3.5 stars

In this book we meet two woman of two different time periods. The first is Cara Hagraves, a young woman devastated from a current divorce who works with a antiques dealer classifying objects. The other is Louise Keene, a young woman who is stifled by her overbearing parents and looks for a way to escape their confines. She finds it by running away and then working as one of the ack ack girls during World War II. Both girls are trying to find a place where they belong, a place where they find their sense of self, a way to establish their natures.

Cara finds hidden in an old piece of furniture, a diary that once belonged to Louise and from those pages the story is drawn. As Cara searches to determine who Louise was, she discovers more about her own grandmother's place in the war. She is helped by a young man and the romance begins to bud as they draw closer to one another and the truth of what happened to these young woman thrown into the war effort.

This book offered an interesting look into the ack ack girls, but it was more of a romance story than an actual historical fiction novel. While I did like it, for it was an easy read, I did want more development on the historical side. It did however, encourage me to research more about the ack ack girls and for me that is what a good book often does.....inspires you to dig deeper.

Thank you to Julia Kelly, Gallery Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. Thanks also to the Traveling Sisters reading group who read along with me.

The Light Over London is an excellent book. It's tops from two perspectives: WWII and the present. Cara works in antiques and discovers a diary of a woman who served in the ATS. She unravels the mystery of the diary's author, while also trying to get her grandmother's war time service story. The narrative of Louise is compelling as is the truth about Cara's grandmother. I really thought, up until the end, Louisa's and Iris' stories would bisect in some way, but they didn't. I knew about the WRNS, but was not aware of the ATS women. It's a great story for WWI historical fiction fans.

A thoroughly enjoyable story with a bit of a twist :-) The story line set in the past was a bit stronger than the present day story line but both women are likable characters & the reader is invested early on in the happiness of the characters. It was also interesting to read about the "Gunner Girl" experience of the war. I have not previously encountered that branch of the British military in stories and didn't even realize there were all female units trained to shoot the anti-aircraft guns protecting London. Learning about the lives and duties of the Gunner Girls made this story a unique WWII read for me (I read a lot of WWII stories).

A decidedly feminist take on the WWII story--a great reminder about the limited choices women of that era had, and how their parents had great control over their lives.
Fast paced with just enough detail.

When I saw that this was a time slip book about World War II, I decided I HAD to read it. I was not disappointed. It contains everything a good book should: no formulas, but mysteries, humor, and just a bit of romance.

Cara is helping her boss evaluate catalog the antiques in an estate for possible sale in his antique shop. In going through the pieces of furniture, Cara finds a diary dating back to 1942. It becomes an obsession for Cara to find the owner of the diary and find out the history and what happens after the diary ends.

It takes a lot of research and digging to find out the facts behind the entries in the diary. Cara finds help through her next door neighbor, Liam, and Liam finds friendship and more in Cara.

Julia Kelly has written a top notch novel that kept me up way past my bedtime. This is definitely a five star book, two thumbs, and a mysterious diary to stir up your imagination.

My thanks to Gallery Books for allowing me to read and review this book.

An intriguing story that takes place in the present and also in the early years of the second world war. While assisting in the valuation of an estate an appraiser finds a diary, from a young ATS volunteer, from the beginning of WWII. She is given permission to try and track the original writer, or her family, to return it to the family. The story by itself illuminates the hardship and realities of war in England and the life of the ATS volunteer who trained and served in an Ack-Ack squad protecting London. It takes the reader through the best and worst times of her young life. And with all good stories it has a great twist at the end.

I have rated this book 5 stars.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for my unbiased review.

The Light Over London takes place in present time then flashes back to Cornwall and London during World War II. Cara is newly divorced after losing both parents to a fatal car crash a few years before. She is starting in a new job, evaluating antiques for a demanding boss. As they are evaluating an estate, Cara finds a tin biscuit (cookie) box that contains the diary of a woman who lived in Cornwall in the 1940's. Cara becomes fascinated by the diary and is determined to find out who wrote it and return it to her family. Cara identifies with the author and devotes considerable energy and resources to discover her identity, hoping that will help her understand her grandmother's war experience and the secrets she keeps from Cara. She ends up enlisting the help of Liam, her handsome new neighbor who is a history professor. Liam offers valuable insight, friendship, and through working with him, Cara works through problems left from her messy divorce.

Cara's story is interspersed with entries from the journal and Louise Keene's own story.. We meet Louise in Cornwall where she lives with a domineering, unhappy mother and a loving and supportive father. Her cousin Kate invites her to a dance in a neighboring town where she meets Flight Lieutenant Paul Bolton and quickly falls in love. When Paul is shipped out, Louise can't take the small town life any more and heads out with Kate to join the ATS. She ends up being assigned to the Ack-Ack Girls and uses her considerable intelligence to work with a team to aim and fire anti-aircraft guns. Her relationship with Paul continues to grow, as does Lousie's self-confidence in herself and her abilities.

There are several stories unfolding in The Light Over London - all of them well-written and well-researched. Julian Kelly did a fabulous job - what could have been a tangled mess is an intricate, well-crafted story that was engaging and very entertaining to read.

A quite delightful story, similar in time and style to The Nightingale, although maybe not as dramatic. Told in alternating voices, one in the present and one during WW2, both from an English perspective, we see two women who have loved, been hurt, and learn whether or not they can love again.

If historical fiction and romance are your cup of tea, then this book should be on your list. Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my unbiased review..

Cara discovers a diary written in 1941 while she is helping sort an estate with her boss, Jock, who is an antique dealer. The unknown diarist strikes a chord with Cara. She wants to know who this person is so she may return the diary to the diarist's family. With the aid of her neighbor, Liam, she searches. It was difficult to put the book down as Cara and Liam track down the diarist. Read and enjoy the history and the romance.

I don't like it when a book is compared to other books in the same genre. This book is compared to The Nightingale and The Lilac Girls. The only similarity is that they are all about WWII. The Light over London stands on its own as another historical fiction WWII book about a little known group in England during WWII.

This is a dual time line novel and both stories are equally interesting and exciting. In the present day, Cara is working for an antique dealer when she finds a diary stuck into a drawer. She is intrigued and because of her love of history, she takes it home to read. She is living a solitary life after leaving her husband and her parent's deaths and her work is very important to her. As she reads the diary, she reaches out to her new neighbor who is a history professor for his input on who wrote the diary and to try to track down the family so that it can be returned to them. The other time line is in 1941 when Louise is waiting for her rich suitor to come back from the war. When she meets a dashing RAF pilot, she decides that she needs to change her life and pursue a life with Paul. While she is waiting, she joins the women’s branch of the British Army in the anti-aircraft gun unit as a Gunner Girl. When she moves to London and faces daily danger from the bombs being dropped on the city, it's only her love for Paul that gets her through her fear.

This is a wonderful book about the strength of women though adversity and their resilience in life no matter what is holding them back. The author did considerable research into WWII history to present this well written novel. If you enjoy WWII fiction, this one needs to go on your TBR list.

Thanks to netgalley for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

I’m a sucker for historical fiction and this book exceeded all of my expectations. This book follows the story of Cara, a recently divorcee who finds a WWII diary with the initials LK on it while at an estate. Cara starts reading the diary and connects with the writer. Who she later finds out is a woman by the name of Louise Keene who volunteers for ATS, a women’s auxiliary service to the British Royal Army and gets an extra special assignment.

The book itself bounces between Cara in 2017 and Louise in the 1940s. This allowed the reader to see both the story about Cara as well as the full story about Louise. Sometimes it can be confusing to the reader when the book flips between to main focuses but the author, Julia Kelly, does it perfectly.

This part was one part historical fiction, two parts romance and a dash of female empowerment. Check it out, available January 8. #netgalley #TheLightOverLondon

I received a review copy of this ebook from Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

The Light Over London tells the story of Cara, who is present day, working for an antique dealers & Louise, a woman who joined up to help the war during WW2. Cara finds a diary & delves into the story, determined to find out about Louise & her family to return the diary. With the help of her new neighbor, Liam, they trace Louise's story to living relatives.

The story switches back & forth from present day to past. Well written & engaging. I wish there had been deeper information on the characters back stories, but there is enough that you do get to know them.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review

Available January 8: The Light Over London
***** 4.5 stars, Loved it: Set in both present day and World War II, The Light Over London is a must-read.



Recommended readers:

If you like novels with WWII history and drama
If you like a historical read that ties into current times
If you like strong female characters
Here's my Rankings:

5/5 for characters
4/5 for plot
4.5/5 overall
REVIEW FROM BOOKS FOR HER:
Cara Hargraves is recovering from divorce after moving away from London and her big city world - when she discovers a diary in the home of an estate she's helping her new boss clean out. The old diary and items in the tin date back to World War II, including a picture of a young woman in a uniform that reminds Cara of her own grandmother's WWII service.

In this dual plot-line story - you'll step into two women's shoes: Cara, an emotionally wounded young woman, and Louise, a shy and timid girl growing up in rural England during WWII. Both stories are equally moving and especially Louise, as she finds her way to help during war efforts. The Light Over London is a great historical read - telling two stories of contrasting times. It's must-read for the New Year!

Available January 8: The Light Over London

In this duel storyline tale, readers will learn about the gunner girls of World War II and the modern antiques trade in England. In the historic storyline, readers will follow the story of Louise Keene. Louise long lived with a distant, critical mother and thanks to the war met a dashing pilot, Paul Bolton. When her pilot is transferred, Louise also leaves and joins the war effort. She finds herself training, and then serving, as a gunner girl. How will she manage during the war? How will the relationship with her pilot progress?

In the modern storyline, recently divorced Cara Hargraves is working in an antiques shop. While working on listing items for an estate sale, she uncovers Louise’s diary. Cara is driven to find the family and return the diary. However, Cara is equally drawn into Louise’ story and finds herself wanting to learn more. With the help of her neighbor, Liam, a professor, they embark on a journey of discovery, both of history and of themselves.

As a whole, I was disappointed by this novel. The summary sounded interesting, but the novel itself did not live up to my expectations. Both storylines seemed to be underdeveloped and lacked depth. I would have liked to dive into each story more. In regards to Louise, she left home in a hurry and fell for a man without knowing him long and we really do not know why. As for Cara, I felt I got to know her better, but her relationship with Liam could have been better and more deeply developed. I also would have liked to see more about Iris, Cara’s grandmother who made frequent appearances. That said, this was the first book (fiction or nonfiction) I read featuring the gunner girls, so that was an aspect of the war that I really knew little about and it provided information about how they trained and how the units worked.

Review of THE LIGHT OVER LONDON by Julia Kelly
By Jared Curtis
I read Julia Kelly’s book aloud to my wife Ida, an experience we both regularly enjoy. She is a long-time reader of romance fiction, especially historical romance, and I am a late convert. We agreed that THE LIGHT OVER LONDON is well written, earning our admiration for its believable scenes, fully drawn and differentiated characters, and natural dialogue that “sounded right” when read aloud. The recent revival of interest in the device in historical fiction of a double time-period poses challenges for the author, primarily in the effort of sustaining the two narratives, both now and then, keeping them in motion and independently convincing, yet integrated in a meaningful way with each other and flowing to a natural and unified conclusion.
In the case of The Light Over London, the stories of two women, Cara Hargraves and Louise Keene, who are separated in time by nearly seventy years, are told in alternating groups of chapters. Their stories are threaded together by excerpts from Louise’s wartime diary covering the period February 1941 to January 1942. During that time Louise meets RAF pilot Paul Bolton in her tiny community on the north coast of Cornwall and escapes her restrictive home and village life by joining ATS, a women’s auxiliary service to the British Royal Army. Cara, in 2017, recently divorced and only just emerging from a sustained funk, finds the diary and other keepsakes stored in a biscuit tin in a wardrobe in a Victorian home while surveying furnishings that might be sold at auction by her boss, the owner of an antiques firm in Barlow, Gloucestershire. Signed only with the initials “L.K.,” the diary draws Cara in, inspiring her to try to solve the mystery of the author’s identity and what has become of her since the diary broke off three years before the end of the war. Driving her interest is the realization that her beloved Gran, who raised Cara after her parents died in an auto accident, also served in the ATS during WW II, and who has always steadfastly refused to speak about that time in her life, another mystery for Cara to solve. Enlisting the help of Liam, a history professor and new neighbor, Cara embarks on a wide search for information to identify, and if possible to locate the diarist or her family so that the diary and memorabilia can be returned. The links gradually exposed in the course of the novel between the three women and across three generations include early, and unwise love affairs, difficult marriages, awkward secrets, betrayals, lost loves, and tragic deaths. But they also include the courage to hope and to love again, to rebuild disrupted and demoralized lives that had been torn apart by failures and by fate.
A word of caution to the author and/or the editor: the advance reader copy of The Light Over London that I read is riddled with typos and other errors and is in dire need of careful proofreading before going to press. Some examples are names and military titles that shift in spelling: “Corporal Barker” becoming for a page or two a “Colonel” (Chapter 10), only to be demoted later on. Mrs. Fay briefly becomes Mrs. Fray (Chapter 22), and so on. Several sentences are scrambled, making nonsense of a fairly straightforward statement. No doubt in the process of revision, utility words like “to” or “any” are occasionally omitted, misplaced, or repeated, as in “she never any mentioned any regrets” in Chapter 23. When reading silently the brain unconsciously bridges gaps and even recombines words to make sense, but when reading aloud one can’t help noticing these slips.
Assuming the many errors are corrected, I give the novel 5 stars.

Such a pleasure to enjoy stories of women who overcome issues and continued on bravely to be heroic! Cara (present day ) and Louise (1941); lost loves and an enjoyable story. Beautifully written - Gunner Girls! Thank you! #netgalley.com # TheLightOverLondon

Light Over London follows on the heels of several bestselling books about women in World War Two. Kelly's book brings to light the work of the women in the British Auxiliary Territorial Service group, work that will be new to most readers. The format of the book -- Cara, in the present, discovers a diary from WWII as well as the answers to some mysteries in her family's past while Louise, in the past, writes the diary -- is very popular these days as well. Given the subject matter, this book is fairly light while being informative. Recommend to readers of Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as well as readers of The Nightingale and Lilac Girls.

Cara Hargraves, an antique specialist, found a WW2-era diary in an attic in a tin. Cara digs into the past on a quest to discover who wrote the diary and what happened to her.

This book pulls you into the women’s auxiliary and war time London. It is absolutely thrilling and the writing is superb. I finished reading it in two hours!

This the story in two parts. One is present day, Cara, who finds a normal from WWII and wants to find the owner. The other story is about Louise. She is the author off the journal that Cara had found.

Louise is a young woman growing up during WWII. She feels trapped in her mundane life. Trying to make her mother proud Louise can never do enough to make herself feel happy. Coincidentally, she cannot make her mother happy either.

Louise decides to go to a dance with her cousin, Kate. This might of been the best thing she's ever done in her life. She meets a young fighter pilot and her world changes.

This book took so many twists and turns that when I had to put it down I couldn't stop thinking about Louise.

This book is two stories entwined together. It's about Louise and get decisions and also about Cara and her life.

I highly recommend this novel! You will not regret your decision to read this one!

A very interesting story about WWII and the brave women in England. I enjoyed the history lesson as well as an interesting story that flips from WWII to present day. The author does a good job of bringing her characters alive with real emotions.