It’s 1943. Nell Reilly is ready to fight with everything she has for a better future. Brought up in London’s tough East End, she is fiercely determined to keep the promise she made to her little sister Jo to build a new life for them one day. Until a chance meeting changes everything…
Absorbed in her work with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, the last thing Nell is looking for is love, but tall, broad-shouldered Tom Hunter stops her in her tracks.
Tom is her wayward brother Frank’s new right-hand man in his black-market operations, and Nell knows from bitter experience the risks of falling for a man like that.
But when she witnesses his unexpected kindness and sees how he cares for Jo, she realises that Tom has made an impression she can’t forget, no matter how hard she tries…
But Tom has a secret, one he’s finding harder and harder to keep. And when Nell finally discovers that he is an undercover police officer, she also learns something that makes her heart stop: his cover is blown and he’s in terrible danger.
As London prepares for another night of air raids, Nell races through the blackout to find Tom and warn him. Can she reach him in time to save his life? And as bombs crash down over the East End, will their love survive to fight another day?
A Wartime Promise for the East End Girls by Jean Fullerton is published on 29 May, 2026. It’s the third book in her East End Girls series.
If you enjoy historical fiction, there’s much more in Historia’s round-up of more than 150 books coming out in 2026.
