*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.
Title: The Only Light In London
Author: Lily Graham
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: ★★★★
She took him in when no one else would. She didn’t expect
to fall in love…
London, 1939. When Finley offers
her spare room to refugee Sebastien, she sees relief in his haunted
eyes. Forced to flee the hatred in Germany, Sebastien has been desperately
lonely in his adopted country. Finley lost her father in the last war and feels
a stab of empathy for the pain of this thin stranger, separated from his loved
ones, far away from home.
At first, Finley and Sebastien are like ships in the
night, exchanging bashful goodnights in the corridor. But Finley quickly
realises that Sebastien is too terrified to sleep, plagued by thoughts of his
smiling little sister being snatched by soldiers. As the London sky darkens
with enemy planes, he slowly opens up to her over cups of cocoa in the kitchen.
Every time Sebastien speaks to Finley, she finds herself
inching closer to him, and soon love begins to grow. But when he tells her he
wants to join the English army, to fight the people who have forced his family
to face such horror, she must work hard to crush the devastation in her heart.
She knows if she were in his shoes, she would do the same thing, and she must
be brave too. She will stay in London, waiting for Sebastien, and helping other
refugees like him.
As the bombs rain down, and the London streets empty, she
knows she faces grave dangers. But she can’t hide away while the man she loves
risks his life. She needs to do anything she can to defeat the enemy they all
share. But the last war cost Finley so much. What will this one take?
The Only Light In
London is the latest novel from historical fiction author Lily Graham. This was
my first time reading anything from this author – despite a number of her other
books being on my TBR list – but I was instantly hooked by her compelling
storytelling. This is a heartwarming and moving story of community, friendship,
found family and finding love in unexpected circumstances.
The narrative is
structured really well and is well-paced, making it a really easy read. It was
a really interesting choice to feature a prologue which is set around halfway through
the timeline of the novel and then jump back in time to start chapter one but
it worked really well (although I will flag that October 1940 to March 1939 is
a jump of eighteen months, not eight as stated in the book). I enjoyed seeing
the build up of the plot to the point featured in the prologue – which is an
air raid in October 1940 – knowing what is to come, and the events of the
prologue then feature again within the main body of the narrative but in
further detail.
The Only Light In
London does generally feel more light-hearted than other World War Two
historical fiction works of a similar nature. But this did mean it was quite a
refreshing break from reading harder-hitting novels, whilst still being able to
have the historical aspect. It’s great to see novels which focus more on the
mundane lives of ordinary Londoners during wartime but at the same time the
story also features key events of the war such as the Kindertransport and the
introduction of Britain’s policy of the internment of foreign nationals during
the war.
Finley was a
brilliant protagonist. She had my heart the second the novel opened with “The
bombs were making it impossible to read”! Sebastien was another fantastic
character who I warmed to very quickly and I particularly enjoyed exploring his
backstory through the occasional flashbacks to his life before he left Germany.
There’s a beautiful historical romance within the story between the two of them
and this was generally well written. It’s a real slow burn friends to lovers
romance, so fans of those tropes will enjoy this. I didn’t always believe their
chemistry as much as I wanted to but did enjoy the few romantic tender moments
we could to witness the two of them share.
The supporting
cast of the other amateur performers, Sebastien’s family and Finley’s mother was
brilliant and they were all really interesting characters in themselves who
were a real asset to the story. It was amazing to see the drama group members all
growing in confidence over the course of the story. I love a found family story
and this was a particularly beautiful one, both through the family Sebastien
and his sister Katrin find in England and the family the Finley Players find in
each other despite being people who probably wouldn’t have crossed paths otherwise.
I would say that
the epilogue didn’t necessarily feel like it fit with the rest of the book.
Whilst the content was fitting and it was nice to check in with all of the
characters and see what had happened to them following the end of the book, the
section didn’t flow well. It was very ‘and x did this… and x ended up here…’,
which felt out of place with the rest of the novel. I would have preferred an
epilogue which covered this content but was more in the style of the rest of
the book, perhaps exploring character stories through a conversation between
Finley and Sebastien.
Overall, The Only Light In London is a heartwarming and easy read for fans of historical fiction. The moving story of community, friendship, found family and finding love in unexpected circumstances will stay with me for some time.
No comments:
Post a Comment