The passion of red—the sweetness of white. Together they may create a love for the ages.

When Henry Bradley, sixth of that name, is suddenly elevated to Duke of Roseleigh, he finds the responsibilities almost outweigh the privileges. Beset by litigious neighbors, needy tenants, and nagging relatives, he also endures pressure from all sides to make sure Roseleigh’s brilliant red roses best the Earl of Edgecote’s white ones at the York Rose Show in the spring. When the Earl’s daughter Margaret pays an unexpected visit to offer her condolences on the death of the old duke, he finds an unexpected ally in the long-standing family feud—and a balm to his lonely heart.

Can the two of them come up with a proposition—or perhaps a rose—to ambush all comers in the Rose Society and turn the competition upside down?

Dear Ms. Warfield, 

I was looking around for what to read next and saw this novella. I’ve enjoyed several  of your other stories and I liked the blurb for “The Sixth Henry” so Rose Wars it was.

Henry had never expected to succeed to the family Dukedom given that he was the son of the second son but we all know how these inheritance things play out. Henry loved his grandfather who, bless him, was a conscientious man. One to look after his tenants, see to his duties, try to make things easy for Henry as Henry took up the responsibilities, and above all, make sure the gardener had all he needed to win the annual rose competition. The family name is Roseleigh, after all. 

The night of his grandfather’s funeral, Henry writes out a list of practical things he needs to accomplish with number six being “find a wife.” The next day he begins to tick off a number of them but when Lady Margaret appears a day later, things get in a bit of an uproar. Lady Margaret is the daughter of their chief rival for top rose honors but her reason for journeying to the estate of the Roseleighs is to offer her sincere condolences.

Okay so probably an unmarried woman of that day and age would never have done this journey but Margaret also wants to end this silly feud. Henry’s family might be suspicious of her but Henry is enchanted. The woman is lovely, intelligent, and knows her agriculture. If he had to make a list, Margaret would take the top 12 spots out of 10. She obviously feels the same but with a feud to bed down, these two are going to have to take their time before going courting. 

Despite this novella being right under the 100 page mark, it covers a lot of ground and does it nicely. Henry is a good guy but one who grows into his stature as a Duke while still managing to adroitly handle lots of people who are making demands on his time. I love that he places the welfare of his dependents/tenants first rather than being a puffed up popinjay who is all about “I’m a Duke.” 

Margaret is gobsmacked by the wonder of the Roseleigh library (gotta love a woman who loves books) and glasshouse. She does do something a little shady but her reasons are good and when Henry finds out, he’s totally on board. Also for a novella, and despite having the two MCs fall fairly quickly for each other, time is allowed before the “I do’s.” Henry adores Margaret’s superior qualities and he knows good things will come to those who give their heroines free rein. As he tells her once she’s explained her plan and how she got there, “Devious as well as clever. I’m a lucky man.” B

~Jayne      

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

“I do not anticipate for one moment that Miss Plum has been murdered, though I should have some slight sympathy with her assassin if she had.”

Miss Penny is a middle-aged spinster living a cheerful, contented life, complete with perfect housekeeper, in an idyllic English village. Her romantic life consists of an annual Christmas card from her old flame George, and her social swirl involves Stanley, a prissy neighbour who keeps her in mind for a future wife, and Hubert, a neurotic widowed priest with an alienated son.

Into this stable life comes Miss Plum, whom Miss Penny saves from drowning herself in a duck pond and takes into her quiet, orderly home. The villagers embrace the perpetually weepy, forlorn young woman-at first. But soon her welcome wears thin. With joyfully dark comedy, hilariously odd locals, and an unexpected reappearance from long-lost George, Dorothy Evelyn Smith brilliantly evokes the havoc wreaked by social niceties, misplaced sympathies, and keeping up appearances-not to mention the urge to defend one’s peaceful existence!

CW – suicide attempts

Review

Furrowed Middlebrow strikes again in getting me to read a new-to-me British 20th century author telling a tale, with subtle, sly humor, of small village life in Yorkshire. Miss Penny, a forty year old spinster who is happily settled into her life, does a good deed for a spineless noodle of a woman and comes to bitterly regret it.

Alison Penny wakes up on her birthday knowing that certain things will happen. She will get a new knitted bed jacket from her long time live in housekeeper, Ada, that she will pretend to love and wear precisely once; she will get breakfast in bed, although Alison would prefer to eat downstairs; and a letter will arrive from her long-ago beau George whom Alison’s parents persuaded Alison to turn down twenty years ago. Two of those three actually happen this year but no letter appears from George. Deciding to spend the day in the village and watch a film, Alison goes to the duckpond to feed the ducks and discovers a crying wraith. Heading towards the gate to leave (because, crying in public – it’s just not English) Alison casts a look over her shoulder and has her life changed by the sight of this weeping woman walking into the pond.

With nowhere else to take her, Alison brings Miss Plum home with her, installs her in her second bedroom and staves off Ada’s harumphs. She won’t be there long; Miss Plum just needs a day or so to gather herself together. Only it isn’t just a day or so and Miss Plum is quite ready to spend the next month in bed if someone lets her. Neighbors weigh in with their opinions, Ada makes hers quite clear, but Alison just can’t bring herself to turn the woman out. Miss Plum is just too pathetic, gazing at everyone with tearfilled eyes.

Life in the village goes on and we see two of Miss Penny’s neighbors – the prim Stanley and the widowed Hubert who has family troubles of his own dealing with a teenaged son he doesn’t understand. Ada thought little of Miss Plum to begin with and feels less so with each passing day but honestly, what is Alison to do with the forlorn creature? Victoria Plum (Go ahead and laugh at her name! Go ahead, everyone else always has!) has latched on tighter than a tick and dissolves into tears at the least hint of her leaving. Then George appears and completely throws Alison for a loop.

This will definitely not be a book for everyone. It’s actually mainly about village life in changing rural England in the late 1950s. Miss Plum, pathetic creature that she is, is actually there to cause each person to examine his or her life. She is the spoke in someone’s wheel, the sand in their Vaseline, the pebble in their shoe. She annoys to no end but also uncovers character flaws and pricks the social conscience. Had I read this book over a year ago, I would have been astounded that Miss Penny didn’t just eventually haul Miss Plum to a social worker and take her and Ada’s lives back. But that was before a friend of mine let a distant relative-in-law move in with her and began to face some of the things that Miss Penny does.

Most of the characters in the book have their moments to shine and their scenes revealing flaws. We are none of us perfect and it only takes pressure applied in the right amount and place for the cracks to appear. Miss Penny, along with her neighbors and George have their comfy village days turned upside down and have to decide what to do about it.

Stanley is a man whom I’m not sure if the author intended him to be gay but he certainly reads that way at times. Hubert is socially awkward though well meaning and has a propensity to say or do the most annoying thing without intending to. His son Ronnie is on the cusp of being a teenager with all the issues that this entails. Ada is that longtime servant who runs the house and feels free to speak her mind. George is a man who blusters through life assuming that what he wants he will get. Of all of them, I think George will be the fly in the ointment for most readers though he swiftly realizes that Alison Penny is not the young woman he left twenty years ago.

So what will the outcome be? I had a feeling how things would turn out and I was right. I feel that everyone got their just desserts and will be left with the life they want and – for two people – that maybe they deserve each other. The glimpses of other villagers are perfect nutshell “slices of life” of days gone by. I also think that this is a book better understood and appreciated by those who are slightly older or at least know what they want from life. I’m not sure I would have appreciated it as much had I read it twenty or thirty years ago but the wry humor and truth of it entertained me now. B

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

When Anna Mowbray receives a curt message from one of her estranged daughters that her ex-husband–a silent and surly Yorkshire farmer –is dying, she realizes it’s time to return home. Twelve years ago when her daughters were mostly grown, Anna walked away from Embthwaite Farm with no plan except to preserve her sanity and to find a ray of light to cling to.

But going home is harder than even Anna imagines. Her daughters are miles away from forgiveness and rebuff her every overture of help and communication, and her ex, who knows why she left, doesn’t even want to speak to her. But Anna’s determined to face her demons, make amends, and reconnect with her family.

What she doesn’t expect is kindness from her neighbors and understanding and warmth from the handsome widower James Adams, as well as his warm and welcoming daughter Jane. As Anna grieves her old life and tries to come to terms with the mistakes and hurts from the past, can she create a future where there’s room for a family around her… and the possibility of love?

CW/TW – discussion of mental health crises (including postnatal depression) and treatments, death of a character from cancer, discussion of adultery

Dear Ms. Hewitt, 

My goodness. There’s much more drama to be dished out at Embthwaite Farm with the Mowbray Sisters. Taciturn father Peter is closer to death from a brain tumor, sisters Rachel and Harriet are dealing with the pain of their mother’s return – the mother who walked out on the family thirteen years ago, Anna herself is trying to reconnect with her daughters and might have a new relationship on the horizon, and a change to Peter’s will could upend everything. 

Let’s just dive right in. Straight off the bat I admire that everyone was allowed moments of being totally pissed off. There are situations in the book which can be viewed like a funhouse mirror with people seeing different realities based on where they’re standing and what they are/were going through at the time. Mistakes were made. Mistakes are corrected but everyone needs to be allowed “moments of grace” to explain their side. Even if the people hurt by past actions are still hurt and mad. 

Up until now, it’s just been sisters Rachel and Harriet (books 1 and 2) who described the pain and fallout from when their mother abruptly left the family. Rachel was in uni while younger sister Harriet (who had been her mother’s favorite) felt lost and devastated. Their father had clearly – and painfully – favored Rachel which damaged Harriet’s coping mechanisms. Their books allowed readers to see their viewpoints. But what caused Anna to bolt?

When word reaches her about Peter’s disease and prognosis, Anna returns to try and rebuild the relationships that she severed. Yes, she had her reasons which are slowly explained. I appreciate, as I said, that the sisters now understand but are still dealing with over a decade of hurt. Had they instantly brushed that away, I would have cried foul. Anna is also finally coming to terms with her relationship with her ex-husband who both loved and negligently (but deliberately) hurt her for years. Yeah, Peter does not come off in a good light in regards to how he treated anyone. He might have been a good Yorkshire farmer but he was a crap husband and father. There, I said it. If this was a reddit thread, I’d say “YTA.” 

After it’s discussed, I can understand why Anna behaved as she did. This ties into some of the CWs above. She left because of the astounding hurt she felt for almost twenty years, the fact that her fairytale dreams of “Heathcliff” were just that, and because her own health was at risk. One character whispers to Anna that it’s amazing she didn’t leave before she did. I totally agree. Yet, Anna’s reasons for hanging on as long as she did are valid as well and are baked into her character’s backstory. The new relationship she tentatively begins is lovely but also not perfect. Yay for that. I saw a few things coming with it which I’m guessing will play out in book four. 

Ah yes, book four. Peter’s will is a bombshell. I knew there would be a fourth book but as this one progressed I wondered, who was going to be the main character. Let me just say I can’t wait for this story. There looks like there will be drama leaping off of ledges all over the place. I want this book now. And also to know where Fred’s going to live – with Rachel and Ben? I’m looking forward to the final installment of As the Yorkshire Farm Turns. B+ 

~Jayne     

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

You can tell a lot about a person from what they like to eat…

England in 1932 is in the grip of the Great Depression. Author of a much-loved but not very successful biography, Stella Douglas is a bit depressed herself. When she’s summoned to see her editor in London, she dreads being told her writing career is over before it’s even started.

But much to her surprise, she finds she is being commissioned to write a history of food in England and how the English like to eat. It’s to be quintessentially English and will remind English housewives of the old ways, and English men of the glory of their country. The publishers hope such a book will lift the spirits of the nation.

The only problem is—all English food is actually quite terrible (and anything good is from elsewhere).

So Stella sets about inviting recipes from all corners of England, in the hope of discovering a hidden culinary gem. But what she discovers is oatcakes and gravy and lots and lots of potatoes.

Longing for something more thrilling, she heads off to speak to the nation’s housewives. But when her car breaks down and the dashing and charismatic antiques dealer Freddie springs to her rescue, she is led in a very different direction…

Full of wit, life, and—against all odds—delicious food, Good Taste is a story of discovery and one woman’s desire to make her own way as a modern woman.

CW/TW – sexual harassment, attempted sexual assault 

“When you begin to think about what Englishness means—and, by extension, English food—it all starts to become rather precarious and complicated, doesn’t it?”

Dear Ms. Scott, 

I will admit that the reference to this being similar to “Dear Mrs. Bird,” got me to read the blurb which then got me to read the book. So I guess that worked. But I want to say that while this is a well written book about historical England and its traditions, it doesn’t have that “resolutely cheerful in the face of the hardships of war” tone. Readers looking for that will be disappointed. But what it does have is a woman doing some self discovery while trying to whip up a book about English cookery as the nation faces the Depression and slight breezes of what will become the winds of war. I also discovered a lot of heartfelt emotion, a wonderful father-daughter relationship, and two people who really needed Lucien to knock their heads together.

   Stella Douglas is one of the new, post-war women who leave home for uni with plans for a dazzling future. But unlike many of her fellow students – who all seem to be doing marvelous things, as they make sure to tell everyone at the party while conversing with Stella’s chest instead of her face –  she decided to take the guaranteed paycheck for her weekly contributions to a women’s magazine (where she’s lately been doing articles for the financially challenged kitchen) in addition to writing biographies about famous historical cooks. After its slow sales, she’s thrilled when her publisher offers her the chance to write a book about English food. Stella, who adores the French food that her bestie and his roommate prepare as chefs in top London restaurants, nevertheless grabs the opportunity. 

Replies to her appeals for information about family recipes and traditions pour in but after being deluged with oatcake recipes and contradictory traditional traditions, —

If only there weren’t so many inconsistencies and contradictions in the responses she was receiving. As she’d reviewed the letters on currant cakes, she’d again felt like she was required to referee competing legends. There did seem to be rather a lot of that in English food.

— Stella finds herself going on the road to suss out the true history of Bath buns and eels. Along the way she meets a man who might take the place of her bestie who has become engaged to a toxic society Bright Young Thing (who seems to be like an early version of an influencer). Freddie does mansplain on about the proper way to prepare rabbits (WARNING for vegans and vegetarians in this chapter) and pheasants but he’s handsome, fun, sets a lovely table, and urges Stella to “spice up” her book in order to get it to sell. 

But when her house of cards topples and Stella has to face all the issues in her life, what path will she take and with whom will she take it?

I am SO glad that I’ve been faithfully watching GBBO because I knew what Stella and others were referring to when they talked about genoise sponges, hot water crust pastry, raised pies, split buns, and various other things I’ve seen on the show. Now I want to try a parkin, an Eccles cake, and some of the Christmas and Yule cakes that are mentioned. I’ll skip the eels though. 

Stella is determined that she’s going to write a book that will earn back the confidence of her publisher. But when faced with umpteen recipes for oatcakes (that some readers got overheated and tetchy about) she realizes that she has to find more – something sparkling, something to grab the reading public’s attention. That is where Freddie takes her hand and leads her down a dark path of “embellishing.” It’s not a lie, he says, it’s just a small fib to liven things up. As she and her father are still grieving her mother’s death and her bestie is now running with the BYTs, Stella doesn’t have her usual sounding boards and steps off the path of truth and references. 

What is the book actually supposed to be though? Only English cookery or does she include all the foreign influences, immigrant food, and trader’s ingredients among other things which now permeate “English” food? Is there anything that is solely and completely down to English ingredients and cooking methods? Stella thinks, “At what point did a foreign flavor become native? We are a mongrel nation.” Plus during a dinner with Freddie’s public school chums and their wives, Stella is bombarded with political viewpoints coming out of Germany and Italy along with the (more than slightly) bombastic opinions these people have about the working man and British foreign policy. 

“Dessert? How deliciously northern of you! I suppose you have dinner at midday too, don’t you? And tea at six o’clock?” He looked amused by this thought. “For pudding it’s treacle tart and custard. I do hope that’s complicated enough?”
It said something about the English class system, and the strength of regional identity, that they couldn’t even agree on the names of meals, didn’t it? Stella made a mental note that she must look into this further …

Yet as she travels across England, reads the letters being sent to her from all over, and delves into her mother’s journal Stella begins to get an image of what she’s aiming for and what isn’t “her.”  She has to face up to what she’s (almost) done, decide how to move forward, and rethink the company she’s been keeping. Reading her mother’s words and recipes takes Stella back to her happy childhood as well as gives Stella a glimpse of why her mother pushed her to stand up for herself, to follow her dreams. 

I enjoyed all of this as well as Stella’s “voice.” She’s an intelligent woman but still dealing with the attitudes of the day. She also felt twinges of her decisions “not being right” but with the family and personal issues she was facing, I could see how she lost her way. When the chips are down, Stella bucks up and realizes what she has to do and then does it. Where I wanted to shake her and someone else was because of her refusal to see a relationship that had always been right in front of her. That’s right, Stella, ignore the advice of two people you trust and keep sticking your head in the sand. This part gets resolved a little too easily but the end of the book is happy and hopeful and I enjoyed learning more about How the English Eat. B    

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Welcome to Embthwaite Farm, a charming English home in North Yorkshire, belonging to the fractured Mowbray family…

With older sister Rachel home to help run the family farm and navigate their father’s terminal illness, Harriet Mowbray feels untethered, yet surprisingly free. She wants to embrace her future but continually trips over the insecurities and hurts from her fraught family relationships. When a mysterious millionaire purchases a derelict manor home to renovate into a hotel set to open before Christmas, Harriet pushes herself out of her comfort zone and approaches the owner to become a client for her fledging bakery business.

Former gaming entrepreneur Quinn Tyler has sunk everything into this new venture, and Harriet finds him utterly unexpected. Confident, impulsive and fun, he sweeps Harriet off her feet and their friendship blossoms to Harriet’s surprise and delight. As they work together on the hotel’s finishing touches, Harriet and Quinn battle their insecurities and demons and make surprising revelations as they build their fledgling relationship.

As Christmas looms, will they have the strength of conviction to fight for the hotel—and their newfound love?

CW/TW – parental emotional neglect, extreme MC self doubt

Dear Ms. Hewitt,

After finishing the first book in The Mowbray Sisters series, I was all set for book two about troubled younger sister Harriet. Plus there were still the issues with dying Peter Mowbray, the father, to be dealt with as he’d emotionally neglected his daughter for most of her life. How was all this going to be settled? I think my reading experience might have been helped if I’d realized this is only the second book in a three four book series rather than expecting it to wrap things up. So heads up to readers, when the page count appears to be dwindling and you’re thinking “but, but …” there’s one last two more books to go.

Rachel Mowbray basically fled the family farm when she went to uni and rarely looked back. Her younger sister Harriet has stayed and endured, keeping the house, looking after their taciturn famer father, and not hoping for anything better. One of the reasons Rachel hated to visit was because of Hats’s sullen anger which simmered more than close enough to the surface for Rachel to see. When family friend Ben guilted Rachel into returning, the two sisters managed to clear the air a little and reexamine their viewpoints of the past ten years.

Yet Harriet’s relationship with her father is still fraught. She had always been a mother’s girl while their father favored Rachel. When their mother just walked out, Harriet was stunned and fell apart, skipping her A levels and her chance to escape as Rachel had. Now she’s tentatively starting a baking business. Baking has always given her pleasure and – she admits – been a way she tried to earn her family’s love. It’s hard, though, to silence the voice in her head which reminds her that everyone has always left her so she must not be worth anything. If she doesn’t try, she can’t fail.

Quinn Taylor also has life long family issues with parents who belittle him no matter how hard he tries. So his coping mechanism is to self-destruct before others can fail him. If he ruins it – whatever “it” might be – on his own, then he won’t be emotionally crushed when his dyslexia causes him issues or his parents and others don’t care. After flaming out of the tech business he started for Reasons, Quinn’s found something he really wants: to rehab an abandoned estate in rural Yorkshire into a family hotel. He’s got a vision of what he wants though it’s been hard to get others to see it. Now he’s poured all his millions into it and is increasingly worried as the opening deadline approaches.

When Harriet arrives with samples of her cookies in the hope that the Owner, known in town only as the Mysterious Millionaire, will hire her and give her fledgling business a boost, Quinn sees her. After sampling the goods, Quinn seeks her out. Slowly the two begin to relax around each other and discover similarities. But with each facing life long issues, and during the tight rundown to the hotel’s opening, is this enough to build a relationship on?

Fair warning to readers that this is not a typical light hearted book filled with Christmas joy. Both MCs also deal with a lot of self doubt and negativity.

I liked that Harriet and Quinn have both been given some weighty Issues and that the background and reasons for the Issues are handled well. It all makes sense to me that they act and believe the way they do. Yeah, some parents are just shit. Quinn’s father openly expresses his dismay at Quinn’s actions and repeatedly tells Quinn he’s a failure. Quinn hates the whole 1% attitudes and lifestyle and thought he’d found a fellowship in the American tech game industry only to realize it was just as fake and shallow.

Harriet’s father never openly hurt her but he almost totally ignored her, turning Rachel into the favored child. With Peter now dying from a brain tumor, Harriet sees that her window of opportunity to seek answers is closing. When she musters the courage to confront her father, he asks her if she really wants the truth which Harriet discovers is still beyond her. During Rachel’s attempt to have one last family Christmas experience, an Ugly Truth comes out – a truth that I had sort of guessed.

My problems with the story aren’t because I don’t believe that Harriet and Quinn are falling in love but rather due to the emotional baggage they’re still hauling around. Yes they seem to “see” each other – warts and all – and “get” each other but is that enough to base long term happiness on? Their about-faces in how they’ve acted and reacted to what has marred their life experiences up to now appears to be more a quick “this other person has changed how I react to things” and “I’m determined to break the old molds that have defined me.” It’s a good start for both but Harriet is still facing some tough revelations and I need more which I hope I’ll get in the next book. B-

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Welcome to Embthwaite Farm, a charming English home in North Yorkshire, belonging to the fractured Mowbray family…

When Rachel Mowbray left behind her family farm in North Yorkshire at eighteen, she never planned on returning. But when her ex-childhood sweetheart calls and insists she return due to her father’s declining health, she travels north. Every moment home reminds Rachel why she left—her sister Harriet is both hostile and cold, her father barely communicates with anyone, and the house feels stuck in time. Plus, her old neighbour and ex, sheep farmer Ben Mackey, still has the power to make her pulse race…a decidedly unwelcome realization!

As a can-do businesswoman, Rachel wants to sweep in and fix everything, but it seems as if no one actually wants her help and nothing goes according to plan. Even more alarmingly, she must face the confounding memories of her own childhood—and she questions how many of them she can truly trust.

As Rachel navigates her father’s health crisis and confronts old hurts with her sister and community, she wonders if she can finally find her happily-ever-after in the most unexpected place of all—home. But will she—as well as Ben—have the courage to fight for their future together this time?

CW – one character has

Dear Ms. Hewitt,

Adding tags to this review reminded me of how many books I’ve read that are set in Yorkshire. Watching “All Creatures Great and Small” has taught me a bit about taciturn Yorkshire farmers and the Yorkshire accent. Poor Rachel thought she wanted nothing more than to leave and see the world. Maybe she’s not quite done with her home county just yet.

Rachel works hard in a finance job in London. It’s cut throat and to succeed, you have to be there to be seen and also be willing to give up holidays or time off for family stuff. Now that she’s finally in Ibiza on a long delayed vacation, on a sun lounger, on the beach she doesn’t want to answer her buzzing mobile. When she finally gives in, it’s someone she didn’t expect to hear from – Ben – the person Rachel had a crush on her whole life but who wouldn’t make any effort to keep her from leaving as she headed off to uni.

After being guilted into coming home early and driving up to Yorkshire, Rachel arrives to what she expects – a sullen and hostile younger sister and a father who prefers to stay in the barn with the cows. They’ve never seemed to want her there so after a while, Rachel had finally stopped going and trying. Her goal now is to get her father to his medical appointment and then leave. But the longer she has to stay, the more Rachel realizes that maybe what she remembers of her childhood isn’t exactly what happened and perhaps it’s time to talk and correct misunderstandings.

There’s quite a lot packed into this story: going home again, memories, dysfunctional families, abandonment, choices, sickness, not-the-favorite-child, and misunderstandings – most due to age and pride. I’d say most families have had to deal with one or (probably) more of these.

Rachel remembers her childhood as unhappy with a mother who cried often and ultimately abandoned the family. Her best friend and crush Ben seemingly ignored her during years of school only to reconnect for a short period before not being willing to even talk with her about her plans for university. Sister Harriet appears to both want Rachel to shoulder some of the load at home while also resenting her older sister for showing up. Father Peter is a typical laconic farmer who is also stubborn and set in his ways. Within a few hours, Rachel is already fed up and seething. Yet Ben is right, if her sister thinks their father should see a doctor then something is wrong.

Little by little, bit by bit, Harriet and Rachel talk. Rachel discovers that a lot of what she remembers is how she saw it (obviously) but that she also never questioned some things. Communication is a two way street but she put aside asking heavy questions or delving too deep as all she wanted was to leave and as she didn’t feel wanted, she never made the effort. Thus a cyclical, self fulfilling twelve years of avoidance and pain have built up between the sisters while their father has remained dour and silent.

Resolution comes slowly and after a lot of rethinking on Rachel’s part (as the main POV is hers). Her initial attempts to ask Hats about her childhood memories and her pronouncements that she’s sticking around are met with (understandable) skepticism by Harriet as Rachel has skedaddled every time before. Rachel is also surprised to learn some of what is behind why Harriet stayed and that Harriet actually has some plans for her life. There’s a lovely scene near the end that shows the closeness that the sisters once had and will (hopefully) have in the future.

The medical situation with their father is fraught and as someone dealing with it a bit with my own mother now, I can understand. Peter Mowbray is a proud man who doesn’t want any palaver about anything. Yet there are also fleeting moments when Rachel sees the fear on his face before his defiance kicks back in. When they do finally get a diagnosis, I can understand Peter’s reaction and his choice even if Rachel briefly struggles with it.

When it comes to Ben, there is a great deal to be worked out. Rachel’s discussions with her female boss (and yay for her) get Rachel thinking of what she might be leaving on the table and of what she might regret in years to come. Slowly she and Ben edge towards revisiting the past and thinking of the future. Rachel has thought of events that hurt her and that changed the way she acted and/or what she decided she wanted. When she mentions these to Ben, his “oh that’s ancient history” response annoys me as much as it does Rachel. Yes, they were eleven but it hurt and despite Rachel initially agreeing to stop revisiting a few things, I was delighted when she finally sticks to her guns and Ben awkwardly confesses why he acted the way he did.. After twenty years – the air is cleared! It still doesn’t mean everything is hunky dory but this time Rachel is willing to voice what is bothering her and Ben is willing to take a risk and answer her. I feel they’re finally ready for their future but am also pleased that Rachel makes her decision based on her needs and wants. I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen, in the next book, with Harriet’s plans and dreams. B

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle