One Moonlit Night is a truly breathtaking and wondrous book that was captivating to read from the very first to the very last word. I would definitely recommend it to everyone I know as I think it is such a great read.

One Moonlit Night by Rachel Hore is an engrossing story of love and patience, loyalty and betrayal, against the backdrop of WW2. The Anderson Family - Maddie, Sarah and Grace - are bombed out of London whilst Phillip is missing and Maddie decides to relocate them to Knyghton, Phillips' family home in Norfolk. There she is forced to confront secrets from his past whilst holding on to the hope that he will one day find his way home to her. As ever, the author doesn't disappoint - I loved the intertwining of stories, pacing and characters of this book.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A great book by Rachel Hore. Lovely description of the countryside and very interesting plotline with mysterious characters and plot twists. Very enjoyable.

This is really two stories in one and makes for a gripping World War 2 read. Maddie and her young daughters, Sarah and Grace are bombed out of their home in London and must find somewhere to live. Maddie’s husband, Philip is missing in action and everyone apart from Maddie, believes that he is dead.
She knows little about Philip’s family background as he has been quite reticent at revealing too much so when she finds a photo album with pictures of his home in Norfolk she decides to take her girls there.
At first it is very difficult- there is a mad aunt, a surly but handsomely brooding cousin and a resentful housekeeper so Maddie finds things very difficult.
However she feels closer to her husband and begins to learn more about his early life and a dark secret which haunts the whole family.
Meanwhile it becomes apparent that Philip is still alive in France but will he make it back to Maddie in one piece as he tries to evade the Nazis in his endeavours to get home?
I liked both of the stories and it was compelling to read about the different struggles the two main characters were forced to endure due to their wartime situation.
Both Philip and Maddie as well as the other characters were well drawn and the mystery in Philip’s background was gradually revealed and thus held my interest.
My only minor complaint was that the last part of the book which obviously includes the denouement did seem to happen rather quickly- I think I would have liked to have read a little more about events and characters in this section of the novel. However this is a small niggle and did not detract from my enjoyment.
I’m definitely looking forward to reading more books by Rachel Hore and would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for my arc.

A family story with romance and a secret kept through the generations. Big house, rival cousins, batty aunt and a husband missing in action. It all makes for a good tale.

A gripping tale of secrets, hope, despair, and loyalty. A great read with well developed characters.

Set during World War Two,this is the story of a family torn apart by war. Lots of family secrets ,plenty of twists and surprises.

I love Rachel Hore's books and she is superb at writing strong female characters in a period setting. In One Moonlit Night , Maddie and her 2 young daughters are forced to leave their London home during World War 2 after it's been bombed. They move into Knyghton, the Norfolk country house where her husband Philip spent his childhood summers. Philip is missing, believed killed in France, but Maddie has not given up hope of his return.
This is a great family saga, full of rich period detail, family secrets and an atmospheric setting. The author really brings the time, place and characters to life. I adore family sagas set during the war and this does not disappoint. Recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Absolutely brilliant read just could not put it down.
Rachel Hore one of my most favourite authors and she never disappoints.
Great story line where all the characters have such great depth.
There is a lot of fiction regarding war but it is unusual to find in depth stories about the people left behind and how they are dealing with the possible loss of their loved ones but have to carry on.
Great story line can’t recommend it enough

Another war story from Rachel, she does them so well. Having married a man who is reticent about his family Maddie finds herself and her two children homeless in London after their house is hit by a bomb and the only refuge seems to be her husbands family and farm near Norwich.
Whilst they find themselves better off than some family secrets remain secret until near the end which keeps you guessing, Not knowing if her husband is alive just adds to the trauma. Philip meanwhile is fighting his own battle in France, will he make it home?

What an amazing story teller Rachel Hore is . This story set in WW11 shows the endurance & strength of those who were left at home & those who were sent to fight in Europe. Maddie & her Daughter's Sarah & Grace loose their London Home during a Bombing raid & then head to Maddie's husband's childhood home in Norfolk where she discovers mysteries , meanwhile her husband survives a brutal attack by the German's & has to try & find his way home ! On this note I will say no more other than to highly recommend that you also read this book.#NetGalley, #GoodReads, #FB, #Instagram, #Amazon.co.uk ,#<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/358a5cecda71b11036ec19d9f7bf5c96d13e2c55" width="80" height="80" alt="100 Book Reviews" title="100 Book Reviews"/>,#<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>.

Rachel Hore has been a go-to author of mine for some years, and One Moonlit Night was a completely engrossing saga about a family during the Second World War. There are secrets and betrayals that exist, burdening the family members as tragedies divide them.

I loved the fact that Maddie continued to work as a children’s illustrator after she married and had children, modern beyond her time and with a supportive husband who did not want to prevent her from her art. When she left London, to move to her husband Philip’s family home, it felt poignant given the news reports we’ve had in recent weeks of mothers and children fleeing from their homes with what they were able to salvage, Maddie and her daughters leaving with the few items salvaged from the rubble where their house had stood.

Knyghton as a location sounded idyllic, and I loved the almost spooky atmosphere to the setting, which is almost expected in a property that has been there for hundreds of years. At first Maddie and the children were reluctantly welcomed by family that Philip had never introduced them to, but as they settled in, it was easy to warm to the other characters based at the house, Philip’s Aunt Gussie and her adorable dogs, Philip’s cousin Lyle and the Fleggs, the irritable housekeeper and her laidback husband. As the story progressed we met additional characters and I really liked Anna, the Polish widow who was living in the Rectory with her children as a refugee, unable to return to Poland or find out information about her family members.

Interspersed with Maddie’s story are chapters featuring Philip in a timeline roughly a year before Maddie leaves London, following the incident which left him missing in action but believed dead. As he recovers from his injuries, helped by many people risking their own lives to help him, he is forced to head south to make his way out of France to find his way home. There was plenty of tension surrounding him and the risks involved with all of his actions, to the point that I found myself willing him to make it home, and it felt like the perfect foil for the secrets and mysteries that Maddie was dealing with.

I found the book entrancing, it pulled me into the story and I was so invested in the characters that I could not put it down. One Moonlit Night is a beautiful story of secrets, loyalty, betrayals, but most of all, hope and love.

Having enjoyed A Beautiful Spy, it now gives me great pleasure in telling you how good and compelling One Moonlit Night is. It is an eloquently written book, set in the second world war, that has a whirlwind romance to get caught up in before war breaks out and the lovers, now man and wife - Maddie and Phillip are then separated because he has to fight. They built up a family with two daughters, whom he has no choice but to leave behind, as they then seek refuge. It is like that ultimate emotional romance that plays out as glee that two lovers are together in such a romantic fashion, and scenic areas are painted in the minds eye throughout, which all turns to sorrow and into page-turner.

As the war rages on there is tides of emotion as Phillip may or may not be alive. Everyone except from Maddie thinks he is dead. You really feel for Maddie in this situation. It also turns out that she didn't really know her husband as well as she perhaps thought as there are so many secrets to be uncovered about events that happened years ago that he never talked about.  The complex mystery about the man whom she married starts when a folder belonging to Phillip is handed to her and realises there are certain things that she had no idea about. It means she has to go to Knyghton, in Norfolk, a place where Phillip spent summer-times in. As well as meeting members of his family and the Land Girls, there is also a photograpgh, that poses many questions and further deepens the mystery of secrets that swirls round and compounds in the book, along with love, loyalty and betrayal. There is much intrigue to be sought and many questions to be answered right up until a well thought out ending.

Early in WW2 Maddie Anderson and her two small daughters are bombed out of their London home. Maddie decides to appeal to her husband Phillip's family although she has never met them. They live at Knyghton, an old manor house in Norfolk, full of secrets which affect all who live there.
Maddie has been told that Phillip is missing after Dunkirk and his story runs alongside that of Maddie and their children, Sarah and Grace, at Knyghton. Phillip survives Dunkirk and many other trials in his attempt to return to his family. He hopes to get to the Channel and from there return to England but the German occupation if France makes this impossible and means that his journey takes him far longer than he had hoped.
Meanwhile Maddie is dealing with Lyle to whom she is physically attracted and Aunt Gussie, who the village children say is a witch.
Phillip and Maddie both have to display great bravery and fortitude if they are to be reunited.
Rachel Hore writes characters that you come to care about. Her books are not epic tales of daring but tell of ordinary people showing courage and determination.
One moonlit night is another such book and gives the reader an insight into the deprivation and hardship suffered, not only by servicemen, but also by the people they left at home.

This read was okay on the whole but I found it a little dull. There was nothing that got me particularly excited or invested in the plot and I was not gripped by it. I did like the characters, they are likeable and the emotions came across well. Hore has captured the atmosphere well and on another positive note, I did like the cover.

Another amazing read! Rachel Hore is so good at these historical fictions. I loved the characters, the twist in the tale and the clear descriptions of world war 2 and it’s horrific events.
Love stories, posh houses, bombings, evacuations and family conflict. This book has got it all going on.
A real page turner.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for offering me a chance to read this book before publication. I couldn’t wait to get stuck in.

Another good read from Rachel Hore set during the Second World War mainly in Norfolk with a little in France. Plenty of mystery and intrigue to keep the reader guessing with plenty of twists and turns although in a couple of incidences the detail has been glossed over. Well depicted characters who developed throughout the book plus atmospheric of era. Certainly worth reading

My mum and aunt are big fans of Rachel Hore’s and always read all of her books, but I had never got round to reading hers until this latest release One Moonlit Night. Now I know what I was missing! At least I have the author’s entire back catalogue in the family to read, as I definitely want to read more now.
One Moonlit Night follows the story of Maddie. Married to Philip and with two daughters, Sarah and Grace, we begin their story briefly in 1977, but then go back to 1941 and most of the novel is set in the 1940s. Philip in missing in action in the War and Maddie doesn’t know if he is alive or dead.
After their house in London is bombed, Maddie and the girls move to Knyghton, were Philip used to live. These days, Gussie lives there (Philip’s aunt), Lyle (Philip’s cousin) and Mr and Mrs Flegg who do the work around the house. It is an old, large house and seems to be full of secrets and ghosts of times past. Will living there help Maddie understand her husband’s background? And will he ever return?
This book is beautifully written with wonderful characters you soon care about and an involving storyline. There’s enough going on to keep you interested, but not too much that you become confused. I especially liked Maddie and could relate to her trying to bring up her children by herself, while working as an illustrator. I also loved the setting of Knyghton and the farmland around it, the nature and countryside. I also enjoyed the novel being set in WWII and following what happened to Philip too.
Overall, an excellent read and highly recommended!

I’ve long been a fan of Rachel Hore when I stumbled across one of her earlier books, The Memory Garden many years ago in my local library and since then I have read everything she has written. I enjoy all her books but the last few I found to be just OK but with this new book, One Moonlit Night, I definitely feel the author is back to the form of her earlier books and from the moment I picked it up I couldn’t leave it out of my hands. I had other books I should have been reading before this one but this story, its setting and its characters just called to me and I kept reading until I reluctantly turned the last page. It’s an absorbing and beautiful, atmospheric read full of tension and mystery and reminded me why I love historical fiction so much. Fans of Judith Lennox and Kate Morton will love this book as it has plenty of family secrets and an enigma at its centre. I felt like I had travelled back in time deep into the English countryside during the war years with the family home Knyghton at the centre of the story where there is an air of tension, unease and suspense. What are the people who reside there hiding? Will the house give up what it has concealed for so many years?

A brief prologue set in 1977 introduces us to Grace who is waiting in a teashop for someone. She has a sister Sarah and a letter had recently arrived that had shocked the family back into the past. We do not hear more from the timeline set in 1977 until the very end and to be honest I completely forgot it had even been mentioned simply because I became totally captured by the story that followed set during the war years. That’s not to take away from the importance of the meeting that Grace is waiting to happen. It is crucial to the plot and helps things come full circle but at the end I was jolted back to that time period and I would have loved just a little bit more even a few pages as it felt just too quick. But really that’s a very minor issue in the overall scheme of things considering I really enjoyed and embraced this book from beginning to end.

London, 1941 and Maddie Anderson awakes to find herself and her two daughters Sarah and Grace in unfamiliar surroundings. Then it all comes rushing back to her, the night before they had barely escaped with their lives when a bomb destroyed their family home.They are left with nothing except some bare essentials and a package rescued from the rubble. The package belongs to her husband Philip who has been missing in action, presumed dead, since his unit was slaughtered in cold blood.The package contains a photograph album of Knygthon, Philips family home, the house in Norfolk where he lived with his Great Aunt Gussie when his parents were living in India. Maddie knows nothing about the time Philip spent there and a mysterious figure in the background of one of the photos catches her eye.

Maddie has no one to turn to as her father had remarried and he himself is unwell so bravely she makes the decision to leave London and travel to Knygthon hoping there will be a welcome for her and the girls. In doing so, she hopes she will feel closer to Philip and it will help her accept what has befallen him. Throughout the book, Maddie never wavered in her belief that because nothing had yet been officially been confirmed about Philip that he may still be out there somewhere and unable to communicate his whereabouts. Others may have given up and attempted to move on with their lives but she couldn’t let any small glimmer of hope go until she had true evidence in front of her. She is strong in the face of adversity and the many challenges and unexplained things that she encounters and the love for both her husband and her children radiates from every page.

There was a varied cast of characters that lived at Knyghton and the surrounding village of Monkton and although Maddie knows full well the affects of war it’s like when the trio arrive at the manor house that the war seems to be on the outskirts. Yes, there is the farm where the Land Girls work and Philips cousin Lyle is struggling to keep it going and the war does affect them in that sense also. But Knyghton, as in the house itself, embraces Maddie and the girls and offers protection where they can try and forgot about being bombed out and try and establish a new life for themselves. But the inhabitants are all dealing with their own issues, worries, troubles and insecurities and Maddie doesn’t feel like she has received the welcome she would have liked.

Why do the residents of Monksfield hold something against Great Aunt Gussie and her family? Why is Sarah shunned by the pupils at her new school and why does Maddie feel an unusual presence as she wanders the rooms of the house where paintings of past ancestors stare down at her? Cook Mrs Flegg and her husband Mr Flegg seem amiable enough but what are they not saying or who are they protecting? And what of Christine, the woman Maddie employs to take care of Grace whilst she works on her illustrations for a children’s book? There was something distinctly off about her. Just what do the walls of Knygthon know? Are they ready to reveal what seems to be haunting/following the inhabitants of the manor house? Can Maddie get to the bottom of the atmosphere, unease and things left unsaid that seem to echo from every corner and everyone?

Knyghton becomes a lifeline for Maddie and the girls but there is something unusual that Maddie feels when she enters certain rooms and when she is working on her illustrations something seems to take over her. She finds herself drawing a picture of a young girl she has never met. Here there was a slight supernatural element that entered the book as well as Maddie seeing thing’s and usually I would find this laughable and so unrealistic but here it works so well and fitted in perfectly with the overall tone and mood of the book. It worked well and only added a heightened sense of unrest and of Maddie needing to find out just what went on at the house which has led to Lyle being so aloof and argumentative and Gussie becoming a person almost cut off from the real world and retreating into a small cocoon with just her and her beloved dogs. It was as if the heart of Knygthon had been lost and was filled with empty ghosts.

Maddie becomes determined to ask the questions that linger in the air and she treads where others wish she wouldn’t and I was with her every step of the way as I desperately wanted to know what had happened in the past to make everyone so closed off. Lyle was a moody man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. I found him to be abrupt with Maddie and it was as if he was going through some mental torment of his own. I thought Maddie tiptoed around him in fear of upsetting him further but surely there would come a point when he would have to open up the further Maddie approached the truth. As for Gussie, in her old age, she seemed so innocent and away with the fairies but deep down you just knew she was fully aware of what was going on and what had occurred in the past. She was lost in a world of memories and Maddie needed to find the key to unlock them.

One Moonlit Night is an excellent read and the author was an expert at creating strong voices for her characters. The descriptive writing helped build a clear image of Knygthon and the surrounding landscape which adds to your overall reading enjoyment. Maddie is a character who I have deep admiration for because she never gives up hope that Philip may return to her but at the same time the bravery and courage she has in establishing a new and life for both herself and her daughters is admirable and deserves due respect. When Maddie had no choice but to leave London, she couldn’t even begin to realise the journey she would be taken on but in doing so it brought her closer to Philip and she came to know more about her husband and his family. There were so many things he kept secret from her and maybe this was for the best because Maddie reawakened Knyghton from its slumber and she had characters questioning themselves and revealing things which should not have been kept under wraps. This is a fantastic story with a realistic plot and just the right amount of twists and turns to keep you guessing. I love when a surprise is revealed at the last minute which in turn helps tie all the strands of the story come together so satisfyingly and this occurred here. I have no hesitation in recommending this book. It’s gripping and I could think of nothing better than an afternoon spent in the sunshine becoming lost in the world of Knyghton.

The book starts with two pages set in 1977, with Grace waiting to meet someone in London.

Then we travel back in time to 1941, when a very young Grace finds herself homeless after a German bomb destroys her family home. Her mother Maddie has been told that her husband is missing after the Dunkirk evacuations. Maddie, Grace and Sarah travel to Norfolk to stay with Philip’s family at an old manor house, Knyghton.

Knyghton holds many secrets for the Anderson family, and Maddie starts to learn more about the family as she settles into her new life.

We also hear Philip’s story, about his journey across France, avoiding the occupying German forces, whilst trying to get back home to his family.

One Moonlit Night was an enjoyable read, full of mystery, history and family drama. Maddie is a strong character who is seeking to do her best for her family. This is another excellent historical fiction novel by Rachel Hore I’m happy to recommend.