#TheLightOverLondon by Julia Kelly, like many others, goes back and forth between a story of WWII and a story of the present. The history is that of the gunner or “ack-ack” girls. The book has no real surprises. While the history of Louise's story is more interesting, Cara's story itself is the more compelling. I do wish there was a surprise or more of a focus on the history, but an entertaining story that led me to learn a little more history.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2019/12/the-light-over-london.html

Reviewed for #NetGalley.

The Light Over London surprised me by how emotional i felt while reading it. I read a lot of WWII fiction but something about this one really tugged at my heartstrings. I loved the bit of romance that was in it, and that it didn't have as much realistic violence as some others. But I felt like the ending was almost too clean and easy. A solid read for those looking for WWII fiction without a ton of graphic violence.

Two different timelines in which the story moves back and forth.  While it's marketed as a historical fiction, I found it to be more of a romance novel, with a little historical basis.  I was hoping for a more historically based storyline.  That being said, I did enjoy the book.  Yes, I like a good romance every now and then.  The story line was realistic and drew me in pulling me along til the end.  I would recommend this book if you like romance.  If not, then maybe pass on it.

The Light Over London has parallel stories of love, betrayal and moving on told in dual time periods. In the present, Cara has divorced an overbearing, pretentious man who turned to gambling and drinking after (or perhaps before) losing his job. Her job working for an antiques dealer satisfies her love of history and her intense curiosity. In the WWII era, Louise Keene leaves the bucolic hamlet where she grew up to get out from under her protective, yet stifling, parents. She essentially runs away from her mother’s wish for her to be the local barrister’s wife.

A diary found in present day England takes Cara on a journey through time and renews her interest in her grandmother’s stint in the ATS during WWII and the possible reasons why she won’t discuss it.

“There’s a natural, human compulsion to want to know where you’re from. It gives us our ideas of ourselves.”

With assistance and encouragement from her new neighbor, Liam, Cara pieces together the mystery of Louise Keene as well as her grandmother’s.

I really enjoyed this historical fiction. I had not heard much about the ATS or “gunner girls”. I loved the camaraderie between Louise, her cousin Kate and the other women serving their country during WWII. Without giving up too much about Louise, I had wished for a different romantic interest and a different ending for her. During present day, Cara and Liam’s relationship blossoms organically. Both are “once bitten, twice shy” in terms of relationships, so their friends-to-lovers romance is realistically slow to develop. Cara learned an important lesson about men and love from studying Louise Keene, and subsequently, she is able to move forward and open herself up to the possibility of a relationship.

The Light Over London is a well-written historical romance that is easily devoured. I love a book that presents interesting references that inspire me to comb through nonfiction sources for more information. Julia Kelly’s The Light Over London should have readers researching victory gardens, rationing, women’s roll in the war efforts, as well as roguish behavior of soldiers far from home. Author Julia Kelly has given her readers characters to care about and an emotional story to get lost in.

❝You deserve to never be disappointed, and you deserve to be with someone who doesn’t make you feel like your choices aren’t the right ones.❞

The Light Over London was a superbly written, emotional, and deeply passionate dual narrative, filled with dazzling, unforgettable characters, intrigue, and a gripping love story.

Cara was fascinated by a diary she found at one of the estates where she was working. As soon as she started reading it, she felt compelled to find the owner or at the very least, the family of the woman who wrote the diary. The diary held both a passionate love story and a brilliant story of a fierce young woman who is working as a Gunner Girl during WWII. Not only do we learn about Louise’s story through her diary, but we flashback to her younger days when she meets the love of her life. We watch as she leaves her overbearing mother to become a vital part of the war effort. She beautifully transforms from a shy, reserved young woman, to being a leader and force to be reckoned with. Interspersed with Louise’s story, we return to the present and read how Cara adjusts to being a divorcee while dealing with the death of her parents, all while she searches to find out what her mother and grandmother were arguing about the day her parents died.

With all of that going on, one would suspect it would be easy for the reader to get lost, and for the plot to become muddled. But the contrary occurred. I was completely captivated. The story was evocative, nostalgic, stunning, and devastating. The Light Over London is a must-read for lovers of stories with strong female characters, passion, and intrigue.

Great now and then novel set in current day and 1941 England. Learned a bit about women in service and enjoyed the romance side plot too.

When a publicist pitches a book to me, the content of that pitch matters very much. I want it to pique my interest, but I also want it to accurately reflect the book. I should be made aware of what kind of book I'll be reading. I try to do that in my blog review titles, so that the book will find its audience.


It seems to me that advance publicity for The Light Over London by Julia Kelly is trying to appeal to the sort of reader who is interested in the combat aspect of WWII. There is an emphasis on the female historical protagonist joining an anti-aircraft unit and becoming a Gunner Girl. The sort of reader who is interested in reading about Gunner Girls will expect that a high percentage of the book will contain action scenes or will at least take place in a military context. I requested this book for review on the strength of that publicity and received a copy from the publisher via Net Galley.







As I read Light Over London, I realized that I had to adjust my expectations. It was a good book, just not the one that I thought it would be. There was a combat sequence. There were also descriptions of training. Julia Kelly captured the bonding between the women in the anti-aircraft unit very well. Yet I'd estimate that the Gunner Girl experience represented about 10% of the book.


I think that the other 90% was what the novel really focused on. It was about the struggle of women to define themselves as individuals and live out their dreams. It was also about how family, or the men in their lives supported or hindered them. There were a number of female characters in The Light Over London who were strong women. They all went on to live the lives they chose for themselves. There were no relationships that involved a conventional romance genre HEA, but I think all these truly autonomous women found their own form of happiness.


There were a couple of major secrets. One was a devastating scandal that infested the heart of a romantic relationship. The other was a character building mistake that a family member made when she was young. Both women moved on, and didn't allow themselves to be crushed by circumstances. I have to say that I was able to predict the nature of these secrets before they were revealed based on what I knew about the people involved. So there were no surprises for me, but it was satisfying that I understood the characters so well.


I was glad to learn about the existence of Gunner Girls, and was delighted to find a novel like The Light Over London where all the major female characters were an inspiration.

The Light Over London is primarily about one woman’s experience during WWII - I loved reading about the gunner girls and the whole crew.

I would categorize this as light historical fiction (well, half historical, half contemporary) that’s easy on the history but heavier on the romance. It’s a great read for anyone who’s looking for something set in WWII without the disturbing, gory details. It’s emotional, but not overly sad.

I thought the ending was a little too quick and wrapped up a little too neatly, but it was still an enjoyable book!

WWII historical fiction is one of my favorite genres to read. What a great way to learn about history!! The Light Over London follows antique dealer Cara as she explores a mysterious diary found in a mansion estate belong to a gunner girl. Compelled to find the owner of the diary. This is a great read with a bit of romance. Highly recommended.

The Light Over London is a beautifully written book that tells the story of Cara and Louise, two women, living in different time periods, who find strength and bravery in the face of adversity. Cara, in the present day, is trying to recover from a dismally failed marriage and has thrown herself into her work for an antique dealer. Louise, in World War II England, escapes a dull life in Cornwall by volunteering for the war effort and becoming an "Ack Ack" girl during the London air raids. Cara comes across a diary during an antique appraisal and becomes fascinated by Louise's story.

Julia Kelly does a wonderful job of telling each young woman's story in alternating narratives, and I found myself, like Cara, fascinated with Louise's story, as well as rooting for Cara as she starts her new life. I was especially intrigued with the "Ack Ack" girls story, and the danger they faced while carrying out their duties during the London air raids. I highly recommend this book.

The Lights Over London by Julia Kelly is a wonderful WW2 story. The characters are brave. Julia's writing is so captivating. I wanted to keep reading and reading.

Mystery writers like to be scared. Romance novelists like to fall in love. Comedic writers like to laugh. Historical fiction novelists like to suffer. They choose to write a story set in a time and place that the reader does not know first hand. They must also develop a good storyline that keeps the readers interest.
Light over London by Julia Kelly is a good historical novel. She is a masterful storyteller with an attention to historic detail. The story of two different women set in two different time periods double her labor and doubles our pleasure.
First we meet Cara Hargraves, newly moved to her old hometown after a bitter divorce and beginning a new career as an assistant to an antique dealer where she examines and catalogues items in estate sales. She is intrigued by a trio of items; a compass, a group of photos and a diary that she finds in a desk drawer.
Reading the diary, Clara discovers the story of Louise Keene, a young lass who leaves her small town home to go to London during WWII.
Now we have two stories, one current, one set in the past to enjoy. Why did Louise go to London? Who was involved in Louise’s life? Is Clara’s grandmother somehow a participant in this story ?
Will Liam, the handsome college history be able to untangle stories in the diary and also help Clara face the future. Can Clara overcome her reticence and share her own story with Liam?
Julia Kelly tells a story that lures you in and keep you there. You will be transported back in time to wartime London. You will experience current day life full of opportunities, losses and needs.
Louise Keene’s story is a full complete story. Clara Hargraves story is a full complete story. Combined they will leave you wishing for more Light over London. I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. #NetGalley #LightoverLondon

I received am ARC free from Netgalley. I really wanted to like this, but I find it hard to engage with the characters and the story. I have up about a third of the way through.

Stevie‘s review of The Light Over London by Julia Kelly
Contemporary Romance and Historical Fiction published by Gallery Books 08 Jan 19

I’ve been enjoying Julia Kelly’s The Matchmaker of Edinburgh series, so I thought it would be a fun diversion to read one of her stories from a different era, while waiting to see if we’re going to get any more Victorian stories. In fact, this book slips neatly back and forth between the 1940s and the present, as we follow the lives of two women linked by an old diary, the one who wrote about her life and the one who finds the book during a house clearance and is intrigued enough by what she reads to dig further into the untold parts of the story she’s begun to uncover.


Cara Hargraves moves back to the town where she attended university, and that was her grandmother’s home for many years, in the aftermath of a bitter divorce. Previously an events planner, she takes up a job with the antique dealer she worked for as a student – on her grandmother’s recommendation – and begins to relearn the trade, as well as the art of discovering the important details that mark out each piece her employer buys and sells. While looking around the collection of a recently deceased widow, Cara comes across an old diary and some photographs, which don’t appear to have any direct link to the woman who owned them. Intrigued, Cara persuades her boss and their client to let her read the diary and hopefully reunite it with its owner or her descendants.

The diary, we learn, was written by Louise, a young woman living and working in a small village close to an airbase in the early years of the Second World War. Persuaded by her more adventurous cousin to sneak out to a dance, Louise meets a dashing RAF officer, who asks if he can call on her on his next free day. Although Louise is expected by her mother to marry a local boy, she quickly agrees to his request, and they begin seeing each other in secret. Nothing in a village can remain hidden for long, however, and Louise is soon challenged by both her mother and the mother of the man the older women believe her to be almost engaged to. Louise fears that she will never see the world beyond her village and so runs to her cousin. The two join up for war service. At the end of basic training, Louise is chosen to serve as one of the first women to operate an anti-aircraft gun. Meanwhile, she is still exchanging letters with her RAF pilot.

Intrigued by the diary, and the abrupt way it comes to an end partway through Louise’s time in the gunnery team, Cara asks her new neighbour, a history lecturer at her old university, if he can help her research what happened next. Cara’s curiosity also prompts her to push her grandmother to reveal the story behind a row with Cara’s mother that occurred shortly before Cara’s parents died in a car accident.

I enjoyed this book a lot. Both Cara and Louise were engaging characters that I really wanted to find their respective happy endings, and while Louise’s wartime love story ended as unhappily as the diary’s breaking off implies, Cara continues to dig and eventually learns of Louise’s post-war adventures, as well as the events that led to the diary being hidden where she found it. Although there were a couple of jarring inconsistencies for me as a UK reader, I’d certainly read more UK-set contemporary or recent-historical stories by the author, as well as looking forward to her next Victorian book.

Grade: B

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for and honest review!

I was immediately drawn to the colors on this cover because it's so beautiful! And I'm glad I enjoyed the story after all, because there's nothing worse than hyping up a book you know nothing about and then hating it. I will say, this book was in no way remarkable in my opinion, it felt like an average historical novel with a slight twist that included a cast of characters in a contemporary setting. That said, I very much enjoyed reading the novel, that's just the reasoning behind my 3 star review: I liked the book, I just didn't think it was the best WWII fiction novel I have ever read or even read lately.

I didn't remember the synopsis of this book very well because I requested it some time ago, but I really enjoyed the cross between connected contemporary and Cara's plot begins with finding an old journal at an estate while on the job, and it sparks curiosity in her when she realizes the owner had a lot in common with Cara's own Gran. That brings in the historical fiction element when we switch to Louise Keene's perspective. She's the author of this wartime journal, and we get to see the experiences Cara reads about in more detail during Louise's chapters. Young Louise's journey in the war is unusual, because after training in the British army, she's chosen for a special assignment, and her love interest starts behaving suspiciously after her new assignment. There are sparks of romance in both timelines as Louise experiences a fast-paced wartime love with a man she hardly knows and Cara dives in deep with a new man in her life who helps her solve the mystery of this old journal. As far as romances, these were both quite predictable, but enjoyable nonetheless. This book is a great summer beach read type of story, so I feel like it can definitely appeal to any of you out there who like a quick, feel-good historical fiction story! Let me know what you think if you've read The Light Over London already!

Cara Hargraves is getting over a divorce and she has a new job as an assistant to an antiques dealer. When she finds a WWII diary, she becomes intrigued and is determined to discover the author of the diary.

In another setting in London 1941, we meet fresh-faced 19-year old Louise Keene. She is a homebody but she dreams of leaving her restrictive small-town life behind. When she meets the charming and dashing Paul Bolton, an RAF pilot, she falls for him.

With Paul sent to another base, her desire to do something important grows and she joins the women’s British forces as a Gunner Girl. Now her life is anything but quiet and homey. She and the other Gunner Girls are in harm’s way, working right alongside the male gunners as they try to shoot down enemy aircraft.

Cara reads Louise’s diary and is consumed with learning the author’s identity. Louise’s story unfolds slowly and her growth from a naive girl to a brave woman is moving. Kelly dies a good job with her characters. They develop and change as the plot progresses. The story of the women gunners is interesting and not well-known. The tale of these women is the strongest of the plot. The rest of the book could have had a bit more depth but overall, it is an engaging read for lovers of historical fiction.
3.5*

I love WWII era books. There were so many incredible stories that came out of that time, and we will probably never be able to know them all. The Light Over London is one of those stories. 

I am always amazed at the resilience of women when times get hard. So many of us step up and do things we didn't think we could do before. That's what Louise Keene did when her young man was suddenly called into action. She lived her whole life under her mother's thumb, but she decided she wanted to be useful to the war effort, so she joined the women's line of the British army. She becomes a gunner girl, one of only a few women tasked with manning the anti-aircraft guns over London. She wrote about her the events of her life in a journal.

In the present day Cara Hargraves is starting over. Her parents' deaths and the end of her marriage left her feeling vulnerable. But now she has a new job she loves and her own apartment. When she finds a mysterious journal while searching through antiques, she feels drawn to the story and the woman inside. What will Cara discover about Louise and how will that impact what she knows about her own family history?

I was truly on pins and needles wondering how this book would end. When I read about Louise and the other gunner girls' bravery I cried. (I'm a bit of a baby when I read.) I did not see that ending coming! I will say this book has some situations that I do not approve of, and it may not be for everyone, but the story itself is incredible. 

I personally had no idea that women manned anti-aircraft guns during the war. Just reading about their experiences amazed me! After I got The Light Over London I honestly wondered if I'd read too many WWII novels, and maybe I'd be bored with another one. But this one was so different and fresh and I really enjoyed the story.

I never seem to tire of historical fiction set during WWII. Louise and the Gunner Girls story runs parallel with Cara's present story after she finds some treasures in a biscuit tin at the antique shop she works at. It was a fascinating read, I really enjoyed it.

The Light Over London is a beautifully written novel. Author Julia Kelly grabbed my attention from page one!

I really enjoyed the dual timeline in this historical fiction novel. I thought Cara and Louise's stories were both compelling and loved learning more about London during the war. I appreciate that this book was based in London because most WWII fiction I read is based in Germany and Poland.

This is a great book to pick up in between those dark novels. It is a ray of hope.

Thank you Gallery Books and Julia Kelly for my copy of The Light Over London.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the free review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Newly divorced Cara Hargraves works for a gruff but brilliant antiques dealer, and finds herself clearing out an estate full of old relics. She stumbles upon an old photograph of a young woman in uniform and her unfinished diary from World War II. Cara can't stop thinking about these items, and when her handsome next door neighbor offers to help her investigate, she jumps at the chance to uncover the mystery. In the book's second timeline, we meet 19-year-old Louise Keene, who simply can't sit by in her quiet Cornish village while the world is at war. She meets a dashing young RAF pilot and quickly falls head over heels. When he is deployed, Louise impulsively and bravely decides to join the women's branch of the British Army and becomes a Gunner Girl. But all is not as it seems with her beloved pilot, and Louise learns some heartbreaking truths about wartime romance.

This was a fast-paced, enjoyable read that transported me back to wartime London. I loved learning about the dangerous and brave work the women in the army did during this time, especially the Gunner Girls. I must admit I never liked Paul the pilot, so I was almost relieved when I learned the truth about him (I hate when I don't like a character that I'm supposed to like!). The present-day storyline was sweet and I liked watching the relationship develop between Cara and her neighbor Liam.

A solid debut with good writing that kept me turning the pages. Interesting characters and sweet romance. While this won't fall into the category of my favorite WWII historical fiction, I will look forward to seeing what Ms. Kelly writes next!