Happy Friday! I am featuring a book that I have long anticipated. I started The London Restoration by Rachel McMillan a few days ago, and I can attest that this book was well worth the wait! Set just following the end of WWII, it is full of history, mystery, and a married romance. I am loving Diana and Brent Somerville. The novel is beautifully written — here is the first line.
While some adjusted to air-raid sirens and others to the lost light of blackouts, Diana Somerville never recovered from the absence of church bells.
The secrets that might save a nation could shatter a marriage.
Madly in love, Diana Foyle and Brent Somerville married in London as the bombs of World War II dropped on their beloved city. Without time for a honeymoon, the couple spent the next four years apart. Diana, an architectural historian, took a top-secret intelligence post at Bletchley Park. Brent, a professor of theology at King’s College, believed his wife was working for the Foreign Office as a translator when he was injured in an attack on the European front.
Now that the war is over, the Somervilles’ long-anticipated reunion is strained by everything they cannot speak of. Diana’s extensive knowledge of London’s churches could help bring down a Russian agent named Eternity. She’s eager to help MI6 thwart Communist efforts to start a new war, but because of the Official Secrets Act, Diana can’t tell Brent the truth about her work.
Determined to save their marriage and rebuild the city they call home, Diana and Brent’s love is put to the ultimate test as they navigate the rubble of war and the ruins of broken trust.
Rachel McMillan is the author of the Herringford and Watts mysteries, the Three Quarter Time series of contemporary romances set in opulent Vienna, and the Van Buren and DeLuca mysteries praised for bringing an authentic 1930’s Boston world to life while normalizing the fictional conversation surrounding mental illness. She is also the author of Dream, Plan and Go: A Romantic’s Guide to Independent Travel and A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide: which explores her love of made-for-TV Christmas movies. Her upcoming historical romances The London Restoration and The Mozart Code (Harper Collins) take readers deep into an atmospheric look ofr post-war London, Vienna and Prague. Rachel lives in Toronto, Canada.
For more fabulous first line fun, head over to Hoarding Books.
Happy Friday! My first line is from “Once Upon an Irish Summer” by Wendy Wilson Spooner:
“I watched her long red hair blow wildly about her frame as I shouted with all my strength, ‘Mary Ann! Step back!’ But she couldn’t hear my voice.”
Happy Friday!
I’m currently reading On Wings of Devotion by Roseanna M. White. I ❤ it so much. Currently, I’m on chpt. 15 so I’ll share a line from there.
“For a long moment, Arabelle could only stare. Perhaps it was the fact that she’d only managed about three hours of sleep, but the image before her simply made no sense.”
Hope you have a wonderful weekend. 🙂❤📚
My first line is from A Portrait of Loyalty by Roseanna White:
Chapter 1
Thursday, 28 March 1918
Mayfair, London, England
Lilian Blackwell held her breath and inched along the wall, praying with every footfall that Mama wouldn’t look up.