The Only Light In London
Lily Graham
Grand Central Publishing
London, 1939: Finley is an actress struggling to advance her stage career in a Britain on the verge of war. After her latest rejection leaves her feeling down, Finley decides to start her own amateur dramatics company. When Sebastien Raphael comes to audition, Finley’s life takes an unexpected turn. Sebastien is a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. His life is a grim struggle to raise funds for his family to escape the encroaching horror. When he walked in Sebastien was really looking for warmth and shelter on a wet night—and possibly tea and biscuits. He didn’t expect to fall for the young woman directing the audition.
Finley and Sebastien grow closer, and he moves in with her and her mother. Their developing love for each other eases the constant worry he feels for his family, but as war begins Sebastien is compelled to join the British army and fight the Nazi menace. Finley takes on war work to do her bit for the cause—but she has a secret she’s longing to tell Sebastien. With Sebastien in peril fighting at the front, will they ever be reunited?
The Only Light in London is a lovely page-turning romance in which Graham creates fully realized characters, but it’s let down by inadequate research. Britain did not deploy troops to Poland in 1939 as she alleges. A basic military history book and a glance at a map of Europe will show why. Graham’s knowledge of military protocol is also poor. Sebastien’s relationship with his commanding officers is unrealistic. The letters he writes to Finley would have been heavily redacted by military censors to remove details that could have been of use to an enemy, should the letter be captured.
These poorly researched scenes flaw an otherwise enjoyable historical romance. One wonders why the author didn’t receive editorial feedback on how to rewrite these passages in order to create a book that is both touching and true to its World War II time period.
