Book Description:
How do they rebuild a marriage that wasn’t real in the first place? If you love epic wartime romance with a dash of intrigue, you’ll love this second-chance, marriage-of-convenience love story.
London, 1945: Two years ago, Jonty Ables married Katie Baines to save her and her unborn baby from shame. But now the war is all but over, the baby is gone and they must work out where their shaky marriage fits into lives irrevocably changed by war.
Clinging to the memory of a time before all happiness evaporated, Katie works hard during the day as a seamstress. At night she comes home to a tiny terrace on a bomb-scarred street, crammed with her extended family and their problems. Years of estrangement sit between her and her recently demobilised husband. She’s not even sure she loves him. So why is she so crushed that he calls out another woman’s name in his sleep?
Jonty is determined to honor the vows he made no matter how many ghosts plague him. But with such separate lives, his wife is more of a stranger than ever. When Katie’s friend goes missing, Jonty seizes the opportunity to help her find him just so they have reason to talk. But the war casts long shadows over their efforts, and fighting for their future might just be the hardest battle of them all.
Narelle’s Thoughts:
I enjoyed reading These Long Shadows, the third book in Jennifer Mistmorgan’s On Victory’s Wings WW2 historical romance series set in England. Katie is living with her parents and younger siblings in London while her husband, Jonty, is away fighting the war. Their marriage is in trouble. Jonty leaves the military and goes to London to save their marriage.
Jonty is originally from Edinburgh, Scotland. He’s self conscious about the prominent scars on his face and body from his near death war experience. He’s also dealing with past trauma that haunts his dreams.
Katie and Jonty’s marriage, two years earlier, took place when she was pregnant with another man’s child. She was only nineteen and working for RAF on an English airforce base when an unscrupulous airman took advantage of her naivety and left her to deal with the consequences. Jonty was her honourable friend who stepped up and offered her a marriage of convenience. Sadly, their baby girl passed away, and a grief-stricken Katie rejected Jonty.
I loved seeing Jonty and Katie’s sweet and heartwarming romance develop as they were forced to deal with many challenges and obstacles, including living with her family. Katie and Jonty both have complicated family relationships to negotiate, including family members struggling with alcoholism. Katie works for a French seamstress in Mayfair. She finds solace in sewing and recycling scarce fabric into beautiful items of clothing.
I wanted to see Jonty and Katie deal with their emotional baggage and work through various issues on their journey to happily-ever-after. Grief is hard, and that aspect of the story is handled with sensitivity and care.
I appreciated how the intriguing mystery story threads played out and kept me guessing until the satisfying story ending. I recommend These Long Shadows to historical romance readers who like marriage of convenience and second chances WW2 romances with unrequited love and relevant faith elements in the story.
