I first discovered this author in 2025 by seeing The Rent Collector on our town library historical fiction shelf. Then I read The Orphan Keeper. This latest book was sent to me as a Christmas gift from my blogging friend Deb from this blog. If you like historical fiction with a bit of mystery and romance, I recommend this author's book. He does extensive research and there's a good clean vibe to his books (no swearing nor explicit s*x scenes). However, if you're looking for a happy ending book, as in "happily ever after", this is not it.
STORY SUMMARY
It is September 1940 during the Blitz of London, England with World War II raging all around Europe. Audrey Stocking is working in England and trying to blend in with other civilians who are just trying to survive the nightly bombings.
But, Audrey has a secret! She is not British...she's a German Jew and her fake passport and almost perfect English have allowed her to work hard to blend in and help take children out of the city into the country where it's safer. Audrey really wants to reunite with her family in Germany, but this double life she is leading is forcing her to stay in England. Combine that with the British Military Intelligence and the bombings, and she must stay put. The one thing that greatly disturbs Audrey and the woman she calls Aunt Claire who is helping to rescue children, is that she has horrible nightmares that are vivid and seem all too real. Are they a premonition of what's to come or are they stemming from past trauma?
Wesley Bowers (aka Wes) is a lieutenant for the United States of America. He is over in England to train with London's Bomb Disposal Company 5. He meets Audrey when an air raid leaves an unexploded bomb in the flat she is living in. Wes finds Audrey to be an attractive, intelligent and very compassionate person and of course there's an immediate connection between them. They get to know each other and Wes realizes that she is the one bright spot in this horrible war. Even with the constant threat of death, he finds himself drawn to Audrey and she to him.
But...will Wes still feel the same way when he discovers the secrets that she's hiding?
MY THOUGHTS
This is a well-developed story with good character sketches and descriptive settings.
There's a bit of science in the story regarding the bombs and fuze things and honestly I found myself getting bored with those parts. Probably because I just don't like bombs, war, the science behind it is something I don't fully understand, etc.
The plot moves quickly though despite the description of the fuze team work and I was intrigued as to where the author was going with the fictional character of Audrey. There are actual real people who appear in this book: characters that were real, I mean during this time. One of them is the American, Wesley Bowers. He really did survive, along with only two of the other team members. The rest of his story in the book is fictionalized. The fictional character Colonel Moore was based on the real person named Stuart Archer, who really did dig the explosive out of a damaged and ticking SC 250 and discovering a new type of fuze because of it.
The real men who lost their lives that day were William Ash, Leslie Foster, Leslie Hitchcock, Jackie Lewis, and Titchie Websdale.
The character of Lady Reading is also a real person. She was the founder of the Women's Voluntary Services and her background which is described in the story is real.
Other real people who are depicted in the story are Bob Davies, Herbert Gough, and the Backroom Boys. None of these names were ones I knew about regarding WWII and I had never heard anything about the Backroom Boys.
The gifted German fuze designer, Herbert Ruhlemann, who tried to sell his designs to the British government before the war only to be turned away, then did return to Germany and convinced his own country's leaders of their worth, and therby history was changed. I never knew this!! This is all discussed in the back of the book under Author's Notes.
The book deals with trauma and how the brain hides the trauma of the horrible things we see but that eventually it does have to be dealt with. I won't go into the trauma that Audrey witnessed as that would ruin the plot for you. I also am not going to tell you how this book ends but I will say it was unexpected, sad, and just so.....indicative of what war does.
The very last part of the ending though is wonderful and it raised my rating from an 8 to a 10. It is so well done and everything wraps up so poignantly even though sad.
There's a lot of foreshadowing in this book that I loved and there were some good quotes that jumped out at me. Here are a couple I really liked:
"...a meaningful life---one in which you step outsdie of yourself and make a difference in the world---comes only when you face tribulation head-on with determination and perseverance." (pg 41, In Times of Rain and War by Camron Wright, c. 2021)
"....life isn't a scale where the good is balanced against the bad, squaring the sides to declare a winner. Rather, our experiences, both the despair and the joy, are weighed on the same side, intertwined together to create the threat that weaves the cloth of our lives." (pg 273)
"If this sad and sorry war is teaching me anything, it's that what counts are friendships and family. They will be the measure of a life well-lived." (pg 289).
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.
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