#BookReview The Road to Grantchester by James Runcie @james_runcie @BloomsburyBooks

The Road to Grantchester by James Runcie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The captivating prequel to the treasured Grantchester series follows the life, loves, and losses of young Sidney Chambers in postwar London.

It is 1938, and eighteen-year-old Sidney Chambers is dancing the quickstep with Amanda Kendall at her brother Robert's birthday party at the Caledonian Club. No one can believe, on this golden evening, that there could ever be another war.

Returning to London seven years later, Sidney has gained a Military Cross and lost his best friend on the battlefields of Italy. The carefree youth that he and his friends were promised has been blown apart, just like the rest of the world--and Sidney, carrying a terrible, secret guilt, must decide what to do with the rest of his life. But he has heard a call: constant, though quiet, and growing ever more persistent. To the incredulity of his family and the derision of his friends--the irrepressible actor Freddie and the beautiful, vivacious Amanda--Sidney must now negotiate his path to God: the course of which, much like true love, never runs smooth.

The Road to Grantchester will delight new and old fans alike and finally tell the touching, engaging, and surprising origin story of the Grantchester Mysteries' beloved archdeacon.

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I thought with Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love did the series end, However, James Runcie decided to go back in time and write about Sidney Chambers life before the stories in the first Grantchester book. And, what a treat this book was. To get to know a young Sidney, his experiences in the war, his call to be a priest, how he discovered his love for jazz. And, of course, his friendship with Amanda. I quite enjoyed this part of the story, Amanda being the little sister of his best friend and how she become such an important person in his life.

It's such a fabulous novel. I listened to the audio version of this book and I enjoyed the book immensely. This is not in any way a crime novel, like how Sidney helps Geordie Keating in the rest of the books. There is death in this book, but it's not a mystery novel. It's a novel about how Sidney Chambers become the man we met in the Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death. If you are a fan of this series, or the TV series is this a must read book!