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emmacr2024's review against another edition
3.0
Just One More Day is the first book I have read by Jessica Blair and it started out well and promised to be an enjoyable read but by the end I was struggling to turn the pages to get it finished. I am a big fan of historical fiction and normally love family sagas set during WW1 or WW2. This is not a family saga but I did not let this put me off as it was centred around women who work for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (W.A.A.F) and their lives spent on an airbase as they help with intelligence for bomber crews as they risk life and limb to serve their country. Throughout the book I really couldn't quite pinpoint why this wasn't hitting the mark for me as it did have all the right ingredients for an interesting read. Only when I had finished reading did I discover that Jessica Blair is actually the pseudonym for Bill Spence and then alot became clear for me. I have no problem reading books written by men under a female name in fact one of my favourite Irish women's authors is actually a man but in the case of Just One More Day the author really couldn't get inside the head of a women and bring forth all the emotions experienced during the war of love and loss instead only the surface was scratched when there was so much more to explore and delve into.
Set just at the outbreak of WW2 Carolyn Maddison lives in the small town of Nunthorpe in Middlesborough. She has had a pleasant upbringing and wanted for nothing as her father Guy is a solicitor and mother Sally a housewife. Her brother Alastair volunteers for the R.A.F and when Carolynn finishes her studies at just 17 she volunteers for the W.A.A.F despite her parent's obvious hesitations. What struck me initially was that at such a young age Carolyn was very brave to volunteer and for something that was highly skilled and involved alot of training and sacrifice when she could have easily just joined the Land Girls and not been at the forefront of the action but yet helping out in some way. As she embarks upon her initial training she meets Lucy and would you believe almost as soon as they have met they are firm friends and get posted together. Lucy was a nice character but it just seemed all that convenient that the two girls would bond so quickly and that their superiors would post them in the exact same place even after training.
Throughout the novel as the girls progress in their training until they are posted to Waddington we are introduced to so many characters, in fact way too many that it was hard to keep track of who was who and what their job was. At one point over the course of just several pages we are met with an influx of characters, where they came from, what they did and their titles. For me it was too much too soon and just utterly confusing keeping track. Carolyn meets a man on the train as she begins her journey, who we then presume will be her love interest but before we know it he has left the picture and Rick and his flight crew are on the scene. I know sometimes I have minor gripes about knowing way too early who the female character will end up with but in this case it's the exact opposite. There were too many men/romantic interests coming and going that we never got to know them before they had left the scene and the women had moved on to someone else. I wanted to get inside the women's heads and experience how they felt for these men and for the important job they were doing and this in all honesty was sadly lacking along with any real heartfelt emotion.
Something else which really bothered me was all the technical jargon used throughout the book in order to explain military aircraft. For a book that is aimed at the women's fiction market this was not really necessary and all too often I found myself glossing over these parts as they were far to in depth. Yes, I realise it is historical fiction but achieving the right balance between detail and emotion is essential in this genre and here it did not happen. Some of the terms I didn't understand and I think alot of readers would feel the same as you would need to have a special interest in this area.
Initially I liked Carolyn, she seemed brave and ambitious but at nearly halfway through I wanted to give her a good thump and tell her to toughen up as this was the life she had chosen. She knew what her job entailed and its consequences and she needed to just get on with it. Carolyn also seemed too picky and childish in her relationships, she let an incident at the beginning of the war affect everything and all the decisions she made. We never really got inside her head, she says she has been hurt and that's about it we never go beyond the surface of her emotions and feelings and I just wanted more from her. Whereas the main male character Rick came across as petty, jealous and selfish in his relationships but was master in the air and someone to whom his crew looked up to and admired but still I couldn't warm to him.
Every character seemed to fall in and out of love so quickly and as they seemed to be on leave an awful lot there must have been plenty of time for romance. Would they really have gotten as much leave as mentioned in the book at a time when Britain was doing its best to defeat Hitler? By the end I just didn't care who ended up with who and yes the book did show the harsh reality of war as some bomber crews did fail to return from overnight missions but the overall it lacked any real emotional development and I'm sorry to say left me disenchanted with the whole story and its outcome.
Just One More Day was different from any other historical world war two fiction novel I had read before as it focused on just the flight bomber aspect instead of the overall picture but unfortunately it just wasn't quite for me. Aspects were just too impersonal (the characters relationships) and others way too technical for what was supposed to a wartime romance. There was far too much repetition of the day to day routines at the airbase and I know this was probably the case at the time but it didn't make for very enjoyable reading and in my case I won't be rushing to read another book by Jessica Blair although I'm sure the fans this author already has will not give up just yet and eagerly wait for the next release.
I received Just One More Day from Little Brown Book Group on NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Set just at the outbreak of WW2 Carolyn Maddison lives in the small town of Nunthorpe in Middlesborough. She has had a pleasant upbringing and wanted for nothing as her father Guy is a solicitor and mother Sally a housewife. Her brother Alastair volunteers for the R.A.F and when Carolynn finishes her studies at just 17 she volunteers for the W.A.A.F despite her parent's obvious hesitations. What struck me initially was that at such a young age Carolyn was very brave to volunteer and for something that was highly skilled and involved alot of training and sacrifice when she could have easily just joined the Land Girls and not been at the forefront of the action but yet helping out in some way. As she embarks upon her initial training she meets Lucy and would you believe almost as soon as they have met they are firm friends and get posted together. Lucy was a nice character but it just seemed all that convenient that the two girls would bond so quickly and that their superiors would post them in the exact same place even after training.
Throughout the novel as the girls progress in their training until they are posted to Waddington we are introduced to so many characters, in fact way too many that it was hard to keep track of who was who and what their job was. At one point over the course of just several pages we are met with an influx of characters, where they came from, what they did and their titles. For me it was too much too soon and just utterly confusing keeping track. Carolyn meets a man on the train as she begins her journey, who we then presume will be her love interest but before we know it he has left the picture and Rick and his flight crew are on the scene. I know sometimes I have minor gripes about knowing way too early who the female character will end up with but in this case it's the exact opposite. There were too many men/romantic interests coming and going that we never got to know them before they had left the scene and the women had moved on to someone else. I wanted to get inside the women's heads and experience how they felt for these men and for the important job they were doing and this in all honesty was sadly lacking along with any real heartfelt emotion.
Something else which really bothered me was all the technical jargon used throughout the book in order to explain military aircraft. For a book that is aimed at the women's fiction market this was not really necessary and all too often I found myself glossing over these parts as they were far to in depth. Yes, I realise it is historical fiction but achieving the right balance between detail and emotion is essential in this genre and here it did not happen. Some of the terms I didn't understand and I think alot of readers would feel the same as you would need to have a special interest in this area.
Initially I liked Carolyn, she seemed brave and ambitious but at nearly halfway through I wanted to give her a good thump and tell her to toughen up as this was the life she had chosen. She knew what her job entailed and its consequences and she needed to just get on with it. Carolyn also seemed too picky and childish in her relationships, she let an incident at the beginning of the war affect everything and all the decisions she made. We never really got inside her head, she says she has been hurt and that's about it we never go beyond the surface of her emotions and feelings and I just wanted more from her. Whereas the main male character Rick came across as petty, jealous and selfish in his relationships but was master in the air and someone to whom his crew looked up to and admired but still I couldn't warm to him.
Every character seemed to fall in and out of love so quickly and as they seemed to be on leave an awful lot there must have been plenty of time for romance. Would they really have gotten as much leave as mentioned in the book at a time when Britain was doing its best to defeat Hitler? By the end I just didn't care who ended up with who and yes the book did show the harsh reality of war as some bomber crews did fail to return from overnight missions but the overall it lacked any real emotional development and I'm sorry to say left me disenchanted with the whole story and its outcome.
Just One More Day was different from any other historical world war two fiction novel I had read before as it focused on just the flight bomber aspect instead of the overall picture but unfortunately it just wasn't quite for me. Aspects were just too impersonal (the characters relationships) and others way too technical for what was supposed to a wartime romance. There was far too much repetition of the day to day routines at the airbase and I know this was probably the case at the time but it didn't make for very enjoyable reading and in my case I won't be rushing to read another book by Jessica Blair although I'm sure the fans this author already has will not give up just yet and eagerly wait for the next release.
I received Just One More Day from Little Brown Book Group on NetGalley in return for an honest review.
erinb_'s review against another edition
2.0
I’ve dnf-Ed this book on page 105. I usually love reading these books but I just do not like how it is written. All the more interesting parts are happening in like “cut-scenes” and so much is happening but I have no idea what time/day it is and introducing so many characters with not much description on them so I can’t keep track. I just simply couldn’t get into the book. It feels harsh but I don’t want to continue to read something that I’m not enjoying.
juliwi's review against another edition
3.0
I was offered this book for review by Piatkus Books in exchange for an honest review. I was interested in reading this book because I though the context was absolutely fascinating.
The main thing I enjoyed about this novel was its main character's potential. Carolyn is quite headstrong and very convinced about what she wants. Although she's not too proud to ask for advice she is very determined to make it in her own way, and this determination is one of the most important things that (female) characters need nowadays. The World Wars are a time which seem to come with very strict stereotypes. The men are out fighting while the women are at home, writing letters and despairing. What I loved about Just One More Day was that Jessica Blair took these stereotypes and turns them upside down. In 2013 it was revealed that 'Jessica Blair' is actually 90 year-old WWII veteran Bill Spence, who has been a full-time writer since 1977, writing almost seventy books under various pseudonyms. Not only is it amazing to see Spence stepping into the limelight, but for me it also added something extra to the portrayals of the characters, since clearly he had hands-on experience in this time.
However, there were a few things in the book which put me off a bit while reading, such as the love-at-first-sight-trope. I understand that this is a romance novel and that therefore romance is a must. I have nothing against romance and very much enjoy it if it is well-developed. Love at first sight, however, in a time as chaotic and terrifying as the Blitz doesn't necessarily strike me as the best angle for a romance. Alongside this, I felt that some of Carolyn's potential was wasted on her chasing after romance rather than helping the war effort etc. Although the awkward timing is something that is discussed, I would have wished for something else. This wasn't helped by the fact that some of the dialogue fell flat for me and didn't strike me as realistic. Of course I'm not a young woman in the 1940s, but there are certain things which simply wouldn't happen or be said the way they were in Just One More Day.
One of the things that struck me was the way in which Blair/Spence managed to describe something as hectic and stressful as a bombing station in a way that made the reader feel like they understood what was happening. However, on the other hand the book also lacked suspense because of the almost "tame" descriptions of the violence. At times, I feel that Blair/Spence could have gone into a lot more depth about his experiences and the experiences of others during WWII. However, Blair/Spence's writing style was very descriptive and fun and easy to read. The story flowed well, almost too well at times, and the family scenes towards the beginning of the book were some of my favourites because Blair/Spence really managed to capture some of the affection of the family circle.
I enjoyed reading Just One More Day, despite the fact that it was not entirely to my taste. The main characters are fun and have a lot of potential. Overall, this is a fun book to spend some time with without getting too deeply into anything. I recommend it to fans of romance and light war literature. If you're looking for an in-depth war account, Just One More Day is not for you.
The main thing I enjoyed about this novel was its main character's potential. Carolyn is quite headstrong and very convinced about what she wants. Although she's not too proud to ask for advice she is very determined to make it in her own way, and this determination is one of the most important things that (female) characters need nowadays. The World Wars are a time which seem to come with very strict stereotypes. The men are out fighting while the women are at home, writing letters and despairing. What I loved about Just One More Day was that Jessica Blair took these stereotypes and turns them upside down. In 2013 it was revealed that 'Jessica Blair' is actually 90 year-old WWII veteran Bill Spence, who has been a full-time writer since 1977, writing almost seventy books under various pseudonyms. Not only is it amazing to see Spence stepping into the limelight, but for me it also added something extra to the portrayals of the characters, since clearly he had hands-on experience in this time.
However, there were a few things in the book which put me off a bit while reading, such as the love-at-first-sight-trope. I understand that this is a romance novel and that therefore romance is a must. I have nothing against romance and very much enjoy it if it is well-developed. Love at first sight, however, in a time as chaotic and terrifying as the Blitz doesn't necessarily strike me as the best angle for a romance. Alongside this, I felt that some of Carolyn's potential was wasted on her chasing after romance rather than helping the war effort etc. Although the awkward timing is something that is discussed, I would have wished for something else. This wasn't helped by the fact that some of the dialogue fell flat for me and didn't strike me as realistic. Of course I'm not a young woman in the 1940s, but there are certain things which simply wouldn't happen or be said the way they were in Just One More Day.
One of the things that struck me was the way in which Blair/Spence managed to describe something as hectic and stressful as a bombing station in a way that made the reader feel like they understood what was happening. However, on the other hand the book also lacked suspense because of the almost "tame" descriptions of the violence. At times, I feel that Blair/Spence could have gone into a lot more depth about his experiences and the experiences of others during WWII. However, Blair/Spence's writing style was very descriptive and fun and easy to read. The story flowed well, almost too well at times, and the family scenes towards the beginning of the book were some of my favourites because Blair/Spence really managed to capture some of the affection of the family circle.
I enjoyed reading Just One More Day, despite the fact that it was not entirely to my taste. The main characters are fun and have a lot of potential. Overall, this is a fun book to spend some time with without getting too deeply into anything. I recommend it to fans of romance and light war literature. If you're looking for an in-depth war account, Just One More Day is not for you.
gilljames's review against another edition
4.0
Lovely story and plenty of pace. I'm sure Jessica Blair has researched her work well. I'm rather surprised though by just how much leave the WAAF girls had. I found some of the dialogue a little irritating - Blair missed the opportunity of making speech seem natural by using the normal shorter versions e.g "I have" instead of "I've".
debrasbookcafe's review against another edition
5.0
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