Keep the
family together, that’s what her old mum always said. Put up and shut up. And
that’s what everyone else did around there.

Essex,
1959. Flo earns her money as a scrubber, cleaning the cruise ships and dreaming
of a day when she might sail away from her life in the Dwellings, the squalid
tenements of Tilbury docks. Then the Blundell family are evicted from their
home.

Fred, Flo’s
husband, finds work at Monday’s, a utopian factory town. Suddenly, it seems
like everything is on the up for Flo Blundell and her children. Even Jeanie,
Flo’s sulking teenage daughter, seems to be thawing a little in her shiny new
surroundings.

But when
Flo’s abusive husband Fred starts drinking again, he jeopardises the family’s
chance to escape poverty for good.

Flo is
faced with a terrible decision. Must she fight to keep her family together? Or
could she strive for the life of her dreams – the kind of life she could have
when her ship comes in?

I read all
kinds of books. Mystery, Crime, Thrillers, Romance, Historical.. I love all
kinds of books. So when I received ‘When My Ship Comes In’ I was intrigued by
the book description and started reading as fast as I could. 

In ‘When
My Ship Comes In’ we meet Flo. Flo is a wife, mom of three and hard worker
living in the fifties. Life is hard on Flo. Her husband Fred is an abusive,
drunk with a bad temper. But times are very different back then. Flo isn’t able
to leave her husband, and must endear the things he does. But when Fred loses
his job again, he is forced to leave the town he knows to find other work.
Thankfully Fred finds a job at Monday’s. There everything is almost too good to
be true. At Monday’s they get work for Flo and her girls too, and a nice home
where they can live with luxuries Flo and her family has never known. But soon
Fred is getting out of control again, and Flo and her family can lose
everything they’ve worked for.

Well, this
book wasn’t a feel good one for sure. I definitely had a hard time reading this
story at times, but I also couldn’t stop until I knew how this story would end.
Woman definitely had a hard time back then, and I can’t imagine living the way
Flo did. There where moments while I was reading this book, I wanted to scream
at Flo to stand up to her husband. But I realize times where very different
back then. It’s hard to understand though..

I was
happy to read when Flo seemed to grow as a person, and finally started to
realize she had to change their life. In the end she did what she had to do,
and I actually felt proud of her.

Sue
Wilsher definitely has a way of writing, and I’m amazed this book was her first
novel. Although I couldn’t really relate to the characters in this book, since
my life has been so much easier, I wanted to know what was going to happen to
them. And I really felt like I was a part of the story.

I enjoyed
reading this book through Flo and her daughters Jeanie’s eyes. They didn’t
realize but they were really alike, and in the end they were both very strong. 

‘When My
Ship Comes In’ was a story I won’t forget for a while. And I realize even more
how lucky I am to be able to life the way I do.

Sue
Wilsher grew up in South Essex near a shoe factory and the Thames estuary. The
factory housed its workers, including Sue’s grandparents and mother. Sue’s
debut novel When My Ship Comes In is set in 1950s Essex and centres around a
downtrodden docker’s wife who joins a young wives club and is challenged to
train for a ‘man’s job’. She must decide whether to sacrifice her dreams of a
better life to keep her family together. Sue now lives in Kent with her family.
Her second novel, due to be released in 2017, is also set in fifties Essex.

For more
information about Sue Wilsher please visit her on Twitter and Facebook.

I received this book from the Little, Brown Book Group in exchange for my honest review.