Review: The London Restoration

You'd think at some point I'd get tired of World War II set historical fiction. I certainly won't run out of it since it seems like there's a new release (or two) every week. I have not yet reached that point. I probably won't ever reach that point, to be honest. The latest WWII set novel I read was Rachel McMillan's The London Restoration and it kept me intrigued from the first page to the last. 

Here's the book's description:

London, Fall 1945. Architectural historian Diana Somerville's experience as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park and her knowledge of London's churches intersect in MI6's pursuit of a Russian agent named Eternity. Diana wants nothing more than to begin again with her husband Brent after their separation during the war, but her signing of the Official Secrets Act keeps him at a distance.

Brent Somerville, professor of theology at King's College, hopes aiding his wife with her church consultations will help him better understand why she disappeared when he needed her most. But he must find a way to reconcile his traumatic experiences as a stretcher bearer on the European front with her obvious lies about her wartime activities and whereabouts.

Technically, the majority of the novel takes place after VE Day (Victory in Europe Day when the war was declared over in Europe on May 8, 1945) but there are flashbacks so the reader knows how Diana and Brent spent their wars. The novel was a reminder that things didn't just automatically go back to normal as soon as the war was over. Rationing continued for almost another decade and it took a long time for bombed buildings to be rebuilt. Reading as Diana and Brent visited the remains of some of the churches in London was sobering. I'm not a religious person but I appreciate beautiful buildings and can't imagine how difficult it would have been for communities to lose their houses of worship (on top of their actual houses) because of German bombings. 

While I think it was important to have some of the information about what Diana and Brent were going through during the war I found the flashbacks sometimes took me totally out of the story. I wanted to hear about their experiences but something about the way the scenes were written didn't quite work for me.

Brent is suffering from what we now know as PTSD and he and Diana are trying to find their way back to each other and figure out what their marriage is going to look like now. McMillan wrote the emotions they were both feeling really well and I was anxious for the pair to make it through. It was nice to read about an already established couple (even though they hadn't actually spent more than a day at a time together since they were married) as they were sorting through this new post-war world. I could tell they had a really solid foundation and I hoped that would be enough.

I hadn't known much, if anything, about traitors at Bletchley Park or the start of the Cold War until I read Kate Quinn's The Rose Code recently (review here). So, to see it also come up in this novel was quite interesting. It was another thing that indicated the war wasn't as over as it may seem or, perhaps more appropriately, it had bred another kind of war. The history and the intrigue from hunting spies were compelling and I definitely did not guess who was behind Eternity before it was revealed.

I'm really glad I finally made time to read The London Restoration. Rachel McMillan's novel was one I really wanted to get to in 2020 (it was released in August) but I just couldn't fit it into the reading schedule. It's an interesting read for historical fiction fans and I'm looking forward to The Mozart Code, which features some of the characters from this novel and is set to be published in September 2021.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*