Connie Willis’s Blackout and All Clear- are they worth it?

I read Doomsday Book and loved it. I also loved To Say Nothing of the Dog… until the end when Willis seemed to be suggesting that there’s a higher power or “grand design.” I’m an atheist so this sort of thing can be annoying. Usually just minority so but this was the conclusion to the entire conflict of the book. Did anyone have a different interpretation of the ending? Did I misunderstand?

Do Blackout and All Clear have the same religious overtones? Or will I be all clear (haha).