Is common sense not a prerequisite for historians? Why lie to friends and allies when you have a common cause? The second book does tie up the loose ends of "Blackout" but through cheap fake-outs and more dragged-out scenes where the heroes lament about their sad situation. Ugh.

Very well written and cleverly circular. I really enjoyed finishing this and look forward to reading more of her in the future.

The great conclusion to Blackout. I loved this series. I think I learned more about WWII in London during the blitz then any other book I've read! Just a neat premise of time traveling historians both trying to get home and not affect history. I do agree that the 1st half of this book was slow. Unlike Blackout, which took place in a number of settings, the first half of All Clear was mostly all 1941 Blitz in London and got a bit slow. But the 2nd half of the book, when all the pieces started falling into place moved at breakneck speed and I loved it. I'm sad this series is over because by the end I really cared about what was happening to all the major characters.

Willis continues to bore with the story begun in Blackout. A simply horrible book. Stupid mini-cliffhangers at the end of each section. Bad, bad, bad.

"No one person or one thing won the war. People argue over whether it was Ultra or the evacuation from Dunkirk or Churchill’s leadership or fooling Hitler into thinking we were invading at Calais that won the war, but it wasn’t any one of them. It was all of them and a thousand million other things and people. And not just soldiers and pilots and Wrens, but air-raid wardens and plane spotters and debutantes and mathematicians and weekends sailors and vicars… and canteen workers and ambulance drivers and ENSA chorus girls and historians... Doing their bit. No one can be in a chaotic system and not affect events.”

In a word, BORING. Blackout was engaging and interesting, this long-winded drawn out second book could have been a short chapter in the first. I don't know how this got reviewed as a tour-de-force. Will our drops open?... no, will our drops open? ... oh woe is me.

A fine sequel to Blackout. A little tedious, but it does come to a fitting conclusion. Possibly a bit underwhelming. I think the reader is a bit let down in the process, since I think the two books ought to have been edited to one long(er) book rather than two. The storytelling tends to get tedious, with the characters saying and thinking much the same thing through the two books.

There were definitely things I liked about Blackout and All Clear. The books are a tribute to all the ordinary people who kept going through World War II and did their bit for the war effort. I felt I learned a lot about the war as I followed the characters through their different storylines. The reason I'm not giving the books a higher score is that there was a point part way through the second book where I was just finding the story bleak and depressing and wanted it to be over. (I'm sure the real people in World War II felt much the same way, and they didn't have the option of simply reading for a few more days!) The hows and whys and wherefores of the time travellers' being stranded and their ability or inability to affect history were never satisfactorily resolved for me. Maybe that's another way of saying I would have liked a happier ending, even though for the most part things worked out in the end.

Finished part one, and luckily didn't have to wait to get this one as a friend had a copy. Still enjoyed it, not as much as first book - maybe was just too long a story and I just wanted to get it over with.

Completely satisfying follow up to Blackout. I closed the book with a delighted sigh. Willis not only created a fascinating world where time travel is possible, but her amazingly realistic description of the lives of the ordinary English citizen during the Blitz made me think of my own parents experience during that time.