Review: From Liverpool With Love by Lyn Andrews

Monday 6 April 2015
Title: From Liverpool With Love
Author: Lyn Andrews
Publisher: Headline
Publication Date: 4th December 2014
Pages: 400
Source: bookbridgr
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon
A heartwarming Liverpool saga from the bestselling author of THE HOUSE ON LONELY STREET and LIVERPOOL ANGELS for readers of Dilly Court and Katie Flynn

In 1920s Liverpool, Jane, her little brother Alfie and their mother Ellen have faced the horrors of the workhouse together. But when Ellen dies, two very different paths open up for the siblings.

Jane is sent to work in the Empire Laundry and builds a new life for herself with the neighbours who take her in. She finds solace there and the promise of a happy future when she falls for Joe, their eldest son.

But Alfie absconds from the workhouse and embarks on a life of crime. When their paths cross once more, Alfie turns on his sister. His plans will jeopardise every happiness she hoped for...

Family sagas set in Liverpool are some of my favourite books to read, and Lyn Andrews writes some of the most authentic and beautifully evocative novels set around the eras these books tend to take place. From Liverpool with Love opens in the 1920s, starting off in and around the Brownlow Hill area, and from the opening pages it felt as if I was walking those streets myself.

Being from Liverpool does often make me enjoy these books more. I first started reading them because of my fascination with the history of this fantastic city, and how the genre captures that time gone by. I enjoy picturing these streets, the ones that survive today, and comparing them to the ones described here. The Brownlow Hill workhouse being in an area that is vastly different today. In the beginning our characters also have a conversation about the rich, observing how they live comfortably in their big houses on Rodney Street and Abercromby Square, Rodney Street now full of doctors surgeries and dentists whilst Abercromby Square is in the heart of Liverpool university which, whilst it's great those houses are being used, it's a shame they are no longer homes.

Lyn Andrews never fails to create characters that her readers can feel real empathy for, and root for from the very beginning of the book, especially in the opening when the extreme poverty is evident and our main characters Jane and Alfie find themselves alone in the world when their mother dies. Both taking extremely different paths in life, Jane loses herself in her work, falling in love along the way whilst Alfie turns to life as a criminal, turning on his sister when they meet again and jeopardising the happiness she longs for. Lyn creates a brutally realistic picture of the time, and whilst some might look on these novels as fluffy romantic reads with a happy ever after, there's often a lot more to them than that. I actually found myself wondering several times just where the happy ever after would come from.

From Liverpool with Love is Lyn's 35th novel, which is nothing short of astounding, and it's incredible how she continues to come up with ideas and plots for her books yet she has delivered another fantastic read with this book, it's one her many fans around the world will love and I am already eagerly anticipating the next one.

4/5

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