The Light Over London

by Julia Kelly

Lucy Brownhill (Narrator)

A forgotten diary, a forbidden love affair, a desperate fight to save her country

2017 When Cara Hargreaves discovers a diary from the 1940s, its contents will change her life forever...

1941 When Louise Keene meets dashing RAF pilot, Paul Bolton, she is swept off her feet. Then Paul is sent to war and Louise, defying her mother's wishes, ends up a gunner girl in London.

Watching the pitch-black skies for bombers, Louise finds comfort recording her dreams in her diary. And as Cara reads her words, decades later, she learns that hope can be found even in the darkest of times, she just needs to take a chance...

Discover the story of the remarkable World War Two gunner girls in this entrancing and heartbreaking novel, perfect for fans of Martha Hall Kelly's The Lilac Girls and Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale.

Praise for The Light Over London

'a heartbreaking romance that will grip you from the very beginning.' Washington Post

'Kelly deftly balances intrigue with mystery and historical detail in her latest novel... A charming imagining of the historical gunner girls.' Kirkus Review

'Kelly weaves an intricate, tender, and convincing tale of war and romance with skill and suspense.' Publishers Weekly

• ISBN10: 1508267464
• ISBN13: 9781508267461
• Publish Date: 8 January 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[elysium]

3,5 stars

Cara is an antique dealer who, after a recent divorce, is trying to rebuild her life. She finds an old diary from the time of WWII and is determined to find who the diary belongs to and wanting to return it. During the WWII Louise is a gunner girl for the British Army. She met and fell in love with a flight lieutenant who gets sent off into war. Soon after Louise runs away from home and her difficult relationship with her mother.

The book has a dual timeline: Cara in the present and Louise in the past. Usually, I’m more drawn to the past timeline but here I didn’t really have a preference. Bit by bit we learn what happened that led to Cara’s divorce. She’s close to her grandmother, Iris, who served in WWII herself. Iris has never talked about the war and changes the subject when it’s brought up and Cara is very curious to know more. Especially now that it seems there are some family secrets.

We follow Louise’s journey from home to the army and how she became one of the Ack-Ack girls. I wasn’t a fan of Louise’s fighter pilot Paul and knew from the start something was up. The plot was a little predictable at times, but I did enjoy the book.

This was was my first book from the author and I’m looking forward to reading more.