March 1941
There was a before and an afterwards. Later, Maddie would trace back to this moment the way her life changed...
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It has come to my attention that I must make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from Netgalley. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.
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The Blurb
Forced to leave their family home in London after it is bombed in the Blitz, Maddie and her two young daughters take refuge at Knyghton, the beautiful country house in Norfolk where Maddie’s husband Philip spent the summers of his childhood.
But Philip is gone, believed to have been killed in action in northern France. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Maddie refuses to give up hope that she and Philip will some day be reunited.
Arriving at Knyghton, Maddie feels closer to her missing husband, but she soon realises that there’s a reason Philip has never spoken to her about his past. Something happened at Knyghton one summer years before. Something that involved Philip, his cousin Lyle and a mysterious young woman named Flora.
Maddie’s curiosity turns to desperation as she tries to discover the truth, but no one will speak about what happened all those years ago, and no one will reassure her that Philip will ever return to Knyghton.
My Review
This was a fabulous read and it kept me turning the pages throughout.
The main character, Maddie, is left homeless when her home is bombed during the Blitz. When her husband, Philip, is declared missing in action, she retreats to his childhood home, Knyghton in Norfolk. She doesn't know much about his past, but after discovering a photo of Knyghton she goes with her daughters in the hope of a home during the war. There she meets Philip's cousin, Lyle, and begins to unravel the story of why her husband never spoke of his past.
It was an excellent story to join the canon of novels set during World War Two. I enjoyed the way the author put her book together and there were lots of twists and turns to keep me gripped. She demonstrated very well what life was like during the war, both for the soldiers fighting on the front and for those left behind. It illustrated well how hard it was for a wife whose husband was missing in action. The author did a great job of depicting steadfast love between husband and wife, even after it was likely that he had been killed in the war.
This book made for excellent reading. It was compelling and thought-provoking and I highly recommend it.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1471187254
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback
No. of Pages: 480 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
History is full of fascinating stories of how we came to be, and that’s why Rachel chose it to study at Oxford University. After she graduated she had a brief flirtation with museum work, but eventually books won out again. She took a secretarial course and landed a junior position at Cassells Publishers in Westminster and knew at once she'd found a career where she felt totally at home. Three years of enjoyable dogsbodying later she emerged as a fledgling editor. It was then she landed her dream job: assistant editor at HarperCollins Publishers in the Fiction department! She worked there for many wonderful years, eventually becoming a senior editorial director and looking after her own stable of well-known names.
She's had fourteen novels published now – the most recent, The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge, published in 2025.
Rachel is married to author, D.J. Taylor, has three sons and now lives in Norwich.
You can also find Rachel at:
(ARC courtesy of Netgalley)
(media courtesy of the author's website)
(all opinions are my own)
(Bookshop.org affiliated)
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