I finally feel like I’m coming out a major reading rut, and I have one book to thank for that: Goodnight from London by Jennifer Robson. This wasn’t a quick read for me (which had a lot more to do with my unwillingness to turn off Netflix), but it was a good one.
Goodnight from London tells the story of Ruby Sutton, an American writer who is sent to London in 1940, to write for a weekly magazine there. While there, Ruby is thrust into an unfamiliar country that is also in the middle of the war. She meets people who will change her life and not unlike Robson’s other historical fiction novels, there is a romance, but it’s not what drives the plot.
The characters are well flushed out, and I found it easy to sympathize with the protagonist almost immediately, feeling joy at her triumphs and sorrow at her losses. I will warn you, that if you are a crier while reading books, you might need a box of tissues nearby occasionally. I rarely cry when reading, but there were a few times that got me choked up — mainly because of the beautiful way that Robson writes and the subject matter (I’m fascinated by World War II stories, but they also make me incredibly sad).
As I said earlier, romance was more of a background to the main plot, and that’s something that I really loved about this novel. There were a few times where I thought that those themes could have been explored a little more and expanded on, but for the most part I loved that the narrative was focused on Ruby and her experiences in London during the Blitz, how she interpreted the war through those that she interviewed as a journalist and ultimately coming to terms with her past.
If you love historical fiction, have ever read anything Jennifer Robson (you can read my review of Moonlight Over Paris here) or simply enjoy a well written novel, I would highly recommend Goodnight from London. Also, for those that have read Moonlight Over Paris, there was a little easter egg which you might enjoy. Now you need to read it!
Have you read Goodnight from London? What are you reading right now?
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