The Lady at the Lodging House
In the third, concluding volume of the Wartime Lodging House series, Evans continues the adventures of three intelligent, energetic single women who live together in a Mayfair mansion that has seen better days, but which has been pressed into service as a Women’s Voluntary Service clothing distributor. Betony, Jess, and Grace have endured two months of the London Blitz when this novel opens, but all three have also managed to fall in love. The narrative, however, focuses more on the resourcefulness and bravery demanded of the characters – Betony in particular, whose struggle to find work more meaningful and well-paid than her previous modeling career leads her to discover talents she didn’t know she had. When the magazine she has worked for, Practical Modes, folds, she finds herself penniless and lacking the kinds of skills wartime businesses need. Jess, who works in the Censorship Department at the Ministry of Information, has met a Military Intelligence officer whose secretive assignments make trust difficult for both lovers. Grace, a nurse at a senior care home, is planning a December wedding to a pilot whose dangerous missions throw the festivities into uncertainty.
Evans neatly catches up the reader on plot points from the earlier books, but the emotional arcs of the characters would be more vivid after reading the first two, as all three characters help each other navigate the uncertainties of wartime romances and toxic family ties, over the course of an eventful month. The three distinct narrative points of view, each one a woman of good intentions and good humor, offer an intimate look at day-to-day wartime life for the ordinary citizens of London, and a heartwarming, uplifting example of how communities built around mundane things like food, clothing and health care helped eight million people endure the trauma of the Blitz.
