Tag: bookish

It’s rare I feature two blog tours in one week! Needless to say, I’ve been busy wrapping up some recent reads in order to share my thoughts. 

Today I bring you a WW2 historian fiction novel called One More Hour of Daylight by C.M. Gray. I was invited onto the tour hosted by TheWriteReads based on my love of books in this genre and period. And, obviously the book has more than lived up to my expectations. Shall we get onto those? Full disclosure – I’ve been provided with a digital copy of the book for the purpose of reviewing it. However, my thoughts expressed on the book are entirely my own.

Let’s recap the book info and then share my review of One More Hour of Daylight. 

One More Hour of Daylight – C.M. Gray

On the first day of World War II, a young man makes a promise—one that will shape every choice he makes for the next four years.

Essex. September 1939.

A wounded German pilot drops from a clear autumn sky into a quiet English field. Seventeen-year-old Derrick finds him—broken and feverish. Not an enemy. Just a young man asking for one small mercy before everything ends.

One more hour of daylight.

That is all I ask. A chance to breathe free air before whatever comes next. Derrick gives him until morning. When the stretcher comes, the pilot’s last words strike Derrick like a blow he will never stop feeling.

Scotland. France. Germany. 1941–1943.

In the mountains of Scotland, they teach him how to kill, how to lie, and how to endure things that break most men. Then they give him a new name, put him on a plane, and drop him into the dark.

As an SOE operative deep inside occupied Europe, Derrick Sedgley lives on false papers, borrowed names, and nerves worn to nothing by years in the shadows. He moves agents to safety, builds escape routes, and stays one breath ahead of the Gestapo.

Then a mission collapses—and everything changes. Forced to run, Derrick finds himself moving through the most dangerous corners of occupied Europe alongside someone whose connection to his past he cannot yet see. As safe houses fall, loyalties fracture, and the frozen passes of the Pyrenees rise ahead like the edge of the world, Derrick begins to understand something.

The choice he made in an Essex field on the first day of the war has been leading him here all along.

Some debts cannot be paid.

Some can only be carried.

And some—if you are brave enough, and fortunate enough—can finally be laid to rest.

From the quiet fields of Essex to the mountains of Scotland, from the dangerous streets of Lyon to the shadows of wartime Hamburg and the high passes of the Pyrenees, One More Hour of Daylight is an unforgettable story of courage, guilt and redemption—of ordinary people forced to make impossible choices in extraordinary times.

Some promises can survive a war.

Some people can too.

For readers who believe that even in war, what matters most is who we choose to be.

My Thoughts… 

Plot

One More Hour of Daylight balances a plot line that isn’t hurried, yet also has plenty of action to drive each chapter forward. I loved how the storyline unfolded from the simple yet familiar setting of England we know and love, and from that the plot spirals to a multi continental, multicultural narrative where saying the wrong thing could get you killed. 

Derrick Sedgley finds his background of growing up speaking both French and German to be his greatest assets in making him one of the greatest assets the British army can use in the war against Hitler. Undercover, his role is to blend in and where possible, disrupt the enemy without getting caught. Although not uncommon for the genre, I can’t say I’ve read too many World War II novels where the protagonist is a spy operative. Rather, I tend to read from perspectives of the victims of Hitler’s views and war against any who don’t fit his ideals. Nevertheless, the action was as high-stakes as I expected and I enjoyed the change of pace. We never quite feel safe and you never know what is around the corner – adding to the tension and need to find out what comes next! 

Characters

Derrick Sedgley it’s technically still a boy when World War II breaks out. He lies about his age in order to enlist, as many did back then in order to ‘get a piece of the action’. If he knew what he was getting into, would he have enlisted in the first place? Who can say. Instead, what unfolds for Derrick spans far wider than the average basic training most British soldiers were given before being sent out into danger. 

I read this book with a form of motherly love for Derrick. Being older than him, I just wanted to mother and protect him and to stop anything unpleasant happening to him. Naturally, the perils of the job he has taken don’t align with my interests, and therefore this at a layer of conflict between us as a reader for our wishes for the character, as well as well actually plays out. 

I suppose it would be fair to say his age and similar background to me made Derrick a very relatable character, and what I was rooting for throughout the storyline. However, I also felt some fondness for Ernst, who is so very different and yet finds himself in a similar situation to Derrick in reverse. It must have been terrifying, and it shows in the micro expressions and behaviours of the boys trying to hold themselves together when nobody is there to support them. 

Setting

One More Hour of Daylight has a lot of travel in it, so there are a good deal of explanations for places and situations needed to inform but avoid overwhelm. I found descriptions are well structured to set the scene, make places uniquely identify and plausible, but without info dumping excessively. As someone who has never been to the places within the book, I personally enjoyed the description and vibe of each setting, what makes them unique from each other and generally explains the context in which the wider book is set. 

What I also like about this particular story is that we start with the familiarity of English soil, but fairly quickly branch out from there. Whilst a lot takes place in this narrative on the whole, we are introduced slowly and taken along the journey with Derrick. One city, train journey, o e mission at a time. It’s captivating and immersive, which combined with the busy high-stakes plot line, makes One More Hour of Daylight a standout new release in the genre and period! 

Narrative Style

One More Hour of Daylight has a very approachable narrative style. The writing style flows so that turning the pages is effortless, and at times I could forget I was reading at all. Truly, it was the type of book I needed right now. I have not been reading very much lately as I’ve got a lot on my plate. However, One More Hour of Daylight has been the type of book that has reminded me just why I love reading so much and how it can be effortless, even when there are plenty of other things on to divert my attention. 

One More Hour of Daylight has slightly longer chapters than a few books I have read of late. However, I would also say they are not so long that the book isn’t easy to put down at the next end of chapter. As I mentioned before, this book balances action, as well as relaying history, complex ideas and background into a plot line that has a lot of action in it. In order to balance the two, the chapter lengths are a little bit longer, sure. Yet, they are no less approachable to read. The language has chosen well to make the narrative easily understood by the average reader. 

Summary 

If you are looking for your next World War II historical fiction novel, try One More Hour of Daylight. This high-stakes espionage wartime novel is perfect for fans of action-packed storylines, yet also gives us a flavour of the individual characters that make up the storyline and the people and places that define the resistance against Hitler’s vision. 

Author Bio

C.M. Gray’s first book, *The Flight of the Griffin,* was longlisted in the 2015 Times Chicken House Writing Competition. *Shadowland*, the first book in the Pendragon Saga, has so far received over 900 five-star reviews on Amazon. These things still genuinely astonish him, and he is deeply grateful for every one of them.

Most of his previous work has been fantasy: either pure fantasy or historical fantasy, the kind of writing where druids turn up uninvited and one of your main characters develops an unsettling affinity with wolves before you have quite decided what sort of book you are writing. *Shadowland* began with every intention of staying grounded in historical reality. It did not. It has turned out to be a popular book, so he does not complain.

His years travelling through Asia, India, Africa and the Middle East have a habit of finding their way onto the page. He has seen and done some fairly strange things along the way and met some extraordinary people, and writing fantasy has always felt, to him, only a short step from writing fact.

**New for 2026**

*One More Hour of Daylight*, published June 2026, marks a departure: pure historical fiction, no druids, no wolves. It follows Derrick Sedgley, a seventeen-year-old from Essex who makes a single moral choice in a field one September morning in 1939 and spends the next five years living with the consequences. From the Essex countryside to occupied France, from the mountains of Burgundy to the Pyrenees, it is a story about promises, betrayal, courage and the cost of doing the right thing too late.

And for those who have been waiting patiently for the Pendragon Saga to continue: the third book, *Shadow’s Heir*, follows in September 2026. More on that very soon.

C.M. Gray was born in England and grew up in the Essex countryside near the Suffolk border, which is where Derrick Sedgley grows up, too. The flat fields, the big skies and the particular quality of Essex light found their way into the book whether he intended them to or not.

He was born, however, with a serious case of travel lust. As soon as he could get a passport, he packed a rucksack and went to see what the world looked like. He has been looking ever since, and has now lived more years outside England than he ever spent living there.

C.M. Gray is now very happily settled just outside Barcelona with his wonderful wife and partner in life, Adriana.