Katherine Reay: The London House

 By Kelly Bridgewater

Uncovering a dark family secret sends one woman through the history of Britain’s World War II spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris to save her family’s reputation.

Caroline Payne thinks it’s just another day of work until she receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian. But pleasantries are cut short. Mat has uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades: In World War II, Caroline’s British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her German lover.

Determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to her family’s ancestral home in London. She and Mat discover diaries and letters that reveal her grandmother and great-aunt were known as the “Waite sisters.” Popular and witty, they came of age during the interwar years, a time of peace and luxury filled with dances, jazz clubs, and romance. The buoyant tone of the correspondence soon yields to sadder revelations as the sisters grow apart, and one leaves home for the glittering fashion scene of Paris, despite rumblings of a coming world war.

Each letter brings more questions. Was Caroline’s great-aunt actually a traitor and Nazi collaborator, or is there a more complex truth buried in the past? Together, Caroline and Mat uncover stories of spies and secrets, love and heartbreak, and the events of one fateful evening in 1941 that changed everything.

In this rich historical novel from award-winning author Katherine Reay, a young woman is tasked with writing the next chapter of her family’s story. But Caroline must choose whether to embrace a love of her own and proceed with caution if her family’s decades-old wounds are to heal without tearing them even further apart.

 

My Thoughts:

The London House’s cover is a beautiful masterpiece. Katherine Reay crafted together a story told through a present viewpoint and the past is told through the eyes of handwritten letters and journal entries. While the concept is really interesting, the delivering of the plot was a little harder to stay focused. I wanted to follow and see what actually was the truth behind Caroline’s great-aunt too. I think when the past story is told through the letters, it buts the readers at a distance from the actual story. It would have been nice to actually see the great-aunt Caroline in her story in an actual story format. Instead of being told second-hand what actually occurred. There were moments that I flipped through the story that I kept nodding off. I did enjoy the last ten percent of the novel where present day Caroline, Mat, her dad, and her mother were on racing against the clock to see what the actual ending the great-aunt’s life was. This was nicely handled. Reay does not how to write beautifully, and the story was a little different than anything I have ever encountered, but not one of my favorite World War II novels. There is a hint of romance near the end of the novel that really didn’t force itself on the readers or the characters. Overall The London House was told through letters, so it did not capture my attention like I hoped it would.

I received a complimentary copy of  The London House by Katherine Reay from Harper Muse  Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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