Tamara McKinley

I listened to this one in the car. The book takes place in a seaside village and covers about a year in the life of Sally and her little brother Ernie during the time before and after the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. The children are evacuees from London's East End and are placed in the loving home of Peggy Reilly and her family. I liked the characters and the setting - and overall the story was a sweet little vacation for me. I really enjoyed this one and will be reading the rest in the show more series. If you enjoy reading Maeve Binchy, I think you'll like this one. show less

This is the 10th entry in the long running Cliffhaven/Beach View Boarding House series set in Coastal England during WWII. Several threads interweave in this book, with the most interesting one to me being the story of Doreen, the younger sister of Peggy, who is the matriarch of the boardinghouse. Doreen is a single mother who works in a government ministry in London, without her two young daughters who have been evacuated to Wales. She has a shifty slug of a ex-husband who has been show more harassing her, but has found love with career sailor in the British navy. They have a chance to be together when he has leave, but tragedy strikes. The Bethnel Green Tube disaster is a sad and little known chapter of WWII history, suppressed at the time of its occurrence. It is tastefully handled here.

And we also have continuing chapters in the lives of Peggy, Ron, Cordelia, Doris and all the Boarding House regulars, which are satisfying to fans of the series but may be bewildering to those who jump in at the middle of this story. show less

SWEDISH REVIEW

Min kära mor och jag har haft en konversation angående denna bok. Det är så att hon gillade den och jag hade svårt för den. Saker som jag fann irriterade störde hon sig inte alls på. I vanliga fall brukar vi tycka väldigt lika när det gäller böcker, men denna bok är vi väldigt oeniga om. Nu är det även så att detta är den första Tamara McKinley bok jag har läst medan hon har läst flertalet och hon gillar dem skarpt. Jag är egentligen inte så mycket för show more historiska romantiska böcker, jag föredrar historiska romaner utan smäktande romantik (självklart finns det undantagsfall, jag älskar t.ex. Borta med Vinden och Törnfåglarna).

Nå, vad är det med denna denna som gjorde att jag hade svårt att finna den läsvärd? Jag hade hoppas på en intressant bok med två parallella handlingar men tyvärr var varken 1930 talets eller 50-talets berättelser speciellt intressant. Jag var även besviken att det spanska inbördeskriget hade en så liten del med handlingarna att göra och att så mycket hände i periferin som t.ex. Etienne och Henri umbäranden under andra världskriget. Jag var även en aning frustrerad över Annabelle som absolut inte hade tänkt sig åka till Spanien som sjuksköterska och sedan när hon blev kär (plus en motgång i arbetsfrågan) helt plötsligt beslutade sig för att det var en strålande idé. Kort sagt, boken handlingen var på tok för smäktande och sentimental för min smak. Krigen kändes blodlösa och kändes som en parentes i boken. Det värsta var nog hur förutsägbar handlingen var. det är som om författaren hade en mall med klicheer som hon utgick efter och prickade av längs vägen. På plussiden så var boken världigt snabbläst och jag klämde den på en dag.

Men, det här är mina åsikter, jag är oerhört svår när det gäller historiska romantiska romaner, jag föredrar när det är ett spännande mysterium med som t.ex. med Kate Mortons böcker. Men om du gillar smäktande böcker så är nog denna en bok helt i din smak!

Tack till Forum bokförlag för recensionsexemplaret!

ENGLISH REVIEW

My dear mother and I have had a conversation about this book. The thing is that she liked it and I could not see what was so great about it. Things that I found irritating disturbed her not at all. Normally, we tend to think very much alike when it comes to books, but this book, we are very divided about. Now it is also true that this is the first Tamara McKinley book I read while she has read most and she likes them a lot. I'm not so much for historical romantic books, I prefer historical novels without languishing romance (of course, there are exceptional circumstances, such as I love Gone with the Wind and The Thorn Birds).

Well, what is it about this that made it hard for me to find it worth reading? I was hoping for an interesting book with two parallel stories, but unfortunately, neither the 1930s or 50ths stories were especially interesting. I was also disappointed that the Spanish Civil War had such a small part in the book and that so much happened in the periphery, such as Etienne and Henri's hardships during World War II. I was also a little frustrated that Annabelle who absolutely did not intend to go to Spain as a nurse and then when she fell in love (plus had a job setback) suddenly decided that it was a brilliant idea. In short, the book was too languishing and sentimental for my taste. The Wars felt bloodless and like a parenthesis in the book. The worst was probably the predictability of the plot. It was as if the author had a list with clichés that she unchecked along the way. On the plus side was the book very easy to read and it only took me one day to finish it!

However, these are my opinions, I am extremely difficult when it comes to historical romance novels, I prefer when it's an exciting mystery with such Kate Morton's books. If you like languorous books is this probably a book entirely to your taste!

Thanks to Forum bokförlag for the review copy! show less

Beautiful, poignant and touching! I had forgotten how much I love reading this genre moving me and the tears flowed!

Set after WWII all the men who were returning were home, and for those whose families without their loved ones, life had to go on.

Such a powerful drama about the lives of families struggling to live in the harsh conditions of Australia. The tight knit families lives are tested when storms and fires rage threateningly out of control, wonderful reading!

A superb plot, a boy show more waiting for his father who will never return, with a mother who is unable to move on because of it. A son returning back to his home town with a wife who is blind with grief seeking solace in a bottle. Another who seeks refuge from a brutal husband finding peace in a relationship that is concealed from everyone. Then there is the dead soldier who never returned from the war who goes home secretly to die following his beloved aboriginal spirits. Excellent stuff!

What I liked best

I love the weave of families with their nuances and local histories.

There was real excitement with the storm, and the fire. A boy being lost in the bush looking for the stranger seen wearing soldiers clothes, hoping he is the father he cannot believe is dead, that somehow a mistake has been made and he will return home.

Gwyneth, is the great grandmother; grandmother and mother of a prominent family in the town who knows everything thats going on. Sitting on a veranda watching the townsfolk she orchestrates her guidance appropriate moments. A great wise and feisty character.

When the fire is fuelled by the dry storm, tragedy is all around them, even though this is something that is already known to them in conditions they have battled before, it is no less shocking when death claims lives. My excitement mounted with the fire racing towards the towns 10 year old Danny goes missing and with his mother needed at the infirmary with the casualties she fears the worst.

Just look at this wonderful line - got me right…here (places hand against heart):

And, as she stood there, the silence enfolded her as a long-held dreams shattered like fine glass.

What is different about this book?
This could have been just a run of the mill story about Australians trying to recover after the second world war in the outback, keeping their people and towns alive and thriving in harsh conditions in Queensland. But no, the real backbone to this story is of a man travelling on foot in solitude and secret towards Morgan’s Reach. All we know about him is that he is dying from cancer and that he wants to get to the town before the end, but does not want to be seen. He certainly is a mystery. His story is heart wrenching and I got a sense of a ‘kind of driven peace’ that surrounds this man in his final journey. His talks with a small boy and the peace he gains from it made me cry.

If you want a book with love, sorrow, courage, tragedy, and overcoming adversity, along with something beautifully spiritual then this is the book for you.

This is the first of Tamara McKinley's books I have read and will be certainly looking out for her other books.

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Many thanks to the publisher via NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an honest review show less