Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Spanish House by Cherry Radford thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.
Pages: 352
Synopsis: Juliana makes a modest living as an ‘ethnic’ TV/film extra – even though the only connections with her Spanish heritage are her cacti, Spanish classes, and some confused memories of a Spanish mother she hasn’t seen since she was seven.
When her beloved Uncle Arturo offers her the chance to discover her roots while housesitting his coastal home in a quiet corner of Andalusia, Juliana can’t believe her luck. Especially when he reveals that the house will be hers if she fulfils ten life-enhancing ‘Conditions’ within 90 days. Redecoration of the house and a visit to the old film studio where her mother used to sew costumes seem ridiculously simple tasks for such a wonderful reward. But little does Juliana realise that there are family secrets and inherited rivalries awaiting her in sunny Spain, and the condition that she has to ‘get on with the neighbours’ – who include a ruggedly handsome but moody artist – may be harder than she thinks.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: this was a nice easy read to get lost in, we follow Juliana as she goes to Spain to visit her uncle who has a proposition for her that she just can’t say no too, if she completes his list of instructions within 90 days then she can have the house!
Little did she know that this list would take her on a journey of rediscovery and help her trace her family history and her heritage!
The challenges aren’t always as straight forward as they seem, a lot of them seem to have a hidden depth, could it be that Arturo has a hidden motive behind it all, does he know what Juliana needs more than she does?
There’s friendship, heartbreak, hot Spanish men, hidden secrets and a little goat, what more could you need?
I thoroughly enjoyed this, I appreciated the fact that there were serious hard hitting moments as well as the moments that made me actually laugh out loud.
I need more Josemi and Juliana in my life though, the ending came too soon!
Firstly let me apologise to Claire for the delay in getting this review up, time just runs away with me these days!
Today I’m bringing you a review of Elle’s A to Z of Love by Claire Huston, it’s been a while since I brought you a review that wasn’t part of a blog tour! – I reviewed Claire’s other book Art and Soul last year and loved it so much that when she approached me asking if I’d like a copy of her new book to review I couldn’t say no! So thank you Claire for thinking of me and giving me this opportunity!
Pages: 381
Synopsis: Haileybrook, a beautiful village in the peaceful Cotswolds countryside, is most people’s idea of heaven on earth.
Born and raised in this small slice of paradise, Elle Bea can’t wait to leave.
It should be easy, but every time she packs her bags for exotic adventures, old loves and loyalties pull her back.
Will Elle be forced to forget her dreams of far-flung places and epic romance, or can she grab one last chance to have it all?
An uplifting, romantic story about friends, family and the relationships that make a place a home.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: Elle has big dreams one day of escaping the small village in which she grew up, travelling and then making a life for herself as a journalist in London – but as we al know making dreams a reality isn’t always easy, so she spends her life getting lost in books and doing her travelling that way instead – something I’m sure a lot of us can relate to right now?!
So far, she’s managed to escape to Uni to study journalism, one day she meets Zach in the library, he’s geeky and adorable and she can’t help but stare, subtly of course. but when he drops a book on his head she goes to help him and they strike up a conversation – he invites her to a party the following day, but unfortunately disaster strikes back home in Haileybrook and she has to leave without saying anything.
The story that follows is full of missed opportunities for Elle, whenever she starts to realise part of her dream something or someone comes along to knock her down a peg or two and I couldn’t help but feel for her, it just seemed like nothing ever went right for her and she wasn’t allowed to be happy.
But the heartwarming bit is that Elle and Zach mange to get back in contact and he becomes a constant friend to her via emails, although at this point he’s loved up and so is she, but can he help her realise what she wants?
In true romance book style nothing ever goes the way you think, but in this book the relationship I was rooting for seems to come together in the end, there’s a will they won’t they aspect, are they just friends or are they more?
There’s a whole bunch of loveable characters that made this such a joy to read and so hard to tear myself away from… Aunt Cath, Serena, Toby to name just a few!
Will Elle ever make it out of Haileybrook? will she realise who the man of her dreams is before it’s too late?
I promise this story takes you on a journey that you won’t regret, just be prepared for some bumps along the way!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for The House on The Waters Edge by C.E Rose, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos book tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the publisher and the author for my copy.
Pages: 268
Synopsis: Sometimes the past is best left buried
Since the birth of baby Joe five weeks ago, Ali Baker has been struggling to cope. Starved of sleep and haunted by painful memories from the past, she’s a million miles away from the polished, professional barrister she has worked so hard to become.
Then her mother tragically and unexpectedly dies, leaving Ali an orphan. Haunted by her loss, Ali can’t forget her mother’s last words to her: There is something I really need to tell you…
Heading back to the Norfolk Broads to sort her mother’s things, Ali is plunged into memories of her family’s picture-perfect summers on the river.
But as she starts to uncover secrets hidden within the isolated house, Ali is drawn into a dark web that threatens to destroy everything she believed about her childhood – and her very sanity.
Ali may finally discover her mother’s secrets… but at what cost?
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: this is the kind of book that draws you in slowly so you don’t realise it’s happening until it’s too late and it already has its teeth in you and you realise you can’t put it down until you know how it ends!
Honestly when I first started reading it I thought it was just going to be about a new mum dealing with her new baby and the death of her mum together and her struggles (or triumphs) in doing so & although that was a small part of it, it was also so much more than that!
My heart broke for Ali several times in this book, first with her husband doubting everything she’s feeling or experiencing and belittling her going running to his mum when things got too difficult I didn’t like him 😂 if I could’ve slapped him through the pages I definitely would’ve done. – but as if that wasn’t bad enough Ali knows that her mum had something she wanted to tell her before she died & Ali rushed her off the phone, after all she was seeing her in a few days.
The secrets start coming out once she has the strength to go to her mums house to start sorting the place, but when she gets there the gardener is there still tending to the gardens, is he keeping it up for her, for himself or is there more going on?
This is the story that just keeps giving every time you think you’ve worked it out something else is added you just get used to the new direction and then something you thought was a dead cert is then taken away and I was left just not knowing where the story was going – my favourite thing is when an author manages to keep you guessing until the very last chapters!
Thanks again for having me I had loads of fun with this book, it consumed for life for the time I was reading it!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Handover by David M. Barnett, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.
Pages: 288
Synopsis: Daisy does nights and Nate does days, which causes no end of hilarity at the Manchester Museum of Social History. ‘It should be Daisy on days and Nate on nights,’ Marion on the reception says to her at least once a month, as though Daisy hasn’t yet got the joke.
Daisy is the night security guard at the Manchester Museum of Social History. She takes her job very seriously, protecting the museum from troublemakers and anyone who openly mocks the fact they have a dinosaur on display.
Nate works the day shift, though he’d be more suited as a museum guide the way he chats with the visitors. Daisy doesn’t approve: every one of them is a potential threat and befriending them could impair his judgement.
Daisy and Nate don’t have much to do with each other except for the five minutes when they’re shifts overlap at handover. He passes the torch over to her – like a baton – always with a smirk on his face, and she asks him for a full report of the day, which he gives reluctantly. It’s the only interaction they have… until strange things begin to happen at the museum.
Daisy notices priceless objects are going missing but then reappearing, with no explanation (and nothing showing on the CCTV, which is why she doesn’t trust technology). No one believes her except Nate, and he agrees to help her solve the mystery.
They soon discover they have a lot more in common than they realised… and their investigations uncover more than just the truth. Could they have feelings for one another?
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: This book 😍
I loved everything about this, the characters, the plot, the cover, the premise, it was just perfect I couldn’t fault it at all!
Nate and Daisy are both security guards at the Manchester Museum of social history and it’s not just their shift patterns that are totally opposite 😂 Nate is easy going with both his job and the visitors always up for a laugh, even naming a couple of the dinosaurs, whereas Daisy is very serious, everything has to be just right or done in the right away and starts to feel uneasy if anything changes without prior notice! – structure and routine are what she thrives on.
These 2 very different people soon strike up the most unlikely friendship and it was such a delight to see, they bring our the best in each other, Daisy soon gets used to Nates teasing and his relaxed persona and starts to let go just a little & Nate shows a serious caring side his personality when Daisy is around, he just wants to look after her and make her smile.
Could they become more than friends?
They both have a lot going on at home, which neither of them ever brings to work but somehow the other always knows when they need a little pick me up.
This story was funny, heartbreaking, heart warming and thought provoking, so many emotions in a relatively short book and I will be recommending it to all of my friends
Today is my stop on the blog tour for Fireborn by Aisling Fowler, thank you to Write Reads Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.
Pages: 432
Synopsis: Set in the snowy northern forests of an imagined prehistoric world, Fireborn is the middle-grade debut of the decade. At turns exciting, funny and heart wrenchingly sad, it marks the introduction of an unstoppable new voice in children’s storytelling.
Twelve has spoken the Pledge and now she is a Huntling. She has given up her name to train in the art of fighting monsters and keeping the peace, and she won’t get to choose a new one until she has earned it.
But when the Lodge’s walls are breached for the first time, and a little girl is taken, Twelve is the only one interested in going after a child . . .
Teaming up with Dog, the Stone Guardian of the Lodge, Twelve ends up on an epic adventure that will change her life, her name – and her entire world.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: this was incredible, it was fast paced yet incredibly easy to follow and really set my imaginative juices flowing! – the world building was incredible and left me with incredibly vivid images!
This gave me serious Harry Potter vibes in the best way possible, there were so many similarities but yet the story was completely different 😂
The children are referred to as numbers until they complete their training and become hunters, the story revolves around 5, 6 and 12. – 12 being the main character and I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to have a female main character who on the surface seems badass and fearless, not afraid to stand up for what she wants or believes in! (We so soon learn that even 12 has insecurities and certain things she relies on to help her through)
Anyway…. Back to 5,6 and 12, they’re on a mission to find 7 who was kidnapped when goblins broke into the school, she was the only one to be taken and no one knows why!
Throw in a stone guardian known as dog and other fantastic creatures alone the way one of them being a giant spider 😳🕷 then what you have is an adventure story that is so easy to get lost in, I finished the book in a couple of hours because I just couldn’t put it down and needed to know what was going to happen next!
The story wasn’t left on a cliffhanger as such, but felt partly ‘unfinished’ which I’m hoping means it has been left open for a sequel? I will be keeping my fingers crossed because I need more, I need to know what happens next 😂🤞🏼
Today I’m on the blog tour for The Boy Who Couldn’t by R Coverdale, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author for my copy.
Pages: 157
Synopsis: The school bully is the only one who can save them. James’ life has been turned upside down and now the local bully has made him a target. So why would his mother insist he should invite him over? Especially when they’re hiding a secret badger clan at the bottom of the garden.
Now the badgers are under threat from a gang with fighting dogs and the badgers aren’t the only ones in peril.
Danger is approaching and it will make the most unlikely of heroes.
A story about becoming the person you can be, not the person you are expected to be.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: if I could give this book more stars I would, it deserves ALL OF THEM.
This was such a lovely story told from 2 different perspectives, James and Greg.
James until recently hasn’t known what it’s like to have to go without, both parents had well paid jobs, so although they weren’t rich they were comfortable, were able to afford holidays and presents and trips out. – then his dad loses his job and that all had to stop so imagine his surprise when he gets a bike for his birthday!
Greg, is the completely opposite his family have never really had money, they don’t do anything anything together, feeling lost and unimportant had turned Greg into the school bully who makes Greg one of his targets!
Do bully’s deserve a second chance? – can a family of badgers, a dog and a treehouse bring everyone back together?
This book really brings home that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover and that you really don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.
I think it would be a really good book to be read in schools, it might make children think twice about certain situations.
I will definitely be sharing this with my 6 year old godson!
Today I’m on the blog tour for A Young Lady’s Miscellany by Auriel Roe and I’m coming at you with an extract. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.
Before I show you the extract let me tell you about about the book and the author!
Synopsis: What’s a girl of fourteen to do when she finds herself alone in the world with no one to guide her? Why, follow the Victorian self-help guide, A Young Lady’s Miscellany, of course! The trouble is, the advice it offers proves less than helpful in a modern context. Muddling through, often with disastrous results, she finds a friend in her recently widowed grandmother, the door to whose small house is always open. Inept at any job she is able to get and pursued by a slew of unsuitable suitors, she must instead spend a decade navigating her own miscellany in order to come of age.
‘A magical transformation of memory’s rags and patches into a coherent story: a wonderful account, perhaps the best I’ve read, of a female coming into her own.’ Tony Connor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
About the Author: Auriel Roe is an author and artist who spent the earlier part of her career teaching literature, drama and art in secondary schools in England and abroad. One of her short stories was shortlisted for a major UK writing competition. Her debut novel ‘A Blindefellows Chronicle’ was #1 for humour in Amazon US, Canada and UK. It has been saved by over 2,000 readers on Goodreads. Her memoir focuses on her fractured adolescence, her slew of unsuitable suitors and her total ineptness at any kind of gainful employment, ‘A Young Lady’s Miscellany’, is now available. Auriel’s second novel, ‘Let The Swine Go Forth’ follows the misadventures of a group of teachers in a new international school out in the desert of a totalitarian state. It is due to be republished with Dogberry Books in 2021. Trivia: Auriel Roe is the fourth cousin of Margaret Atwood and direct descendant of Pendal “witch” Alice Nutter.
Extract: After I finished my school exams, I heard there was a lot of work to be had at the hotels in Grange-Over-Sands, a nearby holiday hotspot favoured by the over-seventies. Concerned about how to save some money during the two month stretch before I left for college, I wrote to a few of these hotels and got an answer back from one to come over and start right away.
So, I took the scenic train ride down the Cumbrian coast to Grange-Over-Sands and walked up the hill to The Grand, which was indeed, or rather once had been, grand. It was an enormous nineteenth century stone building with around fifty bedrooms, all of which were in need of an update. Like my Grandma Manda before she married, I was to be a ‘maid of all work’: chambermaid, dish-washer, kitchen hand and laundress. I could tell immediately that I was going to be given quite a run for my meagre money.
The manager was a cheerful lady in her thirties, with a mask of make-up and a lumbering walk which I was soon to learn was due to her not moving very often from her office chair. She took me down a staircase that led deep into the bowels of the old building where, appropriately, there was a smell of drains. Here the servants resided, sharing two bathrooms. We walked along a murky corridor with a stained carpet and she found me a vacant cell with a steel-framed bed. There was no window, just a bare lightbulb hanging from a dusty wire. I resolved, at that moment, to try and leave as soon as possible. I would stay one month, which would earn me enough to get through the rest of the summer holidays with a bit to spare when I started college.
In the mornings, I was one of a handful of girls bringing breakfasts to the hundred or so pensioners seated in the large dining room, prior to their mid-morning strolls along the windswept northern English seafront. After this, the cooks and waiting staff would sit around a large table together and eat the leftover breakfast fare. They were a sorry crew and all lived in the dismal rooms below.
The restaurant manager, a conceited middle-aged man with a blonde perm, insisted on playing an awful tape of 1970s disco covers over the loudspeakers. The old folk complained about it because it wasn’t their generation’s music but he’d have none of it, saying it encouraged them to eat up their breakfasts quickly and get on their weary ways. The old toothless chef told me in confidence with a wink, that he had once killed a man. As he said this, I looked down, dubiously, at the joint he was carving. Finally, there were half a dozen younger ones, skivvies like me, all in their late teens, but with no qualifications and no prospects, as had been the case with me only three years earlier.
Something that made we wince was that these younger ones were all shagging each other in those nasty little rooms in their free time. One of the girls had laughed about her sexual partner flexing his minuscule muscles in the mirror before he got down to it with her. I found this sad, rather than funny, and cringed.
During one of our communal staff breakfasts, I reached for my second piece of toast and one of the young men laid his hand upon mine and told me not to have more as I might ‘spoil that gorgeous figure’. I took it anyway and ate it with extra butter. After a week of being there and still happily unshagged, the blonde perm restaurant manager asked me in front of everyone if I was a virgin. ‘No,’ I replied, ‘I’m a Leo.’
After breakfast, I had to go upstairs to clean a dozen or so rooms in a short space of time as there were always outgoing and incoming coach loads of pensioners. The turnover rate was so rapid because Grange-Over-Sands was regarded as a cheap two day stopover on tours around the Lake District. I found changing bed linen exhausting and occasionally had a quick lie down on one of the beds when it was just me working on a corridor.
My couple of hours of daily free time were taken up with milling about on the promenade which was, by that time, teeming with pensioners. I felt desperately lonely in that miserable place, but would watch the many species of wading birds doing their funny walks over the mud flats, which lifted my spirits. In the evening, I’d be back in the dining room serving three course dinners to the pensioners at the tables with the same terrible disco music dribbling from the loud speakers…‘Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive’ a Bee Gees impersonator belted out as elderly gentlemen requested extra cream on their crumbles. Afterwards, I’d make my way back to my gloomy room, lock the door, put the chair in front of it for good measure and try to go to sleep between the threadbare sheets that were sent down to the basement after having been worn out by the pensioners in the hotel rooms above.
It was a relief to get back onto the scenic train after a month with my small wage in my pocket. As it trundled back up the coast, I looked out of the window at the pecking shore birds whose names I had now learned: the oystercatcher, the curlew, the sandpiper, the dunlin and the lapwing, also known as the pea-wit.
If you like what you’ve read then click the photo of the book cover to be taken to amazon where you can but your own copy.
Today I’m on the blog tour for Devil’s Fjord by David Hewson, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.
Pages: 370
Synopsis:
New District Sheriff Tristan Haraldsen uncovers a series of dark secrets when he investigates the disappearance of two boys in the remote Faroe Islands.
Newly-appointed District Sheriff Tristan Haraldsen and his wife Elsebeth are looking forward to a peaceful semi-retirement in the remote fishing village of Djevulsfjord on the stunningly beautiful island of Vagar. But when two boys go missing during the first whale hunt of the season, the repercussions strike at the heart of the isolated coastal community.
As he pursues his investigations, Tristan discovers that the Mikkelsen brothers aren’t the first young men to have vanished on Vagar. Determined to solve the mystery of Djevulsfjord, yet encountering suspicion wherever he turns, Haraldsen comes to realize he and his wife are not living in the rural paradise they had imagined, and that the wild beauty of the region hides a far darker reality.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: this story was a slow burn to begin with, the first few chapters focused on ‘the Grind’ – the whale hunt! I have to be honest it was a hard read at that point because the details were very gruesome and upsetting BUT they did a brilliant job of setting the atmosphere of the book!
Djevulsfjord is a very close knit community they don’t accept newcomers very easily so when Tristan Haraldsen and his wife move in they feel they’ve found the perfect place to settle down into a quiet retirement, even though Tristan is the new sheriff his main responsibility his making sure The Grind runs smoothly, not as easy as he assumed when during his first one he is invited to kill one of the whales at it all goes wrong and seems to lead to two young brothers disappearing!
For some reason Tristan can’t shake the feeling that the residents of Djevulsfjord aren’t taking the boys disappearance seriously and definitely aren’t doing enough to make sure that they are located quickly? In a village where the weather can turn quickly why aren’t they doing more?
Then Tragedy strikes, one of the brothers falls off the mountain… will he survive?
With the help of Hannah Olsen, another ‘outsider’ he starts doing his own investigation and soon discovers that this isn’t a one off and people seem to disappear in Djevulsfjord quite regularly. Can he get to the bottom of it before anyone else gets hurt or disappears?
I got sucked into life in this small village and found myself rooting for the ‘outsiders’ I really wanted them to break the pattern, open peoples eyes to how everything just felt wrong!
The story itself was dark, the writing was seamless and full of atmosphere and was just an absolute pleasure to read.
Today is my stop on the blog tour for Say Goodbye by Karen Rose, thank you to Anne from Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.
Pages: 608
Synopsis: The closer you get to the truth, the more dangerous it gets.
FBI Agent Tom Hunter has been chasing down leads to find the brutal cult that damaged some of his closest friends. They managed to escape to tell their stories, but Eden’s location has always remained a mystery.
Liza Barkley is struggling with her feelings for Tom and wonders if their friendship can survive the secrets they’ve kept from one another. But they may be forced to confront the truth when a chance to help the investigation puts Liza directly in the line of fire.
When the perpetrator of an attempted sniper attack on Liza and her friends is discovered to be one of the cult’s leaders, DJ Belmont, it becomes clear that he is out to get revenge on the victims who escaped Eden’s clutches.
But there is one person who has always had control over DJ, and who no one outside of Eden has ever glimpsed: cult leader Pastor. When a serious injury forces Pastor to seek help outside the confines of the Eden, Tom and his team finally have a chance to bring the cult down.
But DJ Belmont has his own plan, and is not going to stop until he gets what he wants…
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: This is the first Karen Rose book I’ve read, a lot of my friends love her writing and now I know why! – who’d have thought crime fiction with a little bit of romance thrown in could work so well?!
The book opens with Hayley, who after falling pregnant at a young age out of wedlock is taken to a place called Eden by her mum. Eden is a cult where any sin is punished in whatever way their leader ‘Pastor’ sees fit!
Eden is completely off the grid, no phones, no internet which means no way of contacting the outside world so imagine Hayley’s surprise when she stumbles across a computer, with the help of her younger brother Graham she manages to send an email to her boyfriend as a last ditch attempt to get out! – unfortunately just after the that Eden moves location so now Cameron won’t know where to find them!
FBI Agent Tom Hunter has been looking for Eden for a while, so when an acquaintance of his gets in contact saying that they have someone who has had contact from someone inside Eden, could this be the breakthrough he needs?!
The book is told from two different locations, inside Eden and outside Eden, the chapters from inside Eden felt so real that I felt I could’ve been there myself, it made me uncomfortable whilst reading in the best way possible, I really felt for Hayley, Graham and Tamar, you could tell that they hadn’t been sucked in by the other Edenites, they still remember the outside world and still haven’t given up hope that they will get back there someday.
Outside Eden we’re following Tom Hunter whilst he’s using all the people and technology he has at his disposal to find Eden, which has now become even more important because Brother DJ has left Eden and is determined to kill all the people who have escaped to keep them quiet… this includes a few people that Tom considers family! – can he find him as well as locate Eden and save everyone he cares about before it’s too late?
This was a really long book, a lot longer than any crime novel I would normally pick up which worried me a little going in, but the action started quite quickly and just didn’t stop so I couldn’t put it down.
There is obviously a LOT more that happens, but I couldn’t give it all away 😉 if you’re a fan of crime or romance pick it up, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Secret Diary by Anna Stuart, thank you to Sarah at Bookouture for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and of course Bookouture for my copy
Pages: 337
Synopsis: Two women. One house. And a wartime secret that spans decades…
Norfolk, 1945: Only a few months ago Nancy Jones was fighting for her country as a gunner girl. Now she’s struggling to adjust to her responsibilities as a gamekeeper’s wife. After a whirlwind romance, Nancy is deeply in love with her handsome husband Joe but there is still so much they don’t know about each other. When a secret from Nancy’s war years threatens to resurface, will the terrible truth about the worst night of her life shatter their new marriage?
Norfolk, 2019: Devastated by the sudden loss of her husband, Lorna Haynes escapes to the beautiful but crumbling Gamekeeper’s Cottage. There, she stumbles upon a locked room. When she enters, it’s like going back in time. A soldier’s uniform hangs on the back of the door, the flowery wallpaper still intact, the spindle of the record player frozen and ready to play. At the back of the room, Lorna discovers a red, leather-bound diary in a hidden compartment of a desk drawer.
As Lorna battles with heartache, she takes comfort in reading the ink-stained words. Turning the pages of the old book, she learns of the incredible bravery of the woman who lived in the house decades before her. And discovers a shocking wartime secret that will change the course of her own life…
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: Historical fiction isn’t a genre that I regularly reach for but the dual timeline of this story appealed to me straight away!
We’re following Lorna in the modern day timeline who has just lost her husband in a tragic accident, struggling to get her head around it and angry with him for leaving her with 2 young boys to now raise on her own, she’s struggling to keep her head above water so on the advice of her best friend she goes away to stay with her mum and id’d whilst she’s there that she finds Nancy’s diary in a hidden compartment within the furniture!
In the second timeline it’s 1945, we’re following Nancy who was a gunner girl during the war and is struggling to find her feet now she’s living with her husband and his parents, who are old fashioned and expect her to help keep house, a bit of an adjustment when you’ve spent the last few years with a gun in your hand helping to defend your country!
Both timelines had hard hitting moments that made me want to cry but also had equally joyous moments too.
It was heartwarming to experience Lorna coming to terms with her husbands death, not only learning to let other people in, but also learning that it’s ok to put yourself first sometimes and let someone else shoulder your responsibilities.
Next time I’m feeling a little low and struggling I will be taking the advice of her mum and speaking to the worms, apparently they’re good listeners! 🪱
The diary held a lot of secrets to the past that I really enjoyed discovering, the camaraderie between the “Gunner Girls” was really something special and they appeared to stay friends for life, but when Lorna speaks to the family’s of the girls, why has nobody heard of Connie when she is such a big part of the group, the diary hints towards a big secret that they promised to take to their graves. Could it all be linked?
This book took me on a journey that I never wanted to end and it’s made me want to give into more historical fiction in the future.
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