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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
Carolyn Waite receives a call from a college friend, Mat Hammond, about her aunt. An aunt she has lived her whole life believing died of polio at a young age . What Mat tells her, about her aunt defecting with a Nazi during WWII starts Carolyn on a mission to clear her aunt's name and prove Mat wrong. What happens is a remarkable journey full of truth, healing, and reconciliation.
When Carolyn talks to Mat, she is convinced he is wrong. There is no way the Carolyn in his story, the person she is named after, is her aunt. There is no way she was a traitor to her country.
Carolyn talks to her father only to learn that many years ago Carolyn had found proof that her aunt hadn't died of Polio and was in fact alive much longer than even her father knew. As the truth as her family sees it comes out, Carolyn believes there has to be more to the story. She is determined to figure out what it is, even after her father demands that she stops.
Carolyn's search leads her to the London House, where her mother lives after being willed the home after her grandmother, Margaret, passed. Here she will read letters from Carolyn to her sister Margaret and also read Margaret's diaries, When the story she is reading seems to be in contradiction of what Mat thinks, Carolyn has him come to London to help her search. The journey leads them in a direction none of them could have predicted and the resulting truth is made even more powerful by the healing it initiates in Carolyn's father, who lived his whole life not understanding why his own parents acted as they did.
Carolyn learns that the way we view things can change and as a result change our lives. Two people will look at the same situation, but based on personal experience, will view it entirely differently. Her realizations help her and her family to see that there is always time to change, always time to reframe how we view things.
I enjoyed this story. At times is was hard to keep straight all that was happening. There is a lot of hurt in these pages, a lot of misunderstandings and many lies that were told that at times makes it hard to read. As the story progresses and the truth is uncovered, the story truly becomes a powerful lesson that I think any reader will find something to relate to.
Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Reay, and Harper Muse for the advance copy of this story in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
When Carolyn talks to Mat, she is convinced he is wrong. There is no way the Carolyn in his story, the person she is named after, is her aunt. There is no way she was a traitor to her country.
Carolyn talks to her father only to learn that many years ago Carolyn had found proof that her aunt hadn't died of Polio and was in fact alive much longer than even her father knew. As the truth as her family sees it comes out, Carolyn believes there has to be more to the story. She is determined to figure out what it is, even after her father demands that she stops.
Carolyn's search leads her to the London House, where her mother lives after being willed the home after her grandmother, Margaret, passed. Here she will read letters from Carolyn to her sister Margaret and also read Margaret's diaries, When the story she is reading seems to be in contradiction of what Mat thinks, Carolyn has him come to London to help her search. The journey leads them in a direction none of them could have predicted and the resulting truth is made even more powerful by the healing it initiates in Carolyn's father, who lived his whole life not understanding why his own parents acted as they did.
Carolyn learns that the way we view things can change and as a result change our lives. Two people will look at the same situation, but based on personal experience, will view it entirely differently. Her realizations help her and her family to see that there is always time to change, always time to reframe how we view things.
I enjoyed this story. At times is was hard to keep straight all that was happening. There is a lot of hurt in these pages, a lot of misunderstandings and many lies that were told that at times makes it hard to read. As the story progresses and the truth is uncovered, the story truly becomes a powerful lesson that I think any reader will find something to relate to.
Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Reay, and Harper Muse for the advance copy of this story in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Caroline Payne has spent years trying to escape the past—both her own tragic one, and the darker and little-understood past of her family. But she is forced to confront her family history when Mat Hammond, a historian and Caroline’s old college friend, shows up at her office claiming to have uncovered scandal in Caroline’s family: according to Mat’s research, Caroline’s great-aunt Caro (Caroline’s namesake) betrayed her family in World War II to marry her German lover, leaving her twin sister Margo (Caroline’s grandmother) bereft. The betrayal would explain much of Caroline’s own cold upbringing, yet she has difficulty believing it could be true.
Hoping to disprove Mat’s claims and preserve her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to the family home in London to learn more. There, she immerses herself in the letters and diaries of her great-aunt and grandmother, learning about these inseparable sisters who grew apart in the years leading up to the Second World War. While Caro made a life for herself amid Paris’s fashion scene, Margo remained in London pining after the old flame who had fallen in love with her sister. Politics surrounding the War brought more secrets into their sisterhood and deepened the gap between them; clearly, both sisters were hurting, but was Caro really the traitor she appears to have been, or was there more to her story?
It’s been a while since I’ve felt the desire to read (yet another) WWII novel, but Katherine Reay is one of my favorite authors so I couldn’t pass this book up. London House, with its historical elements, is different from Reay’s other works but I really enjoyed it. In fact, I was much more invested in the historical storyline than the present-day one and loved the epistolary format of the sisters’ story, which is told entirely through Caro’s letters and Margo’s journals. I didn’t really care for the “investigatory” aspect of the novel as it added an unnecessary complexity to the story: Caroline reads these letters and journals out of order, uncovering clues in a manner that felt too complicated and didn’t really add to the already-intriguing historical plot. However, I loved how the story came together in the end and how it played into the present-day narrative.
The prose in this novel felt disjointed (or maybe just a little sloppy?) to me, almost as though sentences or paragraphs were accidentally omitted, and I didn’t find the main premise of a family haunted by its secrets very plausible, but the story is solid and I adored the themes of forgiveness, grief, courage, resilience, integrity, correcting misperceptions, and second chances. Throughout the novel Mat and Caroline debate the nature of history: how much of it is grounded in truth, and how much is rooted in our own perceptions? Does history change, or just our understanding of it? Are we able to escape the fallout of our own histories? And how much of the past is shaped by our present-day willingness to engage with or conceal what has come before? These are rich, important questions that Reay explores honestly and realistically, and I came away from the book viewing not just these characters’ stories a little differently, but my own.
Come to this book for the intrigue (woman spies! traitors! secret codes!) and the romance (a heartbreaking love triangle, a friends-to-lovers story), and stay for the lush European setting and sweet story of familial love and hope.
My Rating: 4 Stars // Book Format: Print
Hoping to disprove Mat’s claims and preserve her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to the family home in London to learn more. There, she immerses herself in the letters and diaries of her great-aunt and grandmother, learning about these inseparable sisters who grew apart in the years leading up to the Second World War. While Caro made a life for herself amid Paris’s fashion scene, Margo remained in London pining after the old flame who had fallen in love with her sister. Politics surrounding the War brought more secrets into their sisterhood and deepened the gap between them; clearly, both sisters were hurting, but was Caro really the traitor she appears to have been, or was there more to her story?
It’s been a while since I’ve felt the desire to read (yet another) WWII novel, but Katherine Reay is one of my favorite authors so I couldn’t pass this book up. London House, with its historical elements, is different from Reay’s other works but I really enjoyed it. In fact, I was much more invested in the historical storyline than the present-day one and loved the epistolary format of the sisters’ story, which is told entirely through Caro’s letters and Margo’s journals. I didn’t really care for the “investigatory” aspect of the novel as it added an unnecessary complexity to the story: Caroline reads these letters and journals out of order, uncovering clues in a manner that felt too complicated and didn’t really add to the already-intriguing historical plot. However, I loved how the story came together in the end and how it played into the present-day narrative.
The prose in this novel felt disjointed (or maybe just a little sloppy?) to me, almost as though sentences or paragraphs were accidentally omitted, and I didn’t find the main premise of a family haunted by its secrets very plausible, but the story is solid and I adored the themes of forgiveness, grief, courage, resilience, integrity, correcting misperceptions, and second chances. Throughout the novel Mat and Caroline debate the nature of history: how much of it is grounded in truth, and how much is rooted in our own perceptions? Does history change, or just our understanding of it? Are we able to escape the fallout of our own histories? And how much of the past is shaped by our present-day willingness to engage with or conceal what has come before? These are rich, important questions that Reay explores honestly and realistically, and I came away from the book viewing not just these characters’ stories a little differently, but my own.
Come to this book for the intrigue (woman spies! traitors! secret codes!) and the romance (a heartbreaking love triangle, a friends-to-lovers story), and stay for the lush European setting and sweet story of familial love and hope.
My Rating: 4 Stars // Book Format: Print
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
"The London House" is Reay's first historical fiction foray. In the interest of full disclosure I have a soft spot for Reay after immensely enjoying her "homey" Winsome Series ("The Printed Letter Bookshop" and "Of Literature and Lattes") so I snapped up "The London House" while it was a Kindle deal and was surprised to find I already owned it when I went to purchase it earlier this month! I love when that happens. Historical fiction is a hard genre for a lot of reasons. There's not just the texture of the craft itself to consider -- telling a good story -- but the layers and layers of context and finally the weaving together of often times several threads. Knowing Reay had pulled that off in the Winsome series I jumped into "The London House" with two feet. Slight spoilers ahead!
Caroline is almost thirty and struggling. After a traumatic event left a hole in the Payne family twenty years earlier, Caroline -- the youngest -- is left with the pieces. We meet Caroline as she's facing her father's acquiescence to his cancer diagnosis, an absent mother, and asking herself the all important: What am I doing with my life? question. There's a lot there already and Reay then throws into the mix more and more -- in the Payne sisters Margaret and Caroline, the Schiaparelli fashion house, the British Secret Service in World War II -- is your head spinning? It's okay if it is! But somehow, and I credit Reay's lengthy experience as a writer, it all lands. This is one of the finest woven historical fiction novels I've yet to encounter. Longtime fans of the genre will enjoy the story and structure, while new readers would be lucky to start their libraries with this gem.
Well researched and well written The London House" by Katherine Reay was a great start to my 2022"Book about Letters" series, where I read and review a book about letters once a month, for my for my hobby project Flea Market Love Letters.
Caroline is almost thirty and struggling. After a traumatic event left a hole in the Payne family twenty years earlier, Caroline -- the youngest -- is left with the pieces. We meet Caroline as she's facing her father's acquiescence to his cancer diagnosis, an absent mother, and asking herself the all important: What am I doing with my life? question. There's a lot there already and Reay then throws into the mix more and more -- in the Payne sisters Margaret and Caroline, the Schiaparelli fashion house, the British Secret Service in World War II -- is your head spinning? It's okay if it is! But somehow, and I credit Reay's lengthy experience as a writer, it all lands. This is one of the finest woven historical fiction novels I've yet to encounter. Longtime fans of the genre will enjoy the story and structure, while new readers would be lucky to start their libraries with this gem.
Well researched and well written The London House" by Katherine Reay was a great start to my 2022"Book about Letters" series, where I read and review a book about letters once a month, for my for my hobby project Flea Market Love Letters.
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes