The Victory Club by Robin Lee Hatcher

This story illustrates how WWII turned life upside down for many people- including those waiting here for loved ones fighting somewhere in the world, either North Africa or England, Europe or the Pacific.

Margo and Dottie, Lucy (Anderson) and Penelope worked at Gowen Field in a defense plant. They rode a bus together, worked together and ate lunch together as they formed supportive relationships. Margo's son, Greg, was fighting somewhere in the world. Dottie and Greg were engaged. What Margo did not know, yet, was that Greg fathered Dottie's child before going to war. Lucy's husband, Richard, is also fighting somewhere and Lucy is more lonely than she realizes. When the owner of the grocery market innocently approached Lucy about becoming friends, things got out of hand. Penelope sees her friends and total strangers doing their part for the war effort either fighting or rationing or collecting things like rubber. Her husband, Stewart, is home with a hurting back. He is not even working at a defense plant. Penelope wonders if his back is really hurt or if he is a coward. Pen is very frustrated with him, the children and her life. These four friends have each other for support but is that enough? Communicating with their loved ones is difficult knowing the censors will be reading very private messages. And some things may be better left unsaid in a letter anyway. Margo, Dottie and Lucy were feeling their way, doing what they could to survive and keep hope alive. Pen was more lost in her feelings and behavior. But they were all friends and so they tried to help each other as much as possible.

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

Penelope Keeling, daughter of painter Lawrence Stern, mother of three grown children: Nancy, Olivia and Noel, discharges herself from the hospital after suffering a heart attack at the age of 64. Although she feels there is nothing wrong with her, this brush with her mortality sets two of her children to thinking about their inheritance. Olivia, more concerned about her mother living alone than caring about money, unexpectedly finds the perfect solution when an old lover of hers dies. She arranges for his 18 year old daughter, Antonia, to stay with Penelope.

When one of Laurence Sterne’s paintings comes up for sale at about half a million pounds, Nancy and Noel, feeling the monetary strain of living outside their means begin to look with greedy eyes at the Shell Seekers, the only painting Penelope owns by her father. But the Shell Seekers is more than just a painting; it is a tie to the past.

Set in parts of England and Cornwall, the Shell Seekers takes us through the events of Penelope’s life from the heart aching destruction of World War II to present day. Following the weave of her life is the Shell Seekers; a link between past, present and future that just might tear this family apart.

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