The Girls From The Beach
The Girls From The Beach
Aria and Aries Books
Kit, Red, Roxy, and Gail are nurses from different lived experiences stationed in France during WWII in the 45th Field Hospital. There are risks to being a nurse in war time, more risk than in peace time, and for these ladies those risks might be even more dangerous than most nurses faced. What happens when you are given a direct order by your Commanding Officer to follow an unknown soldier and no questions are allowed?! The Girls From The Beach is that vehicle to tell the nurses story.
There are few stories in the world that haven’t been told. The Girls From the Beach is one of those stories that I’ve never read before and they need to be told more often. We read about nurses, we read about WWII, and we read about the heroic actions of the soldiers, which is fantastic, but we never read of nurses who not only did their job in the field, but also risked the highest dangers behind enemy lines and are as heroic as the soldiers. I was pleased to find a place for those women to be celebrated here in Andie Newton’s The Girls From The Beach. This book would make an excellent television mini series or movie!
Kit, (Evelyn, as we find out her name in future pages,) is the type of woman who gets into trouble a lot because of her gumption and creative ways of looking at keeping life a little interesting while dealing with the sadness and stress of working on soldiers who have lost limbs, hope and more times than she wants to count — life. Red is the strong one, the instant best friend of Kit, she, in a lot of ways is the mother of the group. She is kind, caring and unselfish. Roxy, the tough one, the darling of the soldiers, the ones that can lift their spirits and help them leave the world feeling as if they are the most cared for person in the world. Gail, is the new nurse, freshly arrived from General in her starched Whites looking like a beauty queen. These are the women of The Girls From The Beach. Andie Newton’s woman are brave, strong, quirky, and one of them has a secret that she doesn’t want the others to find out. Could this secret cause more danger, is she the danger herself, or will the secret help during the war? A deeply emotional story ensues even in the early pages of her new novel. I suggest you keep the tissues close by. I know I did.
The supporting cast of characters are richly woven into the story adding to the drama, the realities that the nurses experience, and the darkness that they encounter are ones that I’ve always wanted to know how was dealt with during war times. I can’t go any further without spoiling the plot, so I won’t. I just know that if you love Historical Fiction, if you want to read a story not told of the women in war times and want a feeling of inspiration, introspection, and a little intense connection between people told through an intricately intriguing story telling, this is your book.
The Girls From The Beach is a deeply researched story one that you can tell the author poured her soul into and in-between the lines is empathy for the roller coaster emotions that war can leave behind when its all over and life gets intertwined into those haunting experiences.
Order this book from your local independent book store, or borrow it from your local library. I tell you, you won’t want to miss meeting these women!
4.5 Stars
for a unique angle to a story and the ability to reach into a readers soul and pull out every emotion imaginable!
I reached out to Andie Newton to get little more personal about The Girls From The Beach and was thrilled to be able to to ask six questions some of which are fun, interesting, personal tidbits about the author, herself. I hope you enjoy our little interaction. Read on….
1: What character did you feel closest to in The Girls on the Beach?
That is tough question. I feel I’m close to all of them, especially since each woman has their own story and hurdles to overcome. I’d say Kit, if I had to choose. I really love Evelyn, the main character in the later years.
2: What drives you so that you can continue writing when you are at a stall?
After I complete a book, I’m pretty much exhausted. I usually take a break, a week or two before I start with the edits. But while writing the book… well, that is always an emotional journey for me that includes days where I can’t write at all. That is my sign to step away and get a clear head. I run trail a lot. That helps.
3: What would you chose if you could pick the theme song for The Girls from the Beach???
There always seems to be a song I listen to the most while writing. With The Girls from the Beach, it was Time from the Inception soundtrack. When I listen to it now, while writing my current novel, I quickly change it because all I can think about are the girls from The Girls from the Beach.
4: Who or what inspires you?
So many things. Movies mostly when it comes to different scenes (the car ride from hell in the 80’s flick The Sure Thing inspired Adele and Marguerite’s car ride in The Girl from Vichy). But also articles I stumble upon. In regards to The Girls from the Beach, I read a lot of articles and diaries from the nurses who served, so that offered up a lot of inspiration.
5: Which Fictional Character would you like to meet in person?
I love 80’s/90’s comedies. So, Charley’s mother from So, I Married and Axe Murderer.
6. Do you have a bestie that inspired you to write Red’s personality?
All my friends, past and current have inspired the characters in The Girls from the Beach. With Red, I thought of my childhood friend Michelle. I’ve known her for over 30 years and she has Red’s strength. She’s also a caretaker, much like Red watches over the girls and takes care of them, worries about them. In many ways me and Michelle were Kit and Red to some degree when we were younger. I was always coming up with some adventure or scheme and she was always there taking the hit when my ideas blew up in our faces.
Dear Reader I have two Q’s for you too: Are you planning on reading The Girls From The Beach? And for fun: What fictional character would you like to meet in person? Leave a response if you’d like in the comments. I would really love to know who you would pick.
Me, I would love to meet Sooky St. James from Gilmore Girls, or bookish character: Huck Finn, from Tom Sawyer. I find I would love to have his adventures more than Tom’s because Huck doesn’t manipulate people to do what he doesn’t want to do himself. Huck is quirky, fun loving and innocent in that trouble maker sort of way. I find him endearing. I would really love to know if he would be that way off the page. I guess it’s safe to say, I love quirkiness.
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