Night Shall Overtake Us

by Kate Saunders

At an exclusive English boarding school, four young girls gather in a room at night. They make a blood vow of eternal friendship. It is 1907, and in the years of tumultuous change and impending war, their lives become filled with love and loss, passion and pain, desire and desperation. But through all the time and distance that separates them, they are bound together by a shared past...until one of them betrays their secret vow...

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, Historical, Historical Romance, Roman, British Literature

624 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 27, 1993

About the author

Kate Saunders (born 1960) was an English author, actress, and journalist. The daughter of the early public relations advocate Basil Saunders and his journalist wife Betty (née Smith), Saunders has worked for newspapers and magazines in the UK, including The Sunday Times, Sunday Express, Daily Telegraph, She, and Cosmopolitan.

She has also been a regular contributor to radio and television, with appearances on the Radio 4 programs Woman's Hour, Start the Week, and Kaleidoscope. She was, with Sandi Toksvig, a guest on the first episode of the long-running news quiz program Have I Got News For You.

Saunders has also written multiple books for children and for adults.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 stars

In 1907, four schoolgirls make a solemn vow of eternal friendship and loyalty. Six years later they're on the cusp of womanhood: feisty suffragette Rory, tortured romantic Eleanor, timid Francesca and practical Jenny. And then there are their men: prim and proper Stevie, mean and moody Lorenzo, passionate Tertius, mummy's boy Alastair and strong and silent Mutt.

Their peace and plans are shattered by the onset of WWI, and we follow the soldiers to the trenches and the medics to the frontline. Harrowing stuff, and this author is not afraid of killing off her leading characters - when my favourite died, I shed a tear. When the war is finally over, the schoolgirl pact has been broken, but by whom, and what are the consequences?

I mostly enjoyed this very much, a big sweeping saga full of love, loss and secrets. The horrors of war, the heroic struggles of the suffragette movement and the day to day life of the early 20th century were vividly depicted and I felt I was there living it with them.

I do have a couple of niggles though. It was essentially Rory's story, with the other girls playing secondary roles, not really a four-person tale as the blurb suggested. Although Rory had the most eventful and dramatic life, the other girls had a lot of mileage in them and I would have liked to see them more fully explored. The frequent sex scenes started out well, but became repetitive and mechanical - too many swollen bits, not enough sizzle! And to be really picky, why have one of your heroes called Muttonhead? I've called him Mutt in my review, as I just couldn't bear his full nickname!

Without the niggles this would have been a 4 star read for me, a big ol' emotional rollercoaster with plenty of historical detail.

[Vivian Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A favorite ! Super Favorite! Got it from my grandmother - I always remember the story so vividly.

[Marleen Meuleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een schitterend boek oa over de eerste wereldoorlog.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have rated Night Shall Over Take Us with 4 out of 5 stars because it is simply a brilliant and moving piece of literature.....Kate Saunders manages to pull you back into a time that, before reading this, you would only have been able to sympathise with. However she creates a world that you soon get lost in and you find yourself able to empathise and identify with several of the characters - okay, maybe not their way of life, but their relationships and dispositions are familiar and relateable that you can't help but feel as if you have experienced this time of darkness, hope and a sense of your own morality.

It lost out on a full 5 stars from me only because of some of the unfinished smaller plot lines threaded through the book - i.e I would have liked to have found out what happened to the German sisters lives and the deeper ties to all the characters relationships after this dark time....especially the result of Rory's loyalties to the Sufragettes.

However, all small details aside, it is a truely moving book, that on the 100th anniversary of WWI this year, is a definite must read, if you wish to commemorate all the brave men that lost their lives, and the women who struggled to put families back together.

[Felicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book it is one of my favorites. The first time I read it was 15years ago and I still the one I originally brought. I love the story of these four very different and each in her own way fascinating your women. The story makes you not only long to visit England during this time but be apart of theirs lives to see what happens next.

[Peter Jowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the book. Second reading having read it in paperback soon after it came out in the UK. I recommend reading "Testament of Youth" as it is a factual account of the same period.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saunders does a good job of evoking the feeling of restrained, choked emotionalism of the end of the Victorian era (and the phrase, "Think of England"). Her dialogue, particularly, lets you understand her characters and their complicated relationships. I would have given this book 4 stars because of the writing, but it was a bit too sad, too abrupt of an ending for me. It read like an account, rather than a romance.

[Dilys Myhill · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1907 the four young girls at school made a blood vow to be there for each other no matter where they were. 7 years later war begins & their four lives are inter-twinned in love & war.
Plenty of sex suspense & romance, plus the horrors of war. A compelling read.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel as if I've been transported to a time filled with women rights, with corset, and war, yet you cannot forget the steaming lives of four very distinctively different women facing the tragedies of life as they continue to search for a place they belong.

[Lana Del Slay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, God, it had such promise but turned out so hideous. What would've been hurt by giving the characters endings they liked? Or fewer tragedies? It's worse than bloody Downton Abbey in the soap-suds department. Skip, dear reader. Skip.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable historical novel, it seemed well researched and well written. The characters were engaging, particularly the women, although I thought that Francesca was a bit wet at times.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book I've read multiple times.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a comfort read for me. Four girls at school in 1907 make a vow to meet again come what may in 10 years time. Of course the reader knows it’ll be the First World War by then. So, it’s easy to predict at least one of them will be a nurse and all will be involved in war work with their men in danger at the front. And indeed the plot is quite predictable but aspects of it were better described than I’ve read in many similar stories - the chaos and despair at Mons for example. The author doesn’t duck the awfulness of war and there is no glory in any of it. The personal relationships are confronted with honesty - for me the sex scenes, which start unexpectedly about 1/3rd into the book, were too frequently dwelled on and I was keen to get on with the plot lines but maybe that’s my age! I appreciated the compromises on a happy ending that the girls each had to make - their story finished realistically with hope and sustained, deepened friendship. All in all a satisfying read.

[Val · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I really enjoyed two of the author's later books, this earlier novel disappointed me. At the beginning of the novel she introduces a very compelling character with some hints that one of her 4 heroines would possibly end up with him. The bath scene, come on! And then he appears briefly throughout the book. Too briefly. At the end, when the two finally discover they are meant for each other, the book ends quite abruptly. Saunders does a wonderful job evoking the WWI era in which the book is set. Not the page-turner I expected. The Marrying Game and Bachelor Boys had given me high expectations.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those novels that you read again and again and again, at different points in your life and find something new, relatable and sad about the characters and the story. Love, sorrow, betrayal and trust come together the the telling of the lives of these young characters and the forces they were up against.
I first read it in my late teens/early twenties and now that I'm in my 3rd decade, I realise how fortunate I've been to have come across this story in the first place.

[Starre · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought the writing and characterisation was well done. The reason I didn't finish this book is simply that I'm not very into romance and domestic drama, and though I appreciated the quality of the writing and the well drawn characters, I couldn't get into it enough. Had it been a smaller book I would likely have finished it!

[Dianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

What sounded like a good story was very disappointing. At times it was cringe worthy. I took about six months to read this book which is very unusual for me. However, I trawled through it thinking it may improve but alas, it didn't.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might have liked this better than 2 stars, can't remember much though

[CLM · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am big fan of these "unlikely friendship" books that follow the characters from adolescence, through the war, betrayal, and life...

[Laura Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

World War I. Author very good at killing everyone off.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In Edwardian England a vow of friendship is a thing of innocence. Even when tested by the passionate militancy of the suffragette movement or the rigorous demands of the Season, the bonds between Rory, Eleanor, Jenny and Francesca hold fast. But nothing can withstand the onslaught of World War I."

[Carol Eads · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book would be good. Honestly it’s really not. I have never read any by this particular author. I got to page 36 and I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m a big reader. But I didn’t like this I couldn’t even remember what I had read.

[Lillian Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book and it's one of my favourite books of all times. I really liked the characters and the atmosphere. Kate Saunders did a very good job!

[Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very long but very enjoyable.