Kate Riordan

THE HEATWAVE is a completely absorbing family drama and simmering psychological thriller!

In the summer of 1993, Sylvie and her teenage daughter, Emma, return to their home in the South of France after a ten year absence. After she learns of some vandalism on the property, Sylvie decides it’s time to fix up La Reverie and sell it. This is a difficult place to face again, as it’s filled with painful memories of the tragedy involving her troubled first child, Elodie. Emma remembers very show more little about her older sister, and Sylvie’s not sure how much longer she can shield her from their disturbing family secrets.

“I would die for her, without hesitation. I am her mother. It’s just that, sometimes, I wish I wasn’t. I am her mother but I wish I wasn’t.”

The story is told from Sylvie’s point of view in alternating time periods — during the summer of 1993, and then 1968 forward — as we learn about the disturbing mother/daughter relationship between Sylvie and Elodie during her childhood. What does a mother do if her child is evil? How far would she go to protect one daughter from the other? Elodie’s character was truly creepy! The tension surrounding what she might do next was unsettling.

THE HEATWAVE is an atmospheric Gothic suspense with an amazing and unique setting. The characters and their conflicts are memorable, the writing and descriptions are gorgeous (I enjoyed the French mixed in), and the reveal at the end was perfect. Highly recommended.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

The tagline "In a house full of strangers who can you trust?" is perfect for this book. Three land girls are thrown together at Penhallow Hall in Cornwall, thrust into a house with secrets and sadness at the heart of it. Rose, Diana and Jane are complete opposites in every way and have to learn to live with each other.

I found The Stranger to be a fascinating and enthralling read, pretty much unputdownable. Rose was my favourite character and somehow her story seemed to me to be the most show more prominent one, even though Diana is by far the more memorable character. Rose is pleasant and kind, but unfulfilled. She remembers a holiday half a lifetime ago which has shaped the whole of her life since. Diana is much younger than Rose and very damaged, the sort of woman who causes trouble wherever she goes, stirring up things that are best left alone but somehow always getting away with it. And Jane, well there's more to Jane's presence at Penhallow than meets the eye, but I shall leave it for you to find out her story for yourself.

The whole setting in this book is crucial to the storyline. The brooding house, the pirates coves, the small village setting, the boathouse. All of these add a gothic feel to the story and it's hard to imagine the author setting it anywhere else but Cornwall.

It's not a book with a clear beginning to end story, more a slice of life, a snapshot of a time in 1940 when three Land Girls shook up their own lives and those of the inhabitants of Penhallow Hall. The descriptions are simply beautiful, there's a sense of foreboding throughout and I could feel thunderclouds gathering, building up to the end.

The author uses a clever device to tell us what Diana is up to by the use of a diary. This meant that Diana's inner thoughts were revealed only to the reader, not to the other characters. I witnessed Diana wreaking havoc and taking great delight in it with a sense of apprehension all the way through the story and it certainly posted a moral dilemma to me: could I forgive Diana because I knew what she had gone through in her past, or was her nasty streak just part of her personality? I'm still a little undecided.

The Stranger is atmospheric, intense and full of drama. It has quite a melancholic feel at times, an underlying sense of sadness, but it's wonderfully observed and had me totally hooked. The writing is just lovely and I found it to be a fantastic read. show less

After a brief affair with a married man at her office, twenty-two year old and unmarried Alice finds herself pregnant. Her mother decides to ship Alice off to rural Gloucestershire to have her confinement at Fiercombe Manor where an old friend, Edith Jelphs, works as the housekeeper. With a made up story of a dead husband, Alice is welcomed to Fiercombe and glad to be out of the watchful eye of her mother. As Alice becomes settled at the manor, she notices a few strange occurrences and show more slowly learns the tragic history of the manor and its absent owners.

With a haunting and elegant prose, the mysteries of Fiercombe Manor slowly unfold. I enjoyed the switching points of view between Alice in 1932 and Elizabeth and 1898 and the parallel stories added to the suspense of the mystery and provided a pretty good pace; I did feel a little bit of a drag in the middle, but it picked back up. While both women’s characters captured me, I felt more invested in Elizabeth’s story, especially once Alice is set on discovering what happened in the past with another woman who was pregnant at the manor. Alice’s spirit and the hint of a romance lured me into her story. Most of all, I was interested in the overall treatment of women, the treatment of post-partum depression and their pregnancies during the two time periods, the factors that draw Alice and Elizabeth’s stories together. Overall, Fiercombe Manor is a highly atmospheric historical mystery with a bit of romance.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. show less

Sometimes you need just a book that borders on gothic romance, something with the flavor of those books I eagerly pulled off the shelves when I would race to the library after school to find something new to read; historical novels by the likes of Daphne Du Maurier or Mary Stewart. The kind that leave many readers today, accustomed to fast pace and fast living in their books get twitchy and stop reading. The kind where the setting, usually an English manor house, or lonely house on the show more cliffs/moors/highlands, or a rose twined cottage in a sleepy hamlet, is as much a character as the people in the tale are. the kind where dark secrets are hinted at, maybe a mysterious death or two.

I like that kind of book, occasionally, especially when life has forced me to slow down and recuperate, which it has of late.

I believe the book went under a different title originally, Girl in the Photograph. Either way, it's two stories several decades apart, in the same setting. In the latter tale (1933) Alice has gotten herself "in the family way" without benefit of a husband, and is shuttled off to an estate in the country where a friend of her mother's works as housekeeper, until the birth of the baby. But while there, she becomes fascinated by a former mistress of the estate, Lady Elizabeth Stanton, and the mysteries that surround her life and disappearance.

The stories are well told, and do intertwine to some degree. There is also an interesting running theme exploring postpartum depression and how it was handled at the end of the Victorian era into the early Edwardian era.

Tags: i-liked-it, made-me-look-something-up, read, read-in-2015, taught-me-something show less