A really enjoyable historical thriller with various twists and turns. Well constructed and eye-opening as to what life as like for immigrants in 1950s London with vivid descriptions. Recommended.

Switching between the first person point of view of Dina and the third person point of view of her friend, Bebba, She Came To Stay cleverly combines two elements. The first is a vivid picture of daily immigrant life in 1950s London: the poor housing, the unstable work, and the streets filled with smog that has the ability to seep through into buildings. Added to that are the challenges of learning a new language and integrating into a culture very different from village life back in Cyprus. Indeed, Dina’s over-protective brother, Peter, clings to what he sees as his traditional role, arranging a suitable marriage for Dina whereas she views their move as an opportunity for independence.

It’s no wonder that Dina is attracted to the free-spirited and unpredictable Bebba. There’s a particularly amusing scene in which Bebba and Dina hoodwink the assistants in a famous department store. I also enjoyed seeing Dina’s growing delight at the buzz of Soho life – the coffee bars, the jazz clubs and the colourful characters who work, perform, or occupy the tables at the Pelican nightclub. The author certainly creates a great sense of time and place throughout the book.

Things start to unravel when Dina, having introduced Bebba to Peter, begins to feel increasingly isolated. “They were the two people I loved the most in the world, and yet when they were together something unnerved me. What was it? I couldn’t decide. And then…it struck me. They were behaving as if I didn’t exist.” Eventually, what started as japes turns into something much darker and more dangerous. It’s at this point the thriller element of the book comes to the fore as Bebba’s past threatens to catch up with her. The story is increasingly punctuated by moments of melodrama justifying the publisher’s description of She Came To Stay as “a page-turning novel of friendship, secrets and lies” but at times just a little beyond credibility for me.

The character and setting of this novel burst into life within pages of this novel about Greek immigrants settling in a London’s Soho in the early 1950s. We follow Dina Demetriou, newly arrived from Greece and using her skills as a seamstress to work on costumes for the Pelican Review. Here she forms a friendship with Bebba. Blonde, mischievous and fond of adventure, Bebba seems dazzling to Dina and unlike any Greek woman she has ever met. She soon gets to know the fashionable shops, bars and other places to be soon. However, just as the London smog obscures the city, Bebba has a mysterious secret. If it comes to light it won’t just affect Bebba but all those around her. Will Dina’s exciting, new London life be over before it’s begun? Or can age avoid the fall out, taking risks or protect the future she wants?

The novel put me in mind of Adriana Trigiani’s novels about Italian immigrants in New York and also Louise Hare’s This Lovely City, which follows Windrush immigrants in the same time period, This was also a cracking good read, as the author brought to life this time and place so vividly I kept wanting to pick it up and return to the smoky clubs, the smog filled streets and the dazzling costumes Dina is working on. In the 50s this one square mile seemed endless with its maze of streets and drinking joints springing up on every corner. These years cemented a seedy reputation for strip clubs, glamour and the world of celebrities mixing with gangsters and criminals. Dina seems very innocent to survive this unscathed, but it’s her brother Peter who really succumbs to the lifestyle and starts to owe money for gambling. Dina would like to be free of his influence He’s not bringing money in so starts a second job working in a coffee house which is where she first meets Bebba. Dina needs to get away from the drudgery of her life and Bebba provides that escape. Until Peter and Bebba meet and their become turned upside down.

Bebba stood out to me most, because she can be unscrupulous and play games to get what she wants, but still managed to be likeable. Even in her scheming she doesn’t forget Dina, and is a real driving force to change her own life and better herself. She absolutely wants her new life to be a success and never loses sight of that. She brings many of the novels twists and turns too. I enjoyed the underlying themes of British xenophobia towards immigrants and the aspects of women’s liberation touched on in the novel too. This was a well drawn piece of historical fiction with issues that still resonate today. I felt like I was there and for me it was a brilliant escape from moving house in a lockdown!

A good read about friendship and betrayal and greed. A great description of life in 1950s London and some interesting and unsavoury characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy.

Dina is a Greek Cypriot who has come to London in the 1950s along with her brother. Living in a dingy bedsit and working in a cafe her life is restricted and her brother's gambling means there is little chance of bettering herself. Then she meets the glamorous Bebba and this puts in motion of series of events that will turn Dina's life upside down.
I did like the setting of this book, both in terms of the Greek Cypriot immigrant community and also 1950s London. The restrictive and chaperoned life that Dina has to endure, the lack of independence and the naivety of her character are well described. Similarly the smog, the poverty and the greyness of post-Way London are imagined well. My issue with the book was in terms of the characters being very slightly drawn and the plot lurching towards the melodramatic in many places with a very obvious and rather cliched ending. However, it's a pleasant enough piece of escapism!

She came to Stay is a terrific piece of fiction inspired by the author’s own family background.
This is an atmospheric novel set mainly in Soho in the early 1950’s when London was plagued by smog, providing the perfect backdrop for the storyline. Brother and sister Peter and Dina are trying to make a new life for themselves in England although times are hard. From the outset you gain a good understanding of their differing characters, sensing Dina’s desire to one day escape the clutches of her older brother who appears to be a good for nothing scoundrel, rather too fond of gambling. As a skilled seamstress Dina is overjoyed to find work at the glamorous yet seedy nightclub The Pelican, desperate to supplement her meagre wages from her coffee house job and it is here she meets Bebba, a fellow Greek Cypriot. Bebba oozes sophistication and glamour and mystery and adds some much needed excitement to Dina’s life that is all hard work and no play. Will Bebba prove to be a true friend Dina can trust or is she all smoke and mirrors? After Bebba meets Peter, this becomes a turning point in their friendship, where nothing will ever be the same again and lives are changed forever.
This is a novel not only about friendship but of greed and deception and whilst Bebba and Peter are both unscrupulous individuals I thought they were fantastic characters, seemingly well suited in their conniving ways. Peter though is weak willed and unworthy of his sister’s love, quite despicable, whereas Bebba is strong willed and focused and determined to get her own way in life. On the other hand Dina, hard working and equally blessed with a strong will is smart and never loses sight of her desire to escape her humble beginnings in a foreign and sometimes hostile country. She’s a force to be reckoned with and I admired her tenacity.
Well paced and extremely easy to read, I was sucked into this storyline from the beginning and loved every turn of events, so that this felt like three people playing a game of one upmanship, like cat and mouse. Except the stakes are high and who will win? With the storyline taking the reader from the fog filled streets of Soho to Liverpool and Cyprus, this is a brilliantly written mystery.
Highly recommend and if you like Rachel Rhys then this is a book for you.
My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. Well researched, it was set in a time period (1950’s London), and told from the points of view of recent immigrants, in a way I’d not come across before. It was also an intriguing and unusual plot! I loved the development of the main character, Dina, and without any spoilers, it was a brilliant ending. A really enjoyable read!

Teeming with period atmosphere but also emotional truth, this debut has all the ingredients of a women's fiction bestseller and is beautifully written. A great addition to the stories of immigration which have been sidelined for too long.

I found this such a gripping read. This book is set in Soho London 1952. Dina Demetriou hopes she can start a new life away from Cyprus. Lots of research in entailed in this book amd has everything from friendship to love and loss. I can highly recommend this book. You will be hooked from start to finish.

London in the 1950's a young greek cypriot woman called Dina lives with her brother who wants to see her married off,but Dina wants to live her own life and when her friend Bebba moves in with them things change.Bebba has her own secrets that change things for them all.5*

Historical fiction at its best a story of friendship betrayal a tie gone by.Iwasdrawn back in time into their world lives an engrossing that kept me up reading.#hodder&stoughton

I found this to be a very enjoyable read. Little bit of a slow burn at first but even that was interesting. Lots of lovely detail about Soho in the 50s.

Dina, a young Greek Cypriot woman, lives with her brother Peter in a rundown boarding house in London. She works in a cafe but dreams of a better life. Peter keeps her on a tight rein and wants her married off. Dina has other plans. When she gets herself an evening job sewing costumes at the Pelican nightclub, she meets and befriends Bebba, another girl from Cyprus. Bebba is glamorous and charismatic. She takes Dina to clubs in Soho and encourages her to live her own life, keeping secrets from Peter.

Bebba moves in with Peter and Dina into a larger flat on the ground floor. But Bebba is not all she seems. She has secrets which catch up with her and things will soon change drastically for all three. Dina's hopes for a new life may be shattered by the events that follow.

I was gripped by this story and was always happy to get back to it. Characterisation is excellent and background details of peasouper fogs and London buses really set the scene.

Set in smog-filled 1950s' London, She Came To Stay is the tale of two Greek Cypriot siblings who have moved to the UK to make a better life.
The characters of Dina & Peter are beautifully drawn, pulling you in from the get-go and the descriptions of post-war London are thoroughly evocative - mentions of the original Pat Vals and bomb damaged Soho ring so true.
A cracking storyline packed wirh secrets, as well as unexpected twists and turns make this, cliche or no, a proper page-turner.
Also, despite being set almost 70 years ago, the themes of xenophobia and women's struggle for equality that run through the novel continue to resonate.
I thoroughly recommend She Came To Stay and look forward to reading more from Eleni Kyriacou.