I'm a big fan of Mary Wood's books and I've been eagerly awaiting The Brave Daughters as it's the final book in the four that make up The Girls Who Went to War series. There's plenty of back story in this one so if you haven't read the other three books then you can read this perfectly well as a standalone, although I would really recommend starting at the beginning to get the full build up to all that happens in this one.

Such a lot happened in the previous instalments and there are many tangled relationships stemming from Flors, Ella and Mags, the original 'Girls' who nursed during World War I. I was really pleased to see their family trees at the beginning of The Brave Daughters and I referred to it a lot in the first quarter or so of the book as there are lots of characters to keep track of. This meant that I got off to a slower start than normal but then something so shocking and explosive takes place that I was then well and truly in the thick of the action and I didn't want to put the book down.

The brave daughters are the offspring of the original characters and, just like their mothers, they find themselves in the thick of war, this time World War II. This takes us not only around the UK, but to France where the Resistance are fighting in secret against the enemy, and also to Singapore where two of the girls are nursing. As always, Wood doesn't hold back and there are many terrible events to test the characters. But her distinctive warmth also returns and she drew me completely into their lives.

This is actually my favourite of the four books. I think it's probably because of the many different strands and the different settings which made it so fast paced and exciting. I was rooting for all of the characters and as usual they made me smile and they made me cry.

Mary Wood is one of my favourite writers. I'm never disappointed by her books. I'm sorry to see the end of this series (perhaps the daughters could have daughters!) but always excited to see what comes next. ( )