MVVM for Windows 8

When your application is suspended and then terminated it should restore its state.

You can use the following approach to save/restore a Page view model state:

public class MyPageModel : PageModel
{
        private bool _isStateLoaded;

        public override async void OnNavigated()
        {
            base.OnNavigated();

            await LoadState();

            Application.Current.Suspending += OnSuspending;
        }

        public override void OnNavigating(ref bool cancel)
        {
            base.OnNavigating(ref cancel);

            if (!cancel)
            {
                Application.Current.Suspending -= OnSuspending;
                SaveState().ContinueWith(task =>
                {
                    if(task.Exception != null)
                        Debug.WriteLine(task.Exception);
                });
            }
        }

        private async void OnSuspending(object sender, SuspendingEventArgs e)
        {
            var deferral = e.SuspendingOperation.GetDeferral();
            await SaveState();
            deferral.Complete();
        }

        private async Task SaveState()
        {
            // Save your state here.
        }

        private async Task LoadState()
        {
            if(_isStateLoaded)
                return;
            
            // Load your state here.

            _isStateLoaded = true;
        }
}

Explanation
The view model state is saved in the Application.Suspending event handler.
The state is restored in the OnNavigated method overload. This method is called when a user navigates to the page and when the navigation history is restored.
You can also save the state in the OnNavigating method overload to restore it when a user comes to the page again. This method is called when user leaves the page.

To save/restore the navigation history you should use NavigationState.Get/SetNavigationState methods (NavigationState is usually a part of a root view model or an utility class).
You can use the following code in your App class (App.xaml.cs file).
saving:

private async void OnSuspending(object sender, SuspendingEventArgs e)
{
        var deferral = e.SuspendingOperation.GetDeferral();
        string navigationState = RootModel.Navigation.NavigationState.GetNavigationState();
        await Save("NavigationStack", navigationState);
        deferral.Complete();
}

restoring:

protected override void OnLaunched(LaunchActivatedEventArgs args)
{
        RootModel = new RootModel ();
        var frame = new Frame { DataContext = RootModel };
        ElementBinder.SetWrapper(frame, RootModel.Navigation.NavigationState);
        Window.Current.Content = frame;
        Window.Current.Activate();

        // Open a main page or restore the navigation history.
        if (args.PreviousExecutionState == ApplicationExecutionState.Terminated)
        {
            var history= await Load<string>("NavigationStack");
            RootModel.Navigation.NavigationState.SetNavigationState(history);
        }
        else
        {
            RootModel.Navigation.GotoMainPage();
        }
}