The Women's Auxiliary Air Force Books in Order

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force series follows three young women, Evie Bishop, May and Jess, as they find their feet in the WAAF during the early years of the Second World War. It begins with The Ops Room Girls, where Evie, a gifted working-class student whose plans for Oxford have fallen apart, joins up and is posted to a fighter station on the Sussex coast. There she meets shy, awkward May and glamorous, quick-witted Jess, and the three soon become the heart of the series.

Their friendship is what holds everything together.

What makes these books interesting is the kind of work the women do. Instead of following pilots in the air, Beeby spends time in the ops room, where information has to be taken in, sorted out and acted on at speed. The women are not on the front line in the usual sense, but every shift carries real pressure because a mistake on the ground can cost lives in the sky. The station setting also lets the books show the everyday side of war, long hours, strict officers, shared billets, class differences and the strange mix of boredom and fear.

Across the trilogy, the focus shifts from one woman to another. Evie leads the first book, May comes to the front in Christmas with the Ops Room Girls, and Jess takes center stage in Victory for the Ops Room Girls. That change keeps the series fresh, because each heroine brings a different set of worries to the same wartime world. May's story leans into confidence, guilt and the effort to bring comfort during the Blitz years, while Jess's book moves the action forward into RAF Fighter Command headquarters and the unsettled period as the war nears its end.

These are home front novels, but they never feel small.

There is suspense running through all three books. In the first, the women are troubled by the sense that the Germans know too much about the base's operations. Later books keep that same feeling of uncertainty alive through personal secrets, family troubles, old relationships and the emotional strain of living under constant wartime pressure. Romance matters here, but so does duty, and so does the quiet determination it takes to keep showing up for work when the stakes are frighteningly high.

The tone is warm, readable and very character-led. If you like wartime fiction that stays close to a found family and lets each book shine a light on a different woman, this series does that very well. The Ops Room Girls, Christmas with the Ops Room Girls and Victory for the Ops Room Girls work best in order, because the friendships, promotions and personal histories build naturally from one book to the next.