works as a female welder at the Thompsons Shipyard to help the war effort. Rosie is also married to Peter, who has been sent abroad on a hush hush sort of mission. Her life is further complicated by the fact that in peacetime Peter is actually a police officer. Rosie certainly feels torn between her husband and her loyalty towards Lily and the girls. Rosie doesn't seem to be able to sit still for very long. Charlie has returned to Sunderland from Harrogate for reasons, which are not immediately apparent but which are slowly revealed over time. I actually admired Charlie for having the bottle to do what she did. What follows when Rosie goes to confront the headmistress of Charlie's school is pure gold. You will have to read the book to find out what happens. Charlie is an inquisitive kid and she is also a highly intelligent kid, who is becoming highly suspicious of just exactly why Rosie won't let Charlie get too close to Lily and why Rosie disappears of a night. Does Charlie find out what her sister does? What is her reaction? Well for the answers to those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
On to Helen, who is running Thompsons Shipyard in the absence of her father Jack, who has been sent to Glasgow for reasons you can discover for yourself in a previous book. If somebody had told me after the first book that I not only would I warm to Helen by the time I got to the seventh book and I would consider her to be a friend then I would have thought that you had lost the plot!! Well exactly that has happened and no plots have been lost. Helen has become a real life, kind and compassionate human being- no thanks to her mother Miriam. Helen has been through the mill with some pretty traumatic experiences which I won't disclose now but when you read the book you might understand how and why Helen has become 'human'. Helen is extremely close to her father, Jack, who as I mention above has been sent to Glasgow and she can't bring herself to forgive Miriam for what she has done. I don't blame her either. I just wish Miriam would take a very long walk off the end of Roker Pier- either that or I will jump inside the pages of the book to slap her silly and push her off Roker Pier. Anyway enough of my burblings about Miriam so back to Helen I do go. Helen doesn't have a boyfriend in this book but she does have somebody who is absolutely crazy about her but I don't know that she realises just how in love with her that he is. Helen has formed a close relationship with Gloria who works at the shipyard and with Gloria's bairn called Hope for reasons which will become clear when you read the book. Will Helen find the happiness that she deserves? Well for the answer to that question and so much more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
Oh my word, it didn't take me long at all to get into this story and I just knew that I would be unable to put the book down. For me, 'Christmas With The Shipyard Girls' is the true definition of an unputdownable page turner. The book wasn't exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me. I did not want to miss a single second of the story. By the time I got to the bottom of the first page I felt as though I had reunited with old friends. I became so absorbed by the story that I lost all track of time and I was able to shut out all other distractions. My addiction to the book meant that I could binge read the book over the course of a day. I was gutted to reach the end of the story because it meant that I had to say farewell for now to the ladies from the shipyard and their friends and family.
'Christmas With The Shipyard Girls' is absolutely brilliantly written but then I wouldn't expect anything from Nancy Revell. She is a superb writer who has created a superb series and superb characters. Nancy writes so realistically and convincingly that I really did feel that I had been transported back to 1940s Sunderland with all the associated noises and smells. I have relatives who lived in 1940s Sunderland and by reading this excellent series I really feel as though I had a better understanding of how they lived and worked. For reasons that make sense to me, reading this book helped me to somehow feel closer to them. I found that I became too involved in this story to the point where I was randomly saying comments to the book as if the character in my firing line could hear me or I read something that sounded rather painful.
Reading 'Christmas With The Shipyard Girls' really took me on one hell of an emotional rollercoaster ride with all the ups and downs, highs and lows, love and hate and well you get the picture. I found that I was so in tune with the characters that I went through every emotion that the different characters were going through. This series has a bit of everything- there's drama, romance, drama, betrayal, humour, love, pessimism and optimism.
In short, 'Christmas With The Shipyard Girls' is a fantastic addition to 'The Shipyard Girls' series. This is one of those series' that just goes from strength to strength and each new book is better than the last. This series of books would make a fantastic television series particularly with the fondness for nostalgia and period drama. I cannot wait to read more about the Shipyard Girls, their lives, loves and families. Fortunately I don't have too long to wait because the next book in the series is called 'Triumph Of The Shipyard Girls' and it is due for release on 19th March 2020. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board for 'Christmas With The Shipyard Girls' can only be 5* out of 5*.

I would like to thank Rachel Kennedy for asking me to review the next instalment of The Shipyard Girls and to be apart of the blog tour.
In Christmas with the Shipyard Girls we find out about Polly's fiance who has returned home from the war. It was a smashing opening scene seeing the war from his point of view. In the last book we saw some changes in Helen and this continues into this book but she continues to be a hard worker at the shipyard, despite a new love interest. A new arrival sparks some interest for the girls and courses some dram too, Charlotte, Rosie's sister.
I adore Nancy's writing style and the way she continues to entertain her readers with a series which has amazing characters and plot lines that captures the very essence of WW2.
Nancy Revell has created a fantastic saga that could literally have fallen from the TV. As a reader you feel like you are right there watching all the action take place. The words on the pages come alive and float around you morphing into the noisy setting of the Shipyard or the streets of Sunderland and the girls having a gossip over a cuppa tea on their lunch break. Each book flows into the next without leaving you with a disappointing ending while you wait for the next book but with hope that all is well until the next book arrives.

Another cracking read in the Shipyard Girls series. As always, the characters are fantastic and the writing style draws you in. Can't wait for the next one!

I loved this book soooooooooo much. The characters were so true to life, and the descriptions of the settings were amazing. I truly felt like I was living in that area, in that time. Thank you Nancy Revell for this truly wonderful book!

This seventh book of series continues the story of a core group of women who work in the shipyards of NE England during WWII. I have not read any previous books of this series but found it easy enough to get into the relationships of the friends who work together, their families and poignant war losses. One young man comes close to death but slowly recovers, actually making it to the close of book with a Christmas wedding.
Air raids, bombings, family relationship challenges and a bit of rough and tumble living for a few. No matter the challenges the friends stick together. The first book starts the action in 1940 and this seventh book moves it up to 1942.

Thanks to Arrow Book/ Penguin Random House through Net Galley for this advanced copy that will be available Oct 24, 2019.

This has been an amazing series, and "Christmas With The Shipyard Girls" did not disappoint! The story picked up with us seeing Tommy healing from his injuries from the war and everyone picking up the pieces after another horrid air raid. There were so many happy moments of joyous reunions and tears of disappointment. I don't want to give anything away, but I personally feel this was the best book of the series, to date. However, I can't wait for the next book, as the peek has already made me desperate to read it!

It doesn't really matter that this book is a Christmas book, what matters is that I am back amongst the Shipyard Girls and I have been with them since the beginning. Sometimes it doesn't matter if you read books out of series order, but to get the real benefit of this series I implore you to read from the beginning. 

It is coming towards the end of 1942, Polly's fiance has returned and is recuperating in hospital but not at the speed that he wants especially when all he wants to do is marry his sweetheart. Trouble is Polly suddenly seems reluctant, why would she not want the wedding she has always dreamed of?

Rosie's sister, Charlotte is in Sunderland for good now. Trying to show her how tough life is in Sunderland and the threat of war has not worked on Charlotte and Rosie is resigned to the fact that she is goign to be a permanent fixture at home. How can Rosie keep her work at Lily's a secret especially when Charlotte gets to know everyone quickly and ask a lot of awkward questions. 

For Helen, once everyone's enemy she is slowly being welcomed as a friend amongst the female welders. There are still plenty of secrets and Helen knows that the actions of her mother could upset a lot of people. But as she recovers from her own personal tragedy and her friendship with Dr Parker has its ups and downs, she recognises something in someone and she just cannot place what it is. 

Of course we still hear all about Pearl, Bel and Joe, Gloria and Hope, Dorothy and Angie as well as the gentle soul of Hannah who starts to learn about what atrocities could be happening in Germany. 

The shipyard is how all these women were brought together, where friendships as well as ships are forged and welded together and where all their strength is needed both mentally and physically to survive as the war rumbles along into 1943.  

This is one of the best series of books I have read in a long time and is well written, well researched and deals with some tough subjects in such a sensitive manner that many a tear was shed in this particular novel. 

Long may this author and these books continue!

It's the first book I read in this series and won't surely be the last. It kept me hooked till the end and I turned pages as fast as I could.
I loved the likeable and well-thought cast of characters, I cared and rooted for them.
The plot is engrossing and entertaining and I liked the setting.
An excellent read, highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Loved this book. You start to really care about the people in the book and get fully involved in there stories. I will be looking out for the others in this series.

WOW what a FANTASTIC book following the shipyard girls Rosie,Gloria,Polly,Martha,Dorothy and Angie as they continue their war work at Thompsons shipyard.We start this book with Polly rushing to the hospital to find Tommy and the girls surviving the bombing,i won't say any more as it would spoil the book but Nancy Revell i cannot believe you made me cry at the end but i had an idea this was going to happen.I can highly recommend this book it's BRILLIANT 5*

Another fantastic instalment if the shipyard girls love love can’t wait for the next one. I devoured this in one sitting as usual brilliantly written with a few twists and turns. Feels like going back to visit family with Nancy Revells books.