“In this moment, I pray for time to stop. If I could just stay here, listening to her breathing I would never ask for anything else. In her arms, I’d happily spend forever … but she always lets go.”
When Lucy Westenra met the mysterious vampire, Count Dracula, the world believed she died. But that is the story of men, not the truth.
Lucy was desperate to escape her life, her betrothal to Lord Holmwood, her forbidden love for Mina and ran away into the night willingly. Her death though, is being threatened by a rogue band of vampire hunters made of Van Helsing, her ex suitors … and her beloved Mina.
She will have to risk everything to finally rest in peace; including the love of her life. In this sapphic reimagining of a classic gothic tale, Lucy rewrites her own story as a master of her own fate, her own desire and her own death.
I have always had a bee in my bonnet about Lucy Westenra. I didn’t read Dracula until university in my late twenties but prior to that was spellbound by 1990s it girl/actress Sadie Frost and her depiction of this sexy and sassy Victorian woman with three suitors and a thirst for blood. I felt like she got a raw deal. Especially when Jonathon Harker was seduced by three brides of Dracula, but still got the girl, once he’d rescued her from the Count’s clutches of course. When I read the book in both my first and second years of uni I became more aware of the psychosexual elements in the novel and even did a presentation on Sex and Death in Dracula where I talked about the homoerotic elements of Lucy’s suitors, the tainted blood as a metaphor for disease and how Lucy is trapped by her class, her gender and her sexuality. As a mature student it seemed unexpected and I earned the respect of some neo-goths that day. This is the book I’ve been waiting for and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I felt like it righted a wrong and gave life to a character I enjoyed but who had been written as a walking warning, both to her friend Mina and Victorian readers.
Bee Casey’s Lucy is a delight. She’s beautiful and vivacious, but also intelligent and radical, not afraid of questioning the status quo. Even when it might shock. She mentions that Mina brought her a new piece of clothing called culottes that she felt more free wearing than her usual skirts. She also thinks about the whispering she’s heard of women who seemingly live together, like a married couple. One of them sometimes wears masculine dress like a suit. But these are whispers and she’s never heard of this in Whitby, making the joke that even the Queen can’t imagine such relationships exist. However Lucy knows better and realises people are only viewing sexual pleasure through a male viewpoint and even her own mother has warned her it’s largely disappointing for the woman. She has known the sexual pleasure between two women and she knows she’s in love with her friend Mina. Why can’t they live their lives together, instead of becoming married to the men in their lives? Mina though sees their relationship as girlish experimentation, but something that can’t exist out in the open. When they encounter a strange ship that runs aground in the Whitby harbour, Lucy is mesmerised by it. What follows is like a sickness and those around her are desperately worried for her sanity and her life.
The author has followed the story of Dracula, but writes from Lucy’s perspective with letters bringing other events into the story, such as Jonathon Harker’s visit to the Carpathian Mountains. This keeps everything focused on our heroine. Her nocturnal wanderings and nightmares are viewed as possible hysteria because rest is advised to start with. What they don’t know is that Lucy encountered an unusual woman called Mercy near the abbey and is seduced. Mercy relates the life of a vampire and describes her two ‘sisters’ and the Count as a family. She describes the eternal life of the undead, the freedoms and pleasures of living outside society and it’s easy to see why this would be attractive to Lucy who often bemoans having to choose one person to spend her life with and the expectation that it will be a man and marriage.
“Why I cannot just keep them all. Why do we have to deal with the trappings and expectations of modern marriage. Why must I choose one partner when the world is so large, when people are so complex […] Why must possibility be sacrificed in the name of propriety”.
She likens herself to the mythical examples of Penelope and Persephone. Penelope weaving and waiting for Odysseus to return, keeps delaying suitors in a strategy they don’t even recognise, something Lucy calls a ‘quiet rebellion’. When considering a life and death like Mercy’s she thinks of Persephone living half her life in society and half in Hades. Can there be such a compromise for her? It’s telling to me that Quincey is the only one of her suitors who reads the female authors she suggests and he’s also the first to offer up his blood when Van Helsing insists on a transfusion. He was also the first to propose. He seemed like the better choice to me but as she points out she has a choice but no freedom – “an illusion of free will”. She’s also intelligent enough to realise that the others proposed because Quincey did, more enthralled in the competition with each other than marriage to the real her. She considers whether she’s scared of dying to become undead and ponders that even her name would be erased if she married her choice – Holmwood. Even her gravestone would have his name and she would only be remembered as the wife of Holmwood and not her own self. Of course at first she has no idea what Van Helsing has in store for her interred body. This is a brutal scene in Dracula as all three of her suitors drive a stake through her heart and cut off her head. It feels like a punishment for resisting them and with the phallic stake it also has a corrective element too, driving home that this is what men do to women. But as the men talk, thinking her unconscious, she overhears. This would be a second death. How can she avoid such a brutal fate?
This novel is filled with a tension that comes from us knowing the source material and Lucy’s fate, where as readers we should be glad she has been restored to eternal life by her suitors desecrating her body. I was desperate for there to be a different ending here. The joyous moments happen when she and Mina are together and Lucy truly does light up when she’s around. I was absolutely desperate for a happy ending! This book clearly comes from a love of the Gothic classic, but a frustration with Lucy’s lack of agency and voice throughout. This novel elevates her character beyond the moral warning she becomes in Bram Stoker’s hands. It repositions her as a radical thinker, passionate lover and a critic of the male dominated society she’s brought up in. Exactly where Lucy should be. I’ll leave the final words on men to her.
They ‘have always revealed themselves to be a disappointment, to have some ulterior motive, to enjoy the chase of me, then upon realising my excitement and whimsy is not just an act of seduction attempt to put out the fires of my passion and sedate me to becoming an acceptable bride”.
Out now on Kindle and paperback
Meet the Author
Bee Casey is a writer, book reviewer, copy editor but above all – a book lover. They describe themselves as genre-fluid, because they write whatever inspires them; whether it’s horror, poetry, fantasy or romance. They wrote their first ‘novel’ when they were eight years old, the exciting tales of Desmond the Bear (written in beautiful purple crayon and unfortunately lost to time). They have released two novellas, What If and Constellations, and a poetry collection, Healing in Reverse, available now from most online retailers and select indie stores. Their next release is set for early 2027. When not writing, they are also a Random Things Tours reviewer too!
Mrs Danowski – known as Danni – is the housekeeper of a grand mansion on the wild coast of Cornwall. When glamorous young writer Daphne du Maurier visits Manderville Hall to research her new novel, she and Danni are drawn into a clandestine and intoxicating affair.
For Danni, it is an all-consuming love; for Daphne a submission to long-suppressed desires. But their fragile secret is vulnerable to prying eyes and destined for heartbreak. When Daphne’s novel launches to triumphant success, Danni is distraught to find herself transformed into a malign and jealous character on the page. She seeks respite from the hurt by telling her own story: The Housekeeper.
I remember my mum first showing me the 1940 Alfred Hitchcock film adaptation of Rebecca, the novel by Daphne du Maurier and I have loved it ever since. Of course as an adolescent girl I thought this was a romance and missed most of the complex psychology between the characters and their insignificance next to the overwhelming presence of Max de Winter’s dead wife Rebecca. She’s in the diary in the morning room, on the stationery, the bed linen and in the sheer and fragile nightgown still laid out on her bed in the wing overlooking her beloved sea. So significant is her ghost that Max’s new and unprepared young bride doesn’t even have a name. One thing that always stayed with me though was the pale and haunting face of the housekeeper, Mrs Danvers. Beautifully played by Judith Anderson in her severe black dress, she seemingly floats quietly through the house always catching out his new bride who is inept and deeply self-conscious. She doesn’t have the upbringing or self-assurance to assert her own opinions and ideas for how they live at Manderley, simply acquiescing to the status quo and Mrs Danvers lead. We never know whether she means harm or is simply devoted to her dead mistress, a relationship that as I got older took on a different meaning – the display of the sheer nightgown, the way Rebecca told Danni of her sexual exploits and how she talks about touching Rebecca’s hair all have a sapphic undertone I didn’t see when I was young. It remains one of my favourite books and films to this day, so knowing there was a novel inspired by Rebecca was really exciting and this book didn’t disappoint.
Judith Butler and Joan Fontaine in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca 1940
Rose Tremain takes everything we know from Rebecca and gives the novel an origin story. At Lord Grenville- Whithers’s house, set on the Cornish coast, we meet Mrs Danowski, the housekeeper of Manderville. Danni, as she is known, worked for Grenville’s wife who recently died. She’s protective of her employer who was so shocked by his wife’s untimely death he suffered a small stroke. Along with the other servants Danni runs a tight ship and still keeps her mistress’s things in her part of the house. Her quiet and regimented world is blown apart when the novelist Daphne du Maurier visits the house. She falls in love with its position on the cliffs near Fowey, where she lives at Ferryside. She tells Lord Grenville that she is struggling to write in their family home always interrupted by the children and the servants. She asks if she can use the small boating shed in the cove for a writing place. He agrees that she can come and go as she pleases and orders Dani to make sure the place is ready for Daphne’s visits. It’s soon clear that there is more to Daphne’s request than meets the eye. An intoxicating pull of desire exists between the two women and as Daphne confides, there are times when the boy inside her needs to come out. As they embark on this passionate and dangerous affair change is in the air. The possibility of war looms and closer to home Grenville- Whithers is thinking about the future and where to bestow Manderville if he should die. He’s considering his niece Adelaide, a loud and careless girl who has no experience running a big house. The servants are feeling restless and start looking at other options for their future. Suddenly the place Danni felt safe and stable is in flux and she’s living life on a dangerous edge again.
The confrontation at the ball
I loved how the author incorporated Rebecca into the novel, so that her whole story becomes the reason for its creation. Mrs Danvers becomes the repository of Daphne’s passion and ‘perverted’ nature. She makes Danni into this evil and obsessive woman to excuse her own behaviour. Then there’s Rebecca and the second Mrs de Winter who function as two sides to Daphne’s character: the social butterfly with insatiable passions and the inept and inexperienced mistress of the house.
“What I see in this character is Daphne’s horror of her own nature.’
As well as using the boat house in the cove for her novel, Daphne incorporates the ball thrown by Grenville- Whithers at Manderville as the scene of the young wife’s disastrous choice of costume, encouraged by the housekeeper to drive a wedge between them. This is the unforgettable night where Mrs Danvers takes the young wife into Rebecca’s bedroom and shows her Rebecca’s alluring sheer nightgown and how she would confide her sexual exploits. It’s where I first realised the depths of her obsession with her mistress, she’s almost living vicariously through Rebecca and getting an erotic thrill from her sexual conquests. Rose Tremain uses the ball as a catalyst for change too. It’s the moment where Manderville’s future is decided and where a decision is made about Daphne and Danni’s relationship. Danni has to look at herself in the mirror at times to see whether the woman she sees in the glass is who she expects or if she’s become the woman immortalised in Daphne’s new book. She replays parts of her upbringing in Poland in her mind, the terrible rise of hate against Jewish families like hers and being ostracised at school. Even though the memories are painful she uses them to reaffirm who she is, Mrs Danowski born in Kalinskiego Street now housekeeper of Manderville Hall with the attention to detail and quiet deference the position requires. Overriding the memories of Daphne and her naked in the boathouse giving in to their desires.
“The more she is made guilty by these feelings, the more terrible she must make me in her story.”
I enjoyed the two subplots about two younger servants called Roly and Florence and around Dani’s dressmaking. Roly wants to get ahead and dreams of opening a tobacco and sweet shop. Danni supports the young couple and is willing to help them set up, but is horrified when Roly goes to extreme lengths to secure what he wants. She feels an affinity with a young woman called Emerald, brought along to Danni by her mother because they are finding it impossible to buy a wedding dress that suits her. Danni gets the sense that Emerald isn’t looking forward to her wedding, but sets to work creating a dress that’s simple but cut beautifully to suit her fuller figure. When Danni gets the chance to talk to Emerald alone, she confides in her about the real love of her life. Danni’s thwarted feelings for Daphne drive her to help Emerald live the life she wants, on her own terms.
The pace of the novel is perfect, slow and languorous at first with moments of intense and hurried desire. My heart raced at times, terrified they would be found out. There was a constantly ticking clock in my mind, waiting for the moment everything would change. The author’s representation of Daphne du Maurier feels genuine, even to someone who has read a lot about her background and life at Menabilly – her very own Manderley near Fowey. It’s easy to see aspects of Rebecca and the second Mrs de Winter in her character and behaviour, but also Daphne herself. It was interesting to imagine Danni beyond the Hitchcock film’s representation of Mrs Danvers. Instead of the austere and ghostly housekeeper we see a woman in moments of abandonment, with her hair down her back and nothing but a fur coat on, the object of Daphne’s desire. A desire she’s so ashamed of she makes her lover evil in print then burns her to death. I must mention the stunning cover of this book too, a wonderfully stylised Art Deco representation of the housekeeper, perhaps peering from her dead mistress’s window to the sea below. It’s stylish and immediately takes us to the East Wing of Manderley where the housekeeper is stood as a boat runs aground bringing disaster for Maxim de Winter. Most exciting is the news that Rose Tremain has also written a screenplay to turn the novel into a film. Now in post production this is a Richard Eyre film with Anthony Hopkins as Grenville and Outlander’s Catriona Balfe as Danni. I’m really looking forward to seeing this and I’ll be placing this book pride of place in my collection of books I inspired by Rebecca and Jane Eyre.
Once upon a time, women were drowned in the river and the only witnesses were the crows in the trees. The Puritans blamed Eve for the sins of the world. That was when we began to meet in the name of Lilith, Adam’s first wife―banished for refusing to do as she was told.
We Fly Together…
By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, her opposite in every way―the wild and brazen daughter of a wealthy and well-established Cambridge family. But the two have more in common than they think. Both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more about their legacy, Ava and Lauren form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship, and love.
While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the flourishing creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.
What a perfect read for cozy autumn months! Alice Hoffman’s latest novel is on the surface a fantasy – a magical battle between the female witches of Lilith House at Radcliffe and the male witch hunters of the founding families responsible for Yale and Harvard. Within this battle we have two friends, Ava and Lauren, as well as a love story between Ava and Jamie Mather that isn’t just a mismatch of class, but a clash of witch and a family of hunters. Underneath these magical and romantic stories is a much darker tale about history repeating itself, one that is incredibly brave when in real life it feels like we’re about to reach the peak of that repetitive cycle. Our first storyline is narrated by Ava and Lauren, invited to join the sorority at Lillith House, a house paid for by its alumni that takes on two freshmen a year but only those with particular skills. Lauren is aware of her heritage and skills, but for Ava it’s a revelation and something to explore. She finds her skills come naturally as she finds her familiar, a grey wolf called Jack, and when her emotions are heightened as she meets Jamie Mather – a legacy student with a pedigree that goes back to the founding families of Massachusetts. Then we delve into the past to look at the formation of these Ivy League universities but also the Mather’s family business of witch hunting. Hoffman’s unique narrative voice weaves a spell around you with her layered imagery and I found myself completely absorbed.
There are two paths a witch can take. There’s the kind of witch who provides love spells and helps the women in their town who queue up for herbal remedies that give them choice about their bodies and tonics for women’s ailments. The other path is the crooked or ‘left-handed’ path, the magic of control, domination, power and anger. I felt for Lauren, who is tempted by the power of the crooked path and the desire she feels for one of their university tutors who researches the anthropology of magic. However, she is offered a different direction when she meets an unusual young man called Carrick who is a tattooist. Lauren wants her body covered with magical words, but she can sense that she and Carrick have a connection. Could she leave the crooked path behind her and instead fall in love with this man? She knows from bitter experience though, that love brings vulnerability and the possibility of being hurt. Or will she choose the path that gives her power and control, but also the ability to deeply hurt the ones she loves? I had empathy for Lauren, but was drawn in by Ava’s loyalty, bravery and willingness to go it alone. Her connection with her dog Jack is touching and incredibly endearing. Her love for Jamie will put her directly in the path of an historic enemy: the Mather family. When she visits for Thanksgiving she has to borrow clothes from Lauren as she knows there is nothing in her wardrobe that would fit into his world. It doesn’t work and she finds the hostility towards her almost overwhelming. Mrs Mather is aware that her youngest son is different to his brothers, more sensitive and emotionally aware but also born with a sixth finger, now removed, that betrays his real identity and skills. She watches her husband belittle Jamie and his brothers follow suit until he walks out. She can see something in Ava, she has an ability to truly understand Jamie and accept him for all of who he is.
It is Ava who takes us back in time through the diary of the very first witch of Cambridge, another woman battling the Mathers family. This account takes us back to the persecution of witches and a history of ‘lost women’ made up of those who were accused but innocent and those who were skilled in magic, all of whom were drowned, burned or hanged. This history is about men who wanted to control, not just women but the means of treating ailments and illnesses. Their evidence was flimsy and flawed, now it’s clear that what were taken as signs of witchcraft could be explained. Crop failure could have been fungi or rot and ergot poisoning could produce vivid hallucinations in humans who must have thought themselves enchanted in some way. The signs were women who lived alone, supported themselves, had a sixth finger or an animal companion, or wore red boots. When I read that description I realised it was all about control and fear of women who did not need men. Nothing here has changed, except instead of red boots it’s a comedian on a popular Saturday night show complaining that the women at his gym dress like whores. Or an evangelical preacher warning his female congregation about the evils of gossip and groups of them meeting together, because if they meet together they might talk and compare notes on what men are doing. It’s a president of the United States telling a female journalist that she doesn’t smile enough or calling her ‘piggy piggy.” Misogyny runs deep in society and as Hoffman observes “what men don’t understand they seek to destroy”.
In the current context of US book bans, Hoffman uses a magical story to underline those policies that set out to control women, to keep them at home, pregnant and under their husbands. The US government believe this to such an extent that they will seek legal advice to keep a brain dead woman alive on machines as an incubator for a baby that was eventually born with profound disabilities – because unsurprisingly a dead body isn’t the best host for a pregnancy. In her past narrative she explores the Puritan settlers of North- East America, their treatment of the indigenous people who lived on the land and the women accused of witchcraft. In the 1950s narrative she explores McCarthyism and how it sought out traitors and communists, particularly focusing on the entertainment industry and the liberal arts communities. The most famous example is Arthur Miller who wrote The Crucible about the witch hunt of Salem, as an allegory of Senator McCarthy’s committees and blacklists. Other victims were Dorothy Parker, Dashiell Hammett and Dalton Trumbo who won an Academy Award under a pseudonym. There were also investigations dubbed the Lavender Scare that sought out homosexuals employed by the federal government, represented in the novel by Lauren’s brother Lionel and his relationship with a local detective. We’re right now in a phase of black- listing writers and novels that centre on abortion, gun massacres, transgender characters, racism and homosexuality. Similarly there’s a war on DEI, where right wing politicians and governments are actively removing DEI hiring policies in universities and any federal employment. I have often been interviewed due to DEI policy, but all it guarantees is, if you have the right qualifications and experience, you get an interview – providing equality where a candidate might be overlooked because of their race, sexuality or disability. This has been re-packaged by Trump and right wing politicians in this country as not giving the job to the best candidate and awarding it to the token candidate instead. Only this week Channel 4 showed a documentary called The Experiment and it found that if Nazi policies on disability are re-packaged and presented to the public they will accept them, even to the extent of institutionalising all disabled people and stopping their benefits. We often ask how did people stand by and allow the Holocaust to happen, so I think Hoffman is brave to write a book that reminds us this history can repeat itself over and over.
I loved how the first witch warns that this type of persecution has never gone away, particularly against women. She defines real witches as those who try not to be noticed, who stay away from men and align themselves with nature. I also enjoyed her philosophy of life as the chapters of a book, for life to have balance it must have seasons of joy and seasons of sadness. The strength of female friendship is the strongest theme in the book and I loved Ava and Lauren’s friendship, hoping it would endure everything that threatens it, from falling in love, to left-handed magic and serious betrayal. She captures beautifully how women know instinctively when their friend is in trouble and how loyal those bonds are, even after long periods of being apart. I have those friendships that have endured, a couple of them that have even reached the forty year point, way beyond any relationship I’ve had with a man. Even when life takes us in different directions I know that if I called they would be there for me because they’ve seen me through so much. The magical darkness that envelops Lauren is thrilling when read as a magical fantasy, but takes on greater resonance if we think of it as the influence of an abusive older man preying on one of his students. I so wanted Ava to bring her back just as my friends have got me through bereavement, illness and other dark seasons of my life. Magic is strong but female friendship is the strongest magic of all. Hoffman’s writing is as dream-like and beautifully lyrical as ever. From a writing therapy perspective what I loved most that Hoffman acknowledged the power in the act of writing whether it’s a grimoire, a letter or a daily journal.
“Writing is the antidote to sorrow and the first step of magic.”
Meet the Author
Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952, and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She holds an MA from the Harvard Divinity School and is currently a fellow at the Harvard Divinity School. She lives outside of Boston. Hoffman’s first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. She credits her mentor, professor and writer Albert J. Guerard, and his wife, the writer Maclin Bocock Guerard, for helping her to publish her first short story in the magazine Fiction. Editor Ted Solotaroff then contacted her to ask if she had a novel, at which point she quickly began to write what was to become Property Of, a section of which was published in Mr. Solotaroff’s magazine, American Review.
Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of the most distinguished novelists. She has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah’s Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner Brothers film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. Hoffman has written a number of novels for young adults, including Aquamarine, Green Angel, and Green Witch. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly chose as one of the best books of the year.
Hoffman’s work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her teen novel Aquamarine was made into a film starring Emma Roberts. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares and other magazines. Toni Morrison calls The Dovekeepers “… a major contribution to twenty-first century literature.” The story of the survivors of Masada is considered by many to be Hoffman’s masterpiece. The New York Times bestselling novel was adapted for television in a 2015 miniseries starring Rachel Brosnahan and Cote de Pablo.
Her most recent novels have received many accolades and are New York Times bestsellers. They include The Museum of Extraordinary Things, The Marriage of Opposites,Faithful, The Invisible Hour, and When We Flew Away. Her novel, The Rules of Magic, is the prequel to her cult-classic Practical Magic. It was selected as a LibraryReads and Indie Next List Pick for October 2017, and was one of the Most Anticipated Books on iTunes. Reese Witherspoon picked it as her October 2017 Book Club read, remarking that the “story is full of magic, love, family, heartbreak and redemption.” Set in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, The Rules of Magic is a timeless story that reminds us that the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself. The World That We Knew, published in 2019, is an exploration of humanity set in France during the Holocaust. Magic Lessons, book three in the Practical Magic series, was published in October 2020, and received praise from The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Boston Globe, and was a Book of the Month Top Pick for October. Book four in the Practical Magic series, The Book of Magic, was released in October 2021 and was selected as a Indie Next Pick and a LibraryReads Hall of Fame Pick.
Giveaway
Would you like to win a copy of The Witches of Cambridge? All you need to do is subscribe to the blog before the 31st October, when a number will be picked at random from my subscribers. The winner will be noticed on 1st November.
I’ve looked forward to a new Matson Taylor novel for a while now and this one is such a charming, humorous, comfort read set in 1970s Rome. The word serendipitous was made for this novel as friends and housemates Clemmie and Floss are trying out the turquoise Vespa that Floss has bought as a gift. Unsure whether she will get the hang of the scooter, at first Clemmie is a bit wobbly but as she gets to grips with it and sails off into Roman traffic she starts to enjoy herself. Strangely something like this is exactly what she needed. She’s been feeling a little stale and middle aged of late. However, as she makes her way towards a bridge flanked by angels, she quite literally bumps into a blonde, curly headed angel of a young man who was idling by the water on a break from work. Clemmie takes Monty to the hospital where his injuries are bad enough to stop him working but well enough to go home. The problem is Monty doesn’t have a home, just some digs he’s sharing with a few other craftsmen doing up an apartment for an acquaintance from London. It’s not long before his boss is in the emergency department, with Monty’s meagre belongings telling him he no longer has a job or digs. Feeling terribly guilty and also drawn to this angelic young man, Clemmie decides he will go home with her and Floss. Ensconced in their wonderfully bohemian living room, filled with plants and Floss’s theatrical memorabilia, Monty is soon drifting off to sleep with his new protectors looking on indulgently and Octavian, their large house cat laid on his chest.
This is a story about friendship, found family, reaching crossroads in life and being your authentic self, with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. I love Matson’s chatty writing style, it brings to mind writers like James Herriot whose books mix beautiful settings, humour, everyday life and characters who feel as familiar as family. I thought his usually evocative 1970s setting would feel different in an ancient city like Rome, but we’re soon hearing about foods from my childhood and the brand new craze for avocado bathroom suites. Monty’s clothes are also of the era and Floss’s flat with its boho chic style reminds me of the indoor hanging baskets, posters and tasselled throws of my own youth. I remembered my parent’s romantic evenings in with a vesta curry and a bottle of Mateus Rosé. These contemporary 1970s references set against the ancient beauty of Rome is such an interesting contrast. I felt like I’d been to the city as the author conjured up the beautiful light, the soft and gentle colours of the stone, tiles and marble. It sounds busy and chaotic at first but it’s easy to find moments of calm. There are those cafe moments with Italian espresso and mouth watering Italian food that had me craving a trip to Italy.
The author excels when it comes to character and these are all generous, loving people. There are those incredible comic characters that lighten the mood like Floss and those like Clemmie who have more complexity and are questioning their future. Loving the city and the Italian language led Clemmie to move here and living at the palazzo with Floss is a dream, but intellectually she’s not being stretched. She has so much of the city’s history in her bones, but she’s using the language to translate plumber’s manuals. When an accident means moving out of her office for a while she has time to think. Is this what she really wants? Floss is getting older and thoughts about what’s next are accelerated by an accident that leaves her stranded on one floor of the palazzo. Is it time for a change and to accept that she’s not as young as she used to be? It’s Monty who’s the beating heart of this novel though, and I had the same urge as the women, to give him the biggest hug. I could feel the little boy in him. A boy who’s scared and wants his mum, and he’s found two in Clem and Floss. He’s a joiner by trade and incredibly skilled, he’s also keen to pay the women back for their kindness and on the advice of Octavian the cat, he starts to fix things in the palazzo. Despite his skill he’s not the best at pushing himself forwards. It’s also clear that he has a secret or too, but he needs to feel safe first. I felt like he’d found a kindred spirit in the kind and hesitant Clem. I have to mention the nuns who are incredible and I’d like to have first casting rights if this is ever a film please. These are not the stern scary nuns of my Catholic school, but a rather giggly pair who distribute British foods amongst the ex-pat community in Rome. They get to know Monty by offering him work in the many ecclesiastical buildings locally. They also end up at a club dancing to disco at one point which made me laugh out loud.
The story is quiet at first, allowing characters to settle and get to know each other, but when secrets start to emerge the deeper story comes through and it’s heartbreaking. It might have been nice to have seen some of his story slowly reveal itself in flashback across the novel, but it’s so emotional and beautifully romantic. My heart broke for Monty. We also have a slow burn romantic story for Clemmie and a man called Bob who appears in an ice-cream van and helps Monty build a basement apartment for Floss. The book meanders slowly with the odd intervention from the statues that decorate the buildings and bridges all over this city. I’ve read so many novels recently that are great but don’t have a single character I like. It was such a relief to be in a book where the characters are gentle, kind and want to help each other. Books like this, that bring joy and comfort to the reader, are hard to find and even more difficult to write. Reading about these characters embracing change with feelings of hope and renewal provided a window of solace and hope in what feels like a very angry world. For Monty it’s facing his authentic self without judgement and censure from others, a journey that isn’t without its trials. Clemmie embraces the boost she gets from teaching Monty about Rome. It reminds her she knows so much more than she’s using in her daily life and his story opens a door in her heart for potential romance but also her first love – writing poetry. Floss is embracing the new stage in her life and the freedom living in the basement flat brings for the next stage in life. Octavian the cat, prowls each level of the palazzo enjoying his new friends and casting an imperious eye over their adventures. This is a very emotional read in a stunning setting, with a big heart, a sprinkle of magic and a definite Northern slant to the humour.
As all my readers know by know I’m a huge fan of Alice Hoffman, since the early 2000s when I first read Skylight Confession. I then tore through her entire back catalogue and fell in love with her mix of magic realism, the north east United States and moments from history. I hadn’t realised she was the original author of Practical Magic, the 1998 film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the Owens sisters, Gillian and Sally. Sally, the more sensible sister has her life disrupted when Gillian turns up in her life, as always bringing trouble behind her. However, it’s only in recent years that she’s revisited the Owen’s family, going back to their origins in the UK with Magic Lessons. This is the first book chronologically, starting in the 1600s when wise woman Hannah Owens finds a baby abandoned in a snowy field. She brings Maria up as her daughter, passing on her wisdom and plant knowledge to benefit the women who arrive at night looking for their help. Maria soon has her own familiar and when Hannah is taken and burned as a witch she flees England for the Caribbean and then Massachusetts USA in pursuit of the lover who lies and breaks her heart. It is Maria who intends to create a protection spell for the women in her family, keeping them safe from heartbreak. The spell becomes a curse that every Owens descendant has to face: they fall in love their lover will die.
I went to see the film Practical Magic 2 last week, starring the original actresses as Sally and Gillian, plus Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest as the aunts who brought them up – Frannie and Jet. The younger generation are Sally’s daughters Antonia played by Game of Thrones Maisie Williams and Kylie played by Joey King. Once I got over the shock that Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock look younger than they did in 1998, I began to enjoy the film. It’s based mainly on the third book in the series – The Book of Magic but does allude to Maria Owens too. Gillian’s daughter Kylie is falling in love, knowing nothing of the curse that hangs over their family. Gillian wanted to bring up girls free from their heritage as witches, even though women do still queue up at the door for their help. Sally has been against this decision, keeping her promise to her sister while worrying that this secret will only bring trouble. Unbeknownst to Sally, Kylie is slowly falling in love with Gideon at university oblivious to how dangerous her emotions can be. Meanwhile Aunt Jet has heard the death watch beetle clicking all over the house and knows her time is close. Before she dies she wants to use the book of magic to free the younger generations from the protection spell that has become a curse. As tragedy strikes and Gideon’s life hangs in the balance, Kylie takes the book of magic and makes her way to England hoping to find someone who can help her break the curse.
The film has all the charm of Practical Magic and some emotional moments as Sally battles to save her daughter using the magic she’s kept from them all these years. Gillian is right by her side as they follow Kylie to England, leaving Aunt Frannie and Antonia to look after Gideon in hospital. There are some comic moments, mainly based in the difference between the sisters. Gillian is much freer than Sally, shown in short scenes like the one as they leave for England with Sally’s only luggage being a small weekend bag and Gillian’s comically large suitcases having to be lugged up and down many flights of stairs. The casting of the men in the film is very good, particularly the magic professor Ian Wright, played by Lee Pace with a quiet intensity and the chemistry between him and Sandra Bullock is off the charts. We’re introduced to him as the sisters blunder their way into his third floor flat (with all their suitcases) only to find him naked on his bed paralysed by magic. Sally covers as much of his body as she can while performing the magic to break this powerful spell. Meanwhile Gillian is quite happy to enjoy the view and tease her sister at the same time. One he’s awake he can’t believe the famous Owens sisters are in front of him and helps them to follow Kylie on her journey to their heritage, the small village where Hannah Owens was burned. There’s magic, loss, romance and laughs along the way with the sacrifice that needs to be made to save Gideon especially emotional. Films are almost never better than the book and this one isn’t, but it’s a fair adaptation of Practical Magic’s two prequels and definitely keeps the charm of the original film. I recommend the books wholeheartedly and it seems they’re doing a film tie-in repackaging The Book of Magic to match the film. If you want an easy, engaging night at the cinema then this is definitely a good girl’s night film. As always with this family I came an away wishing I was an Owens, even if it’s just to live in their incredible house!
One golden summer. One missing treasure. And a secret that binds two lives together.
Every year, Alice’s father gives her a treasure. Then on the morning of her sixteenth birthday, her final gift vanishes – along with the fragile certainty of her world. Alice runs, towards New York City and away from the memories of that last summer at the orchard where she grew up.
Across the Atlantic, Tom has always felt that something is missing from his life. When he finds a long-forgotten letter, it leads him away from Sevenstones – the house at the heart of his family for generations – and towards a truth no one has ever fully told.
From post-war London to 1960s New York, Alice and Tom’s stories become entwined. But will the secrets of their past bring them together, or break them apart?
I always think that the good marker of a book is when you find yourself thinking about it days later and discussing it – or in my case boring someone who hasn’t even read it with my thoughts and feelings. This book brought up so many feelings! While we start with Alice’s devastating story of her early years, it was Tom’s narrative where the book came alive for me, with his early life in Dumfries and Galloway only a stone’s throw from my favourite yearly holiday destination. The descriptions are so vivid, from the hand to mouth existence of Tom and his father and their total connection with the seasons. The frozen sheep they find that keeps them going all winter and the beautiful hare at the gate signalling the oncoming summer. It’s a magical place and although life isn’t easy it’s familiar, with a strong connection between father and son since the death of his mother. To be torn from all of that and transported to post-war London by his mother’s family feels so unjust. His Aunt Jenny and Uncle Henry are eccentric and not as wealthy as they once were, evidenced by the ghosts of sold paintings on the wallpaper and their diet of tinned goods. As Tom deals with new expectations, the fractured feel of the city and its bomb sites, we start to sense a secret behind all of this, only hinted at and never made clear to Tom. A promise was made in wartime, one that couldn’t be broken and has it’s roots in a house called Sevenstones where ravens nest in the trees and a key was left under a stone at the door for anyone who needed an interlude from their wartime duties. It’s a secret that follows Tom throughout his years at school and eventually across the Atlantic.
Each section of this book is so evocative of its time and place. The captures the unrest in 1950s London and attitudes towards those who enlisted to fight in the war from Britain’s colonies, now returned to settle here as part of the Windrush generation. There are Teddy Boys rioting and children playing in bomb craters, the contrast of Westminster school and forays into Portobello Market. Meanwhile, Alice’s narrative takes her from a small town in upstate New York where minds and opportunities are equally small, into Manhattan during the unrest and change of the 1960s. Living in a squat in the East Village she is part of the hippy generation, with the backdrop of protests against segregation and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Then comes the anti – Vietnam War demonstrations accompanied by the music of Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez. All seen through a haze of pot, LSD and The Beatles more psychedelic years. Alice’s generation is my mother’s too so the music, peace and love, the fashion and political beliefs are familiar and nostalgic. Tom travels to the USA to look for Alice, who he accidentally spoke to by phone briefly, for answers about his past and a woman called Teddy Kynaston who seems to be the key to the secrets he’s discovered.
Alice’s humming of Yesterday is so symbolic, with its twin refrains of the young girl running away early one morning and the parent’s lament that they sacrificed everything for her. Both young people are damaged by the generation before and there’s a definite sense of Phillip Larkin’s ‘This Be The Verse’ about the narrative – everyone always remembers the first line but forgets the second “they do not mean to, but they do’. The generation before us were messed up by their parents too, a theme that I imagine will run throughout the next novels in this series. Tom and Alice are failed by parents keeping secrets and making decisions to right the wrongs of the past that only make things worse. I felt something of Tom’s confused identity, having gone to a grammar school where many of my classmates were considerably better off than we were. I was taught to drop my accent and while I got a great education I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere. For Tom the disparity is even greater and in his beautifully naive way he reminded me of Jay Gatsby, unaware of how ruthless the rich can be even when it comes to love. The parallel reaches across the Atlantic to Alice’s family and her dad’s employer, the oily and deeply unpleasant writer Wilder Kynaston. He’s wants to write from a young girl’s perspective, perhaps Daisy Buchanan’s but Alice is quite clear that no one cares about the Buchanans, they’re just as careless with feelings as Tom’s Westminster friends. Gatsby is great because of his loyalty and fierce love for a girl who doesn’t deserve his devotion, something Tom understands.
I felt so deeply angry with the Kynastons and the Caldicotts, especially as the truth of their wartime connection comes into the open. Their story made me understand why people of my grandparent’s age feel nostalgia about wartime – there was a freedom that disappeared into the 1950s and what felt like a concerted effort to force women back into their pre-war roles and behaviour. Women were flying planes up and down the country, joining the ambulance service in heavily bombed cities, working as land girls or taking on roles in the forces. They experienced a freedom in their social life they’d never had before and people took risks because they didn’t know if they’d live through the next day, never mind see the consequences. For women like Jenny, Teddy and Irene it allowed them to be fully themselves only to find themselves controlled and back in the domestic sphere and for some the consequences of being different are devastating. The author takes 20th Century events and shows their consequences in one generation of a family and I’m fascinated to see where these characters go next, something hinted at in the final chapters. As the book drew to a close I found myself hanging on through the final twists that bring us back to Sevenstones. I was so desperate for a specific outcome that when a previous character popped up unexpectedly in the final pages I swore out loud! The treasures in this story are not necessarily the trinkets that Alice carries with her or the carved house that Tom always carries in his pockets as a talisman. It’s the people they represent and the love that flows between them, even long after they’ve gone.
Out now from Penguin and part of the Sevenstones Trilogy
Meet the Author
Harriet is the author of an incredible fourteen novels, selling over a million copies and being a Top Ten bestseller as well as a Richard and Judy pick twice. Prior to that she worked in publishing, editing authors like Marian Keyes and Sue Townsend. She claims working on the reissue of the book LACE as a proud moment from her junior career.
The Treasures was released in 2025 and is the first book in a family saga featuring the Ravens over a fifty year stretch of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Last year she published her first murder mystery featuring detective Dora Wildwood, a character she hopes to continue into future novels.
She is on the management committee of the Society of Authors, fighting for better deals for authors, talking about the dangers of AI, ghostwriters, bad contracts, ghosting, royalties and other issues facing authors. She also volunteers with Inspiring the Future, aiming to widen aspiration for all children, and am an ambassador for the London Library.
Harriet lives in Bath with her family and a huge fluffy cat.
Harriet can be found on instagram as @harrietevansauthor.
Melody has vowed never to fall in love again. Al is a hopeless romantic. So, when they quite literally bump into each other, there’s no reason sparks should fly. But the world seems a little upside down lately.
A few weeks ago, Al ordered the removal of all the lovers’ padlocks from one of Dublin’s beautiful bridges. Ever since then, couples across the world have started splitting up. And as Melody begins investigating this mysterious wave of breakups for her podcast, it seems there might be a bigger story to tell.
Together, they decide to uncover what’s unravelling so many love stories. And, in the middle of solving everyone else’s heartbreak, can they unlock theirown?
For her latest novel, Cecilia has brought us to Dublin and the marriage of Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford, a famous love story that ended with a candlelight marriage in Kilmainham Jail the night before his execution. This tragic story is immortalised in the 1985 song Grace and the Grace Plunkett bridge is a site of pilgrimage where people represent their love with initialled padlocks secured to the bridge railings. However, this proclamation of love is having its effect on the city’s bridges, that were never engineered for the extra weight of thousands of steel padlocks. For Al this is a problem, he works for the bridge authorities and he has been tasked with checking not only how much strain this adds to their bridges but how best to manage the problem. When the advice comes it’s not great for those of a romantic disposition, the locks will need to be removed in order to keep the bridge safe. So Al orders their removal as soon as possible, not in the best frame of mind romantically he isn’t fully prepared for the response. It’s not long before podcaster and DJ Melody is in touch with him regarding the love locks, she’s been inundated with stories of people who had a lock on the Grace Plunkett Bridge and since their removal have split with their other half. Some of them very close to home. She decides she must interview the man behind this phenomenon, but this isn’t the best time for Al since his own relationship has spectacularly imploded. Melody isn’t someone who takes no for an answer and soon the pair are investigating the stories and getting to know each other. Could the unlucky lovers clamouring for answers turn into something like luck for these two heartbroken people?
This is a story I’ve come across before with a lesser known author and found the whole subject fascinating. Could removing a love lock genuinely remove the love between two people, or was it a matter of psychological suggestion? They know they can’t rule out some opportunists using it as a reason to break up without taking the blame, but the sheer amount of coincidences is spooky. Neither Al or Melody are lucky in love. Melody split up with long term partner Sam after a very public proposal she wasn’t ready for. They still run a jacket potato van together and spend lots of time in each other’s company, despite Sam’s marriage and new baby. Melody knew that it wasn’t that she didn’t want to marry Sam but more that she knew she didn’t want to marry anyone, ever. Al’s relationship with Tara ended when he discovered a long term affair with their flatmate and Al’s best friend, Walter. Now Al has been forced to move out of a house he owns and Tara and Walter are living together. Not that he’s taking this lying down. There are some downright sneaky but hilarious ways of getting your own back. One of which backfires spectacularly leading to an office confrontation that had me in the same position as Al’s assistant Natasha – almost pissing myself. In fact Natasha was one of my favourite characters throughout. Both Al and Melody need to let go of the past and grow; could the misfortune of hundreds of couples actually bring them together?
I really loved Melody. She’s quirky, edgy, funny and a bit neurotic – but all the best people are… right? She’s beautiful in an offbeat way and knows exactly what she wants, her pizza ordering at Al’s flat is a great example:
“We are ordering two separate pizzas because we are two unique individuals who have different tastes, desires and goals and who know our own minds”.
Perhaps keeping their connection loose and undefined gives them both the space to properly get to know each other. Melody has relied on Sam (and still does if she’s honest) but that can’t continue. Even her mum isn’t available this time and needs space of her own. This means she gets to know Al with no expectations or barriers and actually opens up. She can’t sleep well at night without someone there but Al supports her to try. He’s there listening on the end of the phone while she does her bedtime routine and it’s strangely intimate despite the distance between them. He’s encouraging her to stand on her own two feet and she’s allowing herself to be vulnerable with someone she’s attracted to. She recognises that important ritual of going to bed with someone, not in the sexual sense, but seeing each other without a mask. It’s when we’re our most authentic self, trusting someone enough to fall asleep in their presence when we’re so vulnerable and sharing each other’s day, our worries and fears. My husband always says it’s the absolute favourite part of his day. Al on the other hand could do with learning to lean on someone, especially in this situation where he works with the man who’s betrayed him. I loved the scene with his fellow rowers, literally being part of something bigger than himself again and working as a team. It breaks the dam he’s built to hold his feelings and he finds himself both relieved and surprised by their reactions.
I found myself rooting for this couple and aside from their romantic potential I hoped for Melody’s podcast with unlikely friend Prunella to take off. Their shared visit to Joseph Plunkett’s jail cell was moving and gave a depth to the story they were telling. I could see them thinking about what Grace’s story could teach them. I could also see how Melody’s fear of being alone was linked to her absent father, something that can have a devastating impact on women’s later relationships. The space she gets from Sam and from her Mum allows her to make a connection between how she feels when alone and an incident from the past. Her chat with her mum’s partner Dave during their split really cements their own relationship. He leaves her his record player and the memories it evokes bring real revelations about how she thinks in a negative way and misses the positives in her life. This book left me feeling like no love is perfect, but it isn’t meant to be. It left me happy, hopeful and so privileged to have a man like my husband even if he does drive me up the wall at times.
There have been some absolutely belting books this month and I loved telling you all about them. So I’ve been in the US, Italy, Greece Scotland and Sheffield. Oh I forgot about the ‘anti-verse’. It’s been a whirlwind of monstrous mermaids, a universe that goes backwards, the Greek civil war, a family dealing with the aftermath of 9/11, a crime writer who wakes up in a Sicilian villa with a dead body, a counsellor dealing with coercive control and a group of young boys trying to save their summer boy’s club. I’ve struggled to keep my mind on my reading to be honest it’s been a tough month. At the end of the last heatwave my cat returned home late one night and collapsed in the hall. I thought it was heatstroke and we tried to cool him but I could see he couldn’t put any weight on his back end. We rushed him to the vets where they diagnosed possible epilepsy. I knew this wasn’t right. She gave us some anti-convulsants but I wasn’t sure this was the right call. We kept him confined and on pain killers but he still couldn’t walk. I decided on a second opinion and went to a vet I used to see before moving house and he was brilliant. Poor Max had broken his pelvis in two places, his hip and damaged his lumbar spine. He also had a partially healed wound on his side. I can’t believe all that was missed. I could feel where his pelvis was pushed over, twisting his whole lower body. He’s had some surgery and lots of care at home. It’s going to take twelve weeks or more to fully settle. My husband has built him a three bedroom home under the stairs so he’s confined some of the time but can come out for exercise and fuss. My animals are my daily company now I don’t get out and about too well so they’re an important part of my life. I was so upset and I’ve really been focused on making him comfy and safe. So there’ll be lots of reading time in the upcoming weeks and I can’t wait be use it looks like an amazing autumn. I’ll share some recommendations for your tbr at the end. ❤️📚
I’ve been looking forward to this new release from Jodi Picoult and I was lucky enough to get it on NetGalley. I dived in and read it very quickly over a couple of days. My full review will be later in the week, but this was a fascinating read, bravely taking on some of the most contentious and sacred subjects in modern day America. We follow Molly, a young woman in her twenties who is incredibly driven and has the difficult job of coordinating emergency response in her state. Her job is not medical, it’s to prevent incidents and plan for potential disaster situations based on the geographical features of the area, possible targets and population. Having just got through COVID, Molly is happily settled down with husband Jesse close to her dad and stepmum. It’s easy to see that it’s the loss of her mother that has influenced Molly’s choice of career. Eloise was lost on 9/11 when she attended a medical appointment in the South Tower. Every year Molly takes the trip to NYC for the memorial ceremony and tucks a red ribbon behind her mum’s name, representing the one she always wore in her French plait. What Molly doesn’t know is that her own life is about to blow up unexpectedly, changing everything she’s ever known and challenging what she knows about motherhood and risk prevention. I thought this was a classic Jodi Picoult novel with dilemmas, big emotions and using different narrative voices to give us all sides of an argument. We think we know Molly’s story, but a different narrator throws all of that up in the air so unexpectedly. Reading Molly’s narrative I kept thinking “ah this is going to be about x” but I was wrong. There are strong issues here – mental health, abuse, cult mentality – and they are shocking, because they should be. Jodi Picoult has such an easy, conversational style and it was great to be back in the hands of a fantastic storyteller.
This is a great premise for a thriller and having been a therapist I’m always fascinated by books that are based on the therapeutic relationship. I think there’s a fascination in what therapist’s personal lives actually look like. Do they have it all sorted? The answer is invariably no and here there’s so much projection happening between Helena and her client Belle. Confidentiality is the bedrock of any therapeutic relationship, but that can get tricky when the therapist knows the client needs either specialist help or practical help. Helena is there to listen and guide Belle towards her own answers, but the constant disclosure of coercive control is uncomfortable to sit in. The urge to do rather than sit back and listen becomes difficult for Helena and it’s this discomfort that leads to her talking about it with best friend Tala. This is an issue for supervision, where Helena should disclose that she’s finding Belle’s passivity and indecision on leaving very difficult, but she doesn’t and now Tala is talking about how positive early responses have been to her new novel. Yet she doesn’t offer Helena a proof. When Helena stumbles across one at Tala’s flat she takes it and reads in horror as she realises Tala has fictionalised the problems of her client. This is going to be like a grenade in her personal and professional life.
The lives of Tala, Helena and her boyfriend Dylan and their paths into adulthood hinged on a single night. I thought the author managed these flashbacks well, placing them absolutely perfectly for maximum effect. It seems everyone has secrets but they are slowly revealed creating a very addictive read with short, pacy chapters that make you want to read just one more. The tension is almost unbearable as I worried about Helena overstepping with her client, the client finding out what’s in Tala’s book and somehow passing that on to her husband Julius. Would Helena be safe? As her well-ordered life starts to fall apart Helena starts to lose her belongings, forget her schedule and have terrible nightmares. She has no access to supervision and her relationship with Tala is broken. I wondered if she was heading for a breakdown. You may see the twist coming, but that doesn’t detract from the story. Eyes are opened, secrets past and present are revealed and I devoured the last few chapters late at night, unable to wait till the morning to find out what happened. This was an excellent thriller, full of psychological drama and really nailed the experience of being a counsellor with a problematic client. I also loved the ‘meta’ structure of reading a book about a book and just like Tala’s new novel this one should be a bestseller.
This epic story from Victoria Hislop really taught me a lot about a period of history I knew little about. The events happen after the end of WW2, a turbulent time that has already seen the punishment of Nazi collaborators and now many would like to see the end of their right wing government. The setting is a village called Kalopetra where Fotini’s husband has gone to fight for government forces against the communists, causing a schism in the family because Fotini’s brother-in-law fights for the communists. The sudden divide causes friction across the village, but the women must work together if they’re to survive. When government forces come to the village they capture all the women and Fotini is allowed to bring her baby son with her but older daughter Iliana is left behind with older children. How will they survive? That moment of Iliana chasing the truck, with her mother unable to do anything to reassure her, is burned into my memory. Although soon enough communist forces will round up the children and move them into camps where they are fed, clothed and then sent on to other countries like Yugoslavia. After having the entire burden of the other village children on her shoulders, Iliana is relieved to be fed and clothed by such kind people and so the process of brainwashing begins. All Fotini can think about is returning to her peaceful village and living the rustic existence that has survived for centuries, she doesn’t know that her way of life is already dead and nothing will be the same again.
I really enjoyed the later parts of the novel where we see Fotini piecing life back together in the city of Piraeus. It’s a massive change for this country girl but she can see the benefits of more job opportunities, entertainments like the cinema and eating good Greek food again at a lovely restaurant run by Demetrios. He’s such a kind man and gently reminds Fotini that she can’t spend the rest of her life wandering and looking for the children. The best thing she and Mitsos can do is stay in one place and hope the children find her, the place she was trying to get back to is gone. There was so much material to choose from in this book that it could have filled a trilogy. I had questions about all sorts of characters, such as Fotini’s relationship with her sister Stella. I also had questions about Nikos’s journey and his adoptive mother, there just seemed to be more about her that could have been explored. However, I loved Iliana’s growth and her life as an adult living under communism. The differences between Greece and Hungary were fascinating and as always the author captured the beauty of the Greek islands, their isolation and wildness and how this conflict disrupts a way of life that existed for centuries. The book symbolically ends with a circular dance that’s life affirming and perhaps a way of capturing, just for a few moments, that lost way of being.
I loved the first book in this series and I devoured this one in a day. Hannah is once again fretting over writing her latest book, disgusted that copies of the romance novel she poured her heart into is being ignored, while the crime novel she wrote in one month for a bet is a bestseller. Hannah is a brilliantly flawed character full of writer’s neurosis, hating that she is forced to write what will sell rather than the books she aspires to write. Again she’s on a deadline and as a last resort her editor Bastian finds her a quiet villa in Sicily with its own swimming pool. No distractions and plenty of time to unwind and write the novel she’s had an advance to produce. I love this character because she says and does the things I’d love to, but my inhibitions keep it inside. She has no such restrictions, happily saying what she thinks when she thinks it. Her disgust with the crime genre and Jorn Jensen in particular is so funny. I wonder if she has ever had a thought or need she didn’t express? She also seems totally unregulated. I would have asked the elderly couple who caretake the villa for help but Hannah decides to walk to the village without thought about the heat, how far and which direction home is in. She has no idea which hill to take and ends up exhausted and on the verge of sunstroke on her way back. This is where she is found by Hans and Greta who take her to their incredible house to clean up and drink something. This turns into dinner, wine and a night spent in their house. It’s when she wakes up in a strange place that she and the housekeeper Lucette find a dead body. Greta has been murdered and Hans is nowhere to be found. Has he been kidnapped or could he be the murderer? Hannah seems to have an inability to weigh up a decision before taking action. There’s so much going on in her head that it’s very hard for her to remain in the present. I’m always wishing she’d slow down a minute and breathe, but the only times she seems to do this are in water.
The case is an absolute maze of connections and suspects showing up a tension between villagers and tourists, a misogynistic police force and possible Mafia interference. Despite Hannah’s aversion to crime as a genre, she’s just as caught up in the mystery of this murder as any reader would be. She’s utterly reckless, in a comical way and there’s a chase on a moped during the final chapters that is clumsy and hilarious to imagine. Sparks fly when Jorn Jensen appears, but she can’t deny he helps make things happen. His arrogance is brilliant and when he suggests they write a crime novel together I thought Hannah might hit him with something heavy. The creepy moment in the basement, including Jensen’s cardboard cut out made me laugh out loud. This is a dark humour that I love. Jorn’s statement that he has ‘enormous sex appeal’ and it’s that and not his wealth that attracts women shows what sort of brash and conceited character he is, but there’s no denying his bravery and quick thinking. They are quite the investigative team, despite her reticence about working with him. Hannah’s instincts are good. She won’t accept the police’s conclusion that Hans killed his wife, reasoning that he adored her and couldn’t have done it. Instead she follows the money, often blundering into compromising situations and dangerous people. If the conclusion teaches her anything it’s that people will murder for very unexpected reasons. This is a brilliant second instalment of Hannah’s adventures and I’m going to resolve to be a little more Hannah and say what I think here and there.
I love when monster stories are given a retelling and in this one it’s a mermaid living in a loch, but not the Disney-fixed Little Mermaid we might be used to. Here she is a truly fearsome creature named Moireach with yellow eyes, sharp teeth, shiny scales and the drive of a predator. She lives in the loch, only changing after dark when she reverts back to her human form – Iris. As a young girl Iris defied her father and fell in love with Thane. He forbade their relationship, as the daughter of a laird she must marry well and for the clan’s gain not her own. Devastated she visits a witch hoping to be free of her father’s obligations, but the witch cursed her and she became banished to the loch by day. Now, some fifty years later, when Iris emerges she is still the beautiful girl of her youth. Thane has never come for her and as dead men have been discovered around the loch with their hearts ripped out, the name of the monster is on everyone’s lips. Her childhood friend Duncan, now an old man, knows it cannot be Iris. She isn’t capable. He hides her with all the love and loyalty he had fifty years earlier, even though she chose someone else. The laird has made a big decision, he’s hired a hunter of monsters, a man called Henry Cartwright and he has never failed to catch his prey.
The backdrop of this story is perfect, using the mist, cold and breathtaking landscape to add to it’s mystery. There are parallels with Outlander here in the feel of this place, making good use of Scotland as a thin place where the paranormal, time travel and a history of monsters seems part of life. With the historical backdrop of the witch trials it’s also a dangerous place, particularly for a woman. Iris talks about the smell of the burnings and how women must be careful, but it’s no easier being a monster when men are turning up dead. The background of misogyny and brutal witch trials hangs over them all and shows a willingness to believe in magic, curses and female malevolence. It’s not just witches though, other fantastical creatures exist here like the seelies and selkies and there’s more one woman with powers a man would kill for. All of these things appear to be aligned with the nature that surrounds them and we can see that wildness as Iris changes to Moireach. It’s not just the yellow eyes and scales but the way her mind becomes that of a predator with only one goal. Reading this felt like being a child again and discovering a fairy tale rooted in darkness. Yes, some elements are fantastical, but it doesn’t read like fantasy. It’s more like a hybrid of historical fiction and fairy tales with aspects of a thriller. The pace speeds up as Iris begins to run out of time and we still don’t know why she was cursed, who cursed her and what will finally break it. There are those in the village who may seem kind, but could benefit from keeping Iris in her watery prison. As she takes us back to those fateful days in flashback, when her family were all together and her father didn’t yet know about Thane. I was engrossed with the tangled web of lies and betrayal but also by the question of what life Iris would choose if she could lift the curse. Would she pick the life she’d always wanted or had things changed? There are some unexpected revelations too, making for an exciting and absorbing conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed this dark and feminist take on the mermaid stories we’re used to and I look forward to what the author writes next.
I feel like I’ve been living under a rock because I’m the only book blogger who hasn’t read Frank and Red, so this was my first introduction to Matt Coyne. I don’t even follow him on social media so went in completely blind. This book was a gem from start to finish. Matt Coyne’s ability to write a novel with the emotional intelligence to balance weighty subjects like war and loss against laugh out loud comedy is akin to Sue Townsend and her wonderful creation Adrian Mole. Sister Francis is like my rather formidable previous schoolteacher, Sister Joan. She had the sharpness and discipline of a military veteran, but underneath that there was a twinkle that made me think there was a sense of humour and quick wit underneath. Sister Francis drives an old van as if she’s in a rally, always has a cigarette on the go and reads the racing post. I have always found nuns to be singular and quirky individuals so I warmed to her immediately. Although she’s a comic character there’s so much more to her. She’s clearly keen on restarting a boy’s club she used to run years ago, with origins of supporting boys who had lost their father in WW2. She has a way of relating to boys from the area and our four friends can see she’s a formidable ally from the first day. When they roll up to the clapped out shed they’re accosted by one of the local priests, asking what they’re doing hanging around the presbytery and accusing them of looking for things to steal. When Sister Francis bursts out of the shed he’s taken aback and the boys notice she uses her sweetest voice and emphasises the holy intentions behind her club, but as soon as he’s gone she lights up and is her sweary self. Behind this exterior are buckets of empathy and determination to help the boys in her care, not that she’s easy on them. The four boys have a deal with her, if they come and help her clean the club house on the last Saturdays of term they can come to the club in the holidays and keep the entrance fee. It’s hard work but they stick at it and it’s not long before the Dead Dad’s Club is up and running.
I developed a soft spot for Rich’s Grandad Bob, who has a keen sense of humour and is a great role model for a young boy who has lost his father. I loved how he made Rich laugh with his assessment of Aunt Carole – she has a beard and looks like a pirate. He’s also there for the worse times too, after Rich’s dad died he has enough sense to simply sit with him as the loss hits him, no platitudes or promises, just sitting with him in his grief. Alongside Rich’s 1980s narrative is the journal of another boy who went to the Dead Dad’s Club after the upheaval of WW2. This narrative is evocative of a totally different era as Reginald is evacuated to a small village near Sheffield that’s something of a culture shock after growing up in London. Evacuees didn’t always have the best time and Reginald is coping with the boredom of the village – his observations on what passes as news worthy are so funny. He’s also navigating that rite of passage from primary to secondary school and the author really does conjure up those fears about the bigger school, getting lost and being without your usual friends. I wasn’t sure where his story fit with our four main characters and this is kept under wraps until exactly the right moment. This book has been a wonderful mood lifter just when I needed one, like a warm hug in book form. One line made me think about the friends who knew me in my small village at a similar age, one of whom I’ve tried to see regularly more recently. We try to get together at least once a month for cake and a catch up and I remember being taken aback at first by exactly how well she knew me. But of course she does. As Matt Coyne writes ‘real friendships are cast in the everyday’ and even though my friend and I often just walked her dog, cleaned out the rabbits and watched telly we grew up together and that counts for a lot. I heartily recommend this hilarious but heartfelt story that’s a ray of sunshine in book form.
This book has to be my book of the year so far. I’ve been going on about it since May because it really is something special. I was quite simply blown away by this complex and beautiful story of science, loss and second chances. Our heroine Laurel is a scientist, studying fungus and how it grows but for some reason that isn’t clear at first, she’s on a research station in the Antarctic, away from her former husband Eli and without any fungus in sight. When she develops a fascination in the Arc that appears she thinks about its significance. When she becomes aware there is a matching basin underneath the water, her imagination is fired. Could this possibly be a portal? A gateway to a different world? She knows Eli won’t be far behind because she remembers his theory of the ‘duoverse’, the idea that at the moment of the big bang time and space was formed in two directions: our universe, the planets and the development of the world we know and in the other direction it’s complete opposite. I am not a scientist, in fact I barely have GCSE Biology, so I wasn’t aware of any background to this idea so could drift with it and enjoy two incredible minds exploring ideas. Our characters are fascinating, Eli and Laurel are a couple who were made for each other but their relationship is real and they face tough times, particularly when devastating events crash into their lives but I never doubted their love for each other. It’s fascinating to watch their characters face the concept of the duoverse, not just whether it is a portal, but if it is what will their relationship look like there and will going backwards fix whatever tore them apart? I felt both were analytical and might even appear cold at times, but in the moments of heightened emotion we really see who these characters are and the deep wells of love they hold.
I was on tenterhooks wondering about the duoverse under the ice and if Lauren is right whether they’ll ever be able to return? I found myself wondering how this world would look as time scrolled backwards. I was genuinely scared for them but also full of admiration for their bravery. The mirroring is so cleverly done, showing how life always comes full circle and we’re often helpless at the end and the beginning, if we’re lucky enough to lead a full life. As someone who worked in nursing homes in my twenties this really made me think of the role of nostalgia and how often elderly people hanker after experiences from their childhood. Laurel wants her mother’s blueberry pancakes, to watch a film she’s seen a million times and disappear into a favourite book because there’s comfort in it. It might seem like science has sent them on this potential journey, but it isn’t. The totally unscientific emotion of love is what pushes them on, but also guilt, hope and desperation. Loss is a huge theme in the novel, something that always hits me in the heart, and I was deeply moved by how the author dealt with loss and how the scientific concept of a duoverse changes this experience. This novel was moving, profound, invigorating, deeply intelligent and so full of life. I kept thinking about the symbols of the cover, the circle and the tree, the same under the ground as they are over it. As Laurel observes:
“A line implies before and after; a circle says And then, and then…”
WHAT IF TOMORROW WAS ALREADY WRITTEN, BUT YESTERDAY WAS YOURS TO CHANGE?
At an isolated research station in Antarctica, biologist Laurel Salter washes dishes for a living ten hours a day, six days a week. She tells no one why she left her career, or why her marriage ended.
But even in this remote outpost, Laurel can’t outrun her past. When a strange light appears across the ice and draws a group of physicists to McMurdo, her former husband, Eli, won’t be far behind.
Laurel is captivated by the Arc: its surreal glow; the way it seems almost alive. And though Eli is reluctant to test her wildest theory, Laurel is convinced that the Arc leads down a rabbit hole, and into a world they can barely imagine. Can she persuade him to risk everything to fix the burden that hangs between them – to turn back the clock and live their story a second time?
And this time, live it differently.
Once read, never forgotten, Under Story is a genre-defying exploration of the promise of this life, what might lie beyond it, and how far we would go for more time with the people we love.
This is my book of the year so far and I can’t stop talking about it. I’d read it on NetGalley in the spring and I was desperate to review but it felt too early. So when I found out my fellow squadettes were reading this in August I had to join in. I was quite simply blown away by this complex and beautiful story of science, loss and second chances. I still think about it all the time. Our heroine Laurel is a scientist, studying fungus and how it grows but for some reason that isn’t clear at first, she’s on a research station in the Antarctic, away from her former husband Eli and without any fungus in sight. When she develops a fascination in the Arc that appears above the pole she thinks about its significance, but when she becomes aware there is a matching basin underneath the water, her imagination becomes fired. Could this possibly be a portal? A gateway to a different world? She knows Eli won’t be far behind her because she remembers his theory of the ‘duoverse’, the idea that at the moment of the big bang time and space was formed in two directions: our universe, the planets and the development of the world we know and in the other direction it’s complete opposite. I am not a scientist, in fact I barely have GCSE Biology, so I wasn’t aware of any background to this idea so could drift with it and enjoy two incredible minds exploring ideas. I was fascinated with Laurel’s experiments with fungus growing in a maze and whether it moved in a specific direction. She was disappointed to find it tried out all routes then doubled back on itself, but then a second batch made straight for the right route as if it had learned from the previous batch’s mistakes. It felt like a demonstration of Jung’s collective consciousness:
“Ideas spread and somehow we’re all plugged into them.”
I often feel this about ideas, like when several books come out on the same subject at once. It reminded me of something I’ve read before – that ideas are hanging in the air and if we don’t grab them someone else will. As Laurel presents her paper at conference she’s asked some particularly tough questions by one delegate who is unimpressed with her work, claiming she’s applying a human lens to interpret her results. Laurel’s retort is to ask why the delegate is assuming that all intelligence is human? Laurel knows that we like to separate ourselves from animals and plants, safely in our own superior category, but oxygen from our atmosphere is running through our veins and the word human comes from the Latin word ‘humus’ meaning soil. Thinking that we are of the earth is the only thing that comforted Laurel when her dad died. She thinks about how bronchi in our lungs branch like trees and how a ‘neural network in the brain is structured like a galaxy’. I loved reading these aspects of the book and really appreciated how cleverly the author plants these ideas in the first part of the book and they grow in the second part.
Our characters are fascinating, Eli and Laurel are a couple who were made for each other but their relationship is real and they face tough times, particularly devastating events crash into their lives but I never doubted their love for each other. It’s fascinating to watch their characters face the concept of the duoverse, not just whether it is a portal, but if it is what will their relationship look like there and will going backwards fix whatever tore them apart. I felt both were analytical and might even appear cold at times, but in the moments of heightened emotion we really see who these characters are and the deep wells of love they hold. It was two other characters that caught my imagination though: Gloria and Mr Nakamura. I absolutely loved Gloria who is Laurel’s mentor in our universe and her house in San Francisco was so brilliant I wanted to live there:
‘It was an old Arts and Crafts house on Prospect Avenue, dark wood with purple roses growing in the garden and ivy trailing over the windows. Inside was enchantment; half melted candles, cabinets of oddities, a Maine Coon cat the colour of midnight.’
Gloria is intelligent, feisty and an incredible mentor to Laurel and I had a feeling they would meet in any universe. Mr Nakamura is a character from later in the book who is an ‘overtaker’ – a thought I’ll leave with you – who’s incredibly wise and understanding, helping with the difficult parts of life’s journey with dignity. Every character springs to life and has a backstory.
The book’s settings are incredible. First the frozen wasteland of the Antarctic and its different scientific research bases are fascinating. I had no idea how many were there, but McMurdo is like a mini town and it’s the tiny details that give it authenticity. Many of the scientists go home for the winter months when it’s impossible to go outside and cabin fever can really kick in. Some people have an ‘ice-wife’ or husband who they’re in a relationship with in the summer months, then go home to their real spouses in the winter. Bits of the real world come through, such as the disappointment in a second Trump presidency, but it feels like a different world and the perfect place to avoid reality too. Every world the author presents to us feels absolutely real even though some of it seems impossible. I was on tenterhooks wondering about the duoverse under the ice and if Lauren is right whether they’ll ever be able to return? I found myself wondering how this world would look as time scrolled backwards. I was genuinely scared for them but also full of admiration for their bravery. The mirroring is so cleverly done, showing how life always comes full circle and we’re often helpless at the end and the beginning, if we’re lucky enough to lead a full life. As someone who worked in nursing homes in my twenties this really made me think of the role of nostalgia and how often elderly people hanker after experiences from their childhood. Laurel wants her mother’s blueberry pancakes, to watch a film she’s seen a million times and disappear into a favourite book because there’s comfort in it. It might seem like science has sent them on this potential journey, but it isn’t. The totally unscientific emotion of love is what pushes them on, but also guilt, hope and desperation. Loss is a huge theme in the novel, something that always hits me in the heart, and I was deeply moved by how the author dealt with grief across the novel and how the scientific concept of a duoverse changes this experience. This novel was moving, profound, invigorating, deeply intelligent and so full of life. I kept thinking about the symbols of the cover, the circle and the tree, the same under the ground as they are over it. As Laurel observes:
“A line implies before and after; a circle says And then, and then…”
Out 1st September from Tinder Press
Meet the Author
Chloe Benjamin is the author of THE IMMORTALISTS, a New York Times Bestseller, and THE ANATOMY OF DREAMS. Her third novel, UNDER STORY, will be published in September 2026.
A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, LibraryReads favorite, and #1 Indie Next pick, THE IMMORTALISTS was named a best book of 2018 by NPR, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and others. THE ANATOMY OF DREAMS received the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award and was long listed for the 2014 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
Originally from San Francisco, CA, Benjamin is a graduate of Vassar College and the M.F.A. in fiction at the University of Wisconsin. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages. She lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area.
All Blythe Carney ever wanted was to become a hotelier and run her family’s business, the Hope Square Hotel. But fate, and her grandfather, intervened and it fell into her younger sister Rae’s lap, taking her dreams with it. Now Blythe owns Still Water House, the most exclusive guest house on Pin Hill Island, but she can’t help but feel she’s still not living the life she was meant to.
Rae Johnson had no interest in taking over the hotel, her dreams lay elsewhere, but when she ended up with the family business her sister had set her heart on, her sense of duty to continue their family legacy with her husband was too strong to ignore.
Now, fifteen years later, newly widowed Rae is struggling to keep the hotel afloat and she knows that selling it could be the final straw in her already fragile relationship with her sister.
What do you do when your sister lives the life that you’d set your heart on? And when the perfect storm is brewing, surely, it’s time to put aside the jealousy and disappointment that can tear a family apart, and fight for the future you have always dreamed of?
I love the joy and care in Faith Hogan’s writing and this has been a brilliant book to sit back and enjoy while we’ve been having a few weeks of very warm weather. Her characters always have so many layers and usually plenty of secrets and these women are no exception. I also feel like she cares about them and wants us to understand their journey. The author takes us back and forth in time to give us the story of the Hope Square sisters, Blythe and Rae. In the present Blythe runs a very successful guest house on Pin Hill Island, at Still Water House, the home she shares with husband Kip and daughter Siggy. By contrast her sister Rae lives alone in what was the family business and the only hotel on the island, the Hope Square Hotel. The sisters couldn’t be more different. Blythe has the drive and ambition of a great business woman whose only dream was to gain her degree and take over at the helm of the family business after her grandfather. Blythe runs a tight ship, even at home, and while she and Kip are an excellent team on the business side, of late there’s been some tension between them. Their main point of contention is Blythe’s treatment of their daughter Siggy who is a teenager ready to start planning the next stage of her life, perhaps going away to university? Blythe has closed her mind to this idea, she rarely lets Siggy hang out with other kids on the island and refuses any activity she believes is unsafe. Kip is becoming frustrated, not only does he feel taken for granted, he wants his daughter to be allowed to grow up. However, there is no reasoning with Blythe. Siggy often escapes to work at Hope Square with her Aunt Rae. Rae feels fragile, not surprising since she’s a recent widow, but there’s something more that seems to be keeping her paralysed, unable to make plans and move forward. She and Marcus didn’t have children so she values her precious time with Siggy, but her relationship with Blythe has never fully recovered since Rae and Marcus took over the hotel. How did this sequence of events happen?
The author takes us back and forth in time with both sisters so we can see events and decisions that led us here, but she also uses it to let us in on secrets the sisters have kept from each other. We as readers have the full picture, so behaviour that seems unreasonable or excessive to other characters has some context for us. It’s very frustrating to see characters misunderstanding each other completely. One such instance is Blythe’s behaviour when a new resident comes to Pin Hill Island. Val and her grandson Danial are refugees, he’s eager to find work and she’s keen to join groups and make friends. Blythe’s behaviour around Val seems utterly irrational, but there must be a reason probably buried deep in the past. I found Blythe a challenge I must admit but I couldn’t quite believe she was just a hateful person. The major question that keeps popping up is why would the girl’s grandfather make the inexplicable decision to pass the hotel to Rae and her boyfriend Marcus? The answers will come, but needless to say there were some men in this book who needed a bit of reeducation. Meanwhile as Danial volunteers at the hotel for Rae to get some work experience, he and Siggy spend some time together. Could there be romance on the cards? If there is, Blythe will be definitely have something to say about it and I worried it would have implications for her relationship with her daughter.
All these misunderstandings and secrets are set against a picturesque backdrop on this isolated island. The incredible scenery is clearly what draws people to visit, but is there still enough to sustain two hotels? Blythe is determined to get in a tourist guide and in one of the best comic moments she has a guest from hell, who she suspects is an inspector. I have to admit I imagined Maggie Smith playing this role at her most imperious. The vision of Blythe having to tolerate smoking, moving furniture and waiting on this woman hand and foot made me laugh. Her eventual response to 48 hours of this treatment was priceless. There’s a lot of trauma to unpack here. There’s so much loss for both these women, even after they lost their parents. There are themes of bereavement, motherhood, domestic abuse and being a victim of crime as well as the central family feud. As always the author gives these subjects the depth they deserve and they do have impact especially when it’s a revelation from the past that gives us more insight into the characters. What I like is that she always keeps us hopeful, that there’s a chance for healing and light in what seems a dark world at the moment. As the tension and miscommunication builds I just wanted the two sisters to talk openly and honestly, but it reaches a dramatic conclusion I didn’t expect. This is a great summer read and something of an escape from reality, full of intrigue and family drama but with bucketloads of warmth and hope.
Out now from Aria Books
Meet the Author
Faith Hogan is an award-winning, million copy best seller. She is a USA Today, Irish Times Top Ten and an Amazon UK Number 1 Best Selling writer of contemporary fiction novels. Her stories have charmed readers around the world – she’s sold internationally and translated widely. She writes grown up women’s fiction which is unashamedly uplifting, feel-good and inspiring.
The Bookshop Ladies was shortlisted for an An Post Book Award in 2024.
The Sisters of Hope Square is her brand new summer read coming June 2026. It is a gripping and poignant story of two sisters divided by jealousy and disappointment who must put their differences aside to save the inheritance that drove a wedge between them decades earlier.
She writes twisty contemporary crime fiction as Geraldine Hogan.
She lives in the west of Ireland with her family and their Labrador named Penny. She’s a writer, reader, enthusiastic dog walker and reluctant jogger – except of course when it is raining!
