From the publisher:
During World War II, an American soldier encounters a German woman living a secret life in bomb-blighted London.
In September of 1940, during the Blitz in London, Audrey Stocking is blending in with other civilians who are trying to survive the nightly bombings, but she has a secret. She’s not British; she’s German. Her fake passport and nearly perfect English allow her to blend in as she works hard to help evacuate British children into the countryside.
Audrey longs to reunite with her family in Hamburg, but her double life, the bombings, and the watchful British Military Intelligence have forced her to stay put. And then there are the paralyzing nightmares . . .
Lieutenant Wesley Bowers, an American soldier training with London’s Bomb Disposal Company 5, meets Audrey when an air raid leaves an unexploded bomb on the floor of her flat. She is attractive, intelligent, and compassionate, and there’s an immediate connection between them.
As they get to know each other, Wesley realizes Audrey is the one bright spot amid the war’s unending bleakness and constant threat of death. But will he still feel the same if he discovers the secrets she is hiding? Secrets even Audrey is unaware of?
In Times of Rain and War is a gripping and heartbreakingly beautiful story about the strength and resilience of the human heart and spirit, reminding us there is always hope in hard times.
This novel is a beautifully written story of love and war. Like most stories about war, it is a treatise of anti-war dialogue but does go quite a bit beyond that.
Lt. Wesley Bowers is an American that journeys to England in 1940, prior to the U.S. entering WWII. He joins a bomb disposal unit working in London and quickly learns that life expectancy for men that do the kind of work that he gets involved in is very low; that the average for these people is 10 weeks. He also joins the BDU (Bomb Disposal Unit) at a point that the Blitz has begun targeting London as the main point of the German air force’s raids.
Wes struggles to survive the horror he is involved in at the same time that he finds that the men attached to his unit have become like family to him with the obvious commonality of facing death on a constant basis due to the work they do.
Audrey Stocking is a young girl that has entered England illegally sent out from her home in Germany by her father who has arranged for her to flee what he felt was the coming horror of the Nazi party. The family was Jewish with all the downside that would create for them.
Audrey traveled to Switzerland with her aunt and from there the two women traveled to England. In order to make a living both work for a group that specializes in transporting children from London to temporary homes in the north of England which are beyond the war zone. Audrey’s problem beyond the basic one of being in the county illegally is that she suffers from flashbacks and nightmares that she cannot come to grips with.
Wes has a fiancée in the US, but when he and Audrey meet it generates a mutual attraction that quickly gives way to love. The story of a love that helps both people transcend the daily horror they live in is an extremely well done narrative with results that leave the reader with an emotional feeling not often encountered in a novel. Certainly instilling a desire to read future books by Wright and follow through on that.
5/2021 Paul Lane
IN TIMES OF RAIN AND WAR by Camron Wright. Shadow Mountain (April 6, 2021). ISBN: 978-1629728544. 312 pages.
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