An Army of Smiles — Grace Thompson

  Three girls go to war and find true friendship in this Second World War saga from the popular author of the Holidays at Home and Pendragon Island series.
 
Ethel runs away from a violent father, a man so fierce he beat her fiancé senseless. Gorgeous Kate leaves her doting parents and their grocery store. Shy and sheltered Rosie, who has grown up with her grandmother, decides to escape her sleepy hometown.
 
All three join the NAAFI, determined to do their bit against Hitler. Through the travails of war, they become each other's new family. Through desperate love affairs, charming pilots, unplanned pregnancies and postings around war-torn Europe, they resolve to stick together. But will the war tear them apart?
 
And when the fighting draws to an end they realize the world -- and their lives -- can never be the same again . . .