A young woman coming of age in war-torn London during World War II deals with both love and loss.  She loses an aunt and uncle in a bombing raid by the Germans before losing her father and baby sister in a tragic accident.  Eventually, she is reunited with her beloved, an American airman, and heads off for a life in America.

Nineteen Steps is attributed to Millie Bobby Brown but was ghostwritten by Kathleen McGurl.  The story is based on Brown’s family history and includes many true events, including the stampede that killed over a thousand people at the tube station used as a shelter during the air raids.  I ordinarily wouldn’t have read this type of novel, but a book signing with Brown at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up.