I’ve always enjoyed Baldacci’s books but this is a big departure for him. Manage your expectations as this is not the typical fast paced crime novel. Although the pace is much slower, there is still some mystery and suspense woven in. I’ve read many historical fictions about WWII and each is different in its own way. This book revolves around the blitz in London and is full of horrors and loss. But the character development is wonderful and offers hope and optimism. You’ll fall in love with the three main characters. The pace picks up in the second half and keeps you intrigued. Definitely recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand. Central Publishing for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

Phew. Get your tissues ready. And be prepared for some chapters to rip your heart out. I enjoyedvthis book. The shorter chapters that end on cliffhangers kept me up too late a few nights and I liked the different POVs. It did not sugar coat the reality of life for many during various historical events of WW II in London. Thank you for this ARC!

Thank you @NetGalley and @GrandCentralPub for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

David Baldacci pulls readers directly into The Blitz in London during WWII with vivid imagery of the effects of the war on the mind, body, spirit, and surroundings. Balancing accurate details of what the bombings in London felt and looked like, Baldacci brings readers three characters from different academic and socioeconomic backgrounds: strangers in a time of war.

I love historical fiction and books set in London, so this book appealed to me from the start. The hardships and celebrations of the main characters are complex, distressing, and inspiring. The city of London itself deserves to be recognized as an important character in the book, experiencing great pain and showing its strength in a dark and uncertain times.

Overall, the message of connection, hope, and resilience shines in Strangers In Time.

#StrangersInTime #NetGalley #historicalfiction

It’s 1939 in England. Three strangers that would never have crossed paths in a different time soon became each other’s family. Ignatius Oliver is an Air Raid Warden and runs his late wife’s book store. A store that sees very little business in the days of the war, but Oliver keeps himself busy. Fourteen year old Charlie Matters has lost everyone in the war. Down and out, Charlie hits the streets doing anything he can to stay alive, but Charlie is also honorable and has a tender heart. Sixteen year old Molly Wakefield has just returned to London after being sent to the countryside for safety. Arriving home, Molly finds both her parents missing and has no idea where they are. If they had crossed paths with someone else their lives would have turned out quite differently. They were “three people standing together against all the world could hurl at them”. A beautifully written story about three lonely people joining forces to withstand tragedy and to overcome ultimately finding out what family really means. Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC copy of this book!
What a wonderful book!
Such a different but quite refreshing change from the usual David Baldacci novels.
Highly recommended and I will definitely be telling all!

This is a WWII book centered on two teenagers and a bookstore owner - none of whom knew each other before the war. Charlie is a teenage boy, struggling to make ends meet as members of his family pass away. He has mastered the city in navigating after dark, finding food, and earning money to try to get along. Molly is a teenage girl just returning to London after being evacuated years earlier with thousands of other children. She returns to her glamorous home to find both of her parents gone, and more questions than answers as to their wellbeing. Ignatius Oliver owns a bookstore and finds himself introduced to these teens and growing fonder of them each day. Unique friendships and bonds develop as bombs continue to cause chaos and fear. The three quickly begin to realize how much they need each other.

As bombs continue, Charlie, Molly, and Ignatius learn that while the perils of war rage on, their coming together and trusting one another may be the only way for them to survive. But Charlie’s foolish behavior in the city has attracted attention! Molly is being followed, from the moment she returned to London, Ignatius is harboring his own secrets, which could have terrible consequences for all of them. Buy it get it from your library but read it.

The book opens with Molly, who is fifteen just returning from a five-year stay with a host family in the country during WWII. The war still rages, but her father has not paid the family in a while and although the family was willing to continue to let Molly stay, she hasn't heard from her mother in 5 years and not from her father in a while, so she is anxious to get home.

Charlie is a fourteen who is living in poverty with his grandmother, after the death of both his parents and he's doing whatever he can to help them survive.

Ignatius is a bookstore owner who is grieving from the recent loss of his wife. A combination of very unusual circumstances bring the three of them together. Ordinarily, they might never have met, but together forge a deep friendship that enables each to survive the war and their personal circumstances.

There are a number of surprises in the book, and the characters don't always seen to ring true, but as a work of historical fiction, I enjoyed the story, the characters, and the historical setting. This book can be read by young teens and older.

This book is not the book I expected from David Baldacci, but it was quite enjoyable.

I listened to the audio version of the book, and I have the e-book. There are at least 6 different narrators and the voices represent the characters very well.

“Strangers in Time” is a departure from David Baldacci’s usual American suspense or legal thrillers (he did write a Christmas book once). In this historical novel, Baldacci goes eighty years into the past and across the pond to portray characters who are trying to survive The Blitz in London during World War II. We follow three characters whose timelines converge: Molly, a teenager returning to the countryside to her upper middle class home, only to find her parents missing; Charlie,another teenager and an East Ender scraping by with his grandmother since parents were killed in the bombings; and Mr. Ignatious Oliver, trying to keep his wife’s bookshop alive since her death and also acting as an air raid warden.

The trio find themselves supporting each other through horror and hope. Baldacci paints a vivid portrait of life among the ruins of a majestic city and writes a story that is both heartbreaking and eventually heartwarming. I don’t recall crying when reading any previous Baldacci books, but that time has come.

I was fortunate enough to also be able to preview the full cast audiobook that was narrated by the author with Stewart Crank, Alexandra Boulton, John Lee, Nicola F. Delgado, Matthew Lloyd Davies, and Joe Pitts. I’m so thankful to have heard the performance of this book with multiple voices — as emotional as the story is, it was an easier listening experience with the differing voices.

4.5 stars for both the book and audio version!

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Hachette Audio and NetGalley for advanced copies!

Historical fiction is an unusual genre for David Baldacci. This story has an overall theme of found family involving two teenagers and an older gentleman. There’s decent character development, but the story itself came across as a bit shallow at times. It is generally dialogue-driven which I think works better in Baldacci’s normal thrillers and mysteries. There were sections that seemed better suited to a young-adult novel, yet I don’t think that was the intent for this book. Overall, the story was enjoyable, but there was nothing revealed that was surprising or particularly fresh.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci
This was one of the best Historical Fiction novels that I have experienced!
In London, 1944, two teenagers devastated by the war find a book shop owner who is suffering from his own losses.
Fourteen-year-old Charlie survives the streets as he goes from day to day, taking only what he needs. Existing as no child should have to, barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie is a beautiful soul.
Molly, at fifteen has returned from the country as part of the “Pied Piper” operation, only to find London in a state that she doesn’t recognize. She is confronted by a reality that she no longer has her parents and home isn’t what she remembers.
Molly and Charlie find each other and the two stumble into the world of Ignatius, a book shop owner, whose only solace is maintaining the shop his wife left behind. Ignatius finds that he needs the children as much as they need him.
There is mystery, intrigue, and just an overall beautifully written story of survival and forgiveness that will engulf you as the reader. It’s wonderfully written as only David Baldacci can do!
I would love to Thank NetGalley for the pleasure of reviewing an ARC of this book! 5/5⭐

Strangers in Time David Baldacci is a descriptive, very highly recommended character driven historical fiction set in 1944 London during WWII.

Thirteen-year-old Charlie Matters lives with his grandmother, his only surviving relative. He's dropped out of school and spends his days using his wits to make money or steal what he can. When he notices through a window some biscuits on a plate and money in a cash drawer at a book store called The Book Keep, Charlie rushes in, steals the food and money, and runs. Later circumstances lead to him returning the money to the store owner, widower Ignatius Oliver.

Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to London after spending years in the countryside. When she arrives home the only person there is her nanny. She learns her mother has been hospitalized and her father is gone. She meets Charlie on the streets and asks him to help her find the building where her father is supposed to be working, but he's not there. Later, Molly meets Ignatius when looking for Charlie and as bombs wreak havoc on the city, the three forge a relationship.

The characters are richly drawn and depicted as fully realized, complicated individuals with flaws and strengths. The setting is also skillfully descriptive of place and time. All the characters are struggling with personal battles while a battle is literally going on around them, exposing everyone to potential death. The overwhelming sense of anxiety and the hustle for survival, as well as their tenacity, is clearly depicted in bomb-shattered London.

Strangers in Time moves at a fast pace and will hold your complete attention right to the end. The detailed, descriptive writing helps to vividly bring the characters and the setting to life. There are several plot twists, threats, mysteries, and surprises incorporated into the narrative along the way. Generally I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction, but this novel is excellent, compelling, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Readers who enjoy well-written historical fiction should definitely read Strangers in Time. Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Strangers in Time is my first historical fiction book by David Baldacci. Full of details and interesting facts, it kept my attention all the way through. It's the story of two London children during The Blitz in WWII. Molly was sent to the country to live and returned to find her parents gone and only her nanny living in the family home. Charlie is a street urchin who finds ways to generate income instead of going to school as he should. Molly and Charlie are befriended by bookstore owner, Oliver, and their adventure begins. As they come to trust one another, they are faced with multiple challenges, including the loss of Charlie's grandmother and the discovery of the whereabouts of Molly's parents. Baldacci has written a good book, not too long or drug down by unneeded details. Good pacing and entirely readable, If you enjoy historical fiction, you will love this one. My thanks to David Baldacci, Grand Central Publishing and Net Galley for the ARC.

Strangers in Time, author David Baldacci's first historical fiction novel, is about an unlikely alliance of three characters during the 1944 London blitzes of WWII.

The backgrounds of the main characters couldn't be more different from each other.

Charlie Matters, 14, is extremely poor, and is used to doing what he needs to do to survive. That's the reality of the situation. Yet Charlie is a thief with honor. There is a goodness and softness behind his hard exterior, that makes him quite endearing.

Molly Wakefield, 15, is a young lady of privilege. She recently returned to a London she doesn't recognize after being evacuated to the country as part of Operation Pied Piper five years before. Eagerly looking forward to her homecoming, when she arrives home, she finds both of her parents gone.

Ignatious Oliver is a recent widower who runs The Book Keep, a bookstore started by his beloved and much mourned wife Imogen.

The three characters are beautifully written. They are flawed as humans tend to be and hold secrets that they fear will come to light. They come together in an unusual way and soon find themselves a family of sorts, looking out for and caring about each other.

A story of hard times, the horrors of war, devastating loss, resilience, and hope, this slow to start story is engaging and a good read.

My thanks to Grand Central for allowing access to a DRC of the novel via NetGalley. Publication is 4/15/25. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

Check out this really great new book by David Baldacci! Definitely not a legal thriller, Strangers in Time introduces us to two young people in Blitz era London, from very different sides of the tracks, who come together to survive. Aided by an adult who runs a very interesting book store Charlie (an orphan living on the street) and Molly (who's parents seem to have disappeared) who is living in her family home with her nanny, the two work to survive the blitz. When Molly's home is destroyed by a bomb, at first the two move into a shed on the property. But orphans, no matter how capable, are typically sent to orphanages, where neither Molly nor Charlie want to go. They find safety with Ignatius Oliver, proprietor of the Book Keep bookshop. But Ignatius has secrets of his own, and even though he willingly provides shelter for Molly and Charlie, they have to keep secret the fact that they are orphans.

Filled with interesting characters (both good and evil and sometimes a bit of both) Strangers in Time is a wonderful coming of age story. It's heartwarming and suspenseful at the same time. Seeing how Molly and Charlie work together to save not only themselves but Ignatius and others is inspiring. It's a quick read, a real page turner. I couldn't put it down, don't miss it!

Strangers in Time is an epic tale of loss, heartbreak and chosen family. Baldacci has set a new high with this Historical Fiction reminding us of the ravages of war and the struggle to simply survive.

The main characters, Charlie, Molly and Ignatius, as well as the supporting ones. are depicted as humans with flaws doing what it takes to survive chaos and uncertainty. Some are at the right place in time and some are not.

This memorable story is inspiring as well as heartbreaking and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Strangers in Time was a unique perspective of London during World War II. Told mostly thru the eyes of two adolescents, Charlie and Molly, it was amazing to think about how fast they had to grow up. I loved how Charlie was a petty thief with a strict code of honor. And Molly always so calm and confident in a crisis. I only hope there were real Mr Oliver’s helping out the kids struggling during the war. There were many storylines that needed to be set up so the book started off slowly. But the second half kept me up way past my bedtime. Definitely recommend.

Beautiful and haunting story of human resilience. While this story is very heavy and you have to be in the right mood to read it, it's really a story of hope at the heart of it. While it takes place during WWII, it really is about the characters and about how 3 people can form a family though unconventional love. This one will stick with you for a while.

Thank you NetGalley for the ebook for my honest review. I love David Baldacci novels and this is no different. This book follows multiple individuals as they try to survive thru the trying times of WW2.

Loved it! Such a page turner! David Baldacci has always been an auto buy author. Can’t wait to get a physical copy of this one.