Enjoying the Sunshine

I don't know about you but it's rare that I get a day doing things I want to do.  Today, my husband went to golf while my children were happy to chill.  There was nothing on the agenda - no family commitments, no taxi service to administer, the house was as clean as it gets and the garden bin was full so I couldn't do any more gardening.  So for a change I decided to suit myself.

If the rain had been pelting down, I might have spent a productive day writing, but I'm afraid to say that I spent the day reading instead - well the laptop is no good in the garden, and it was far to hot to hold a pen.  It wasn't all indulgent reading though, I did some research, caught up with Writing Magazine and yes I did read my current book on the tbr list - The Lake House by Kate Morton.  As much as I love Kate Morton, I've struggled a bit to get into this book, but today I got well and truly engrossed in it.  (Much to husband's annoyance when I decided that I didn't want to go to the pub or eat / cook Sunday dinner - but that's another story.

I might be feeling a little guilty about not writing today when I had the time, but I'm justifying it by telling myself that there are days when you just need to recharge your batteries.  Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Hope you have all had a nice weekend and the weather has been just as good with you.  Long may it last, although judging by our climate it's highly unlikely.

Book Review Time

As I've been doing a lot more reading that writing recently, I thought it was time for a book review, so here goes.

The Silent Tide – Rachel Hore

This is Rachel’s sixth book and was published in September 2013.  So far I’ve read them all and loved each one.  The Silent Tide is no exception. 

Written partly in the present day and also post WWII, The Silent Tide follows Emily, an editor in a London publishing house who is commissioned to work on a biography of  Hugh Morton, a great British Novelist, first published in the late 1940’s.  There is a mystery surrounding the first wife of Hugh Morton (Isabel) a young ambitious women who began her career editing Hugh’s first novel. It’s a mystery that Hugh’s second wife and his biographer seem keen to overlook. 

Information which is being secretly passed to Emily though proves that there is someone out there who wants Isabel’s story to be told. 

The novel is told from Isabel’s point of view.  Gradually we are drawn into her story as she struggles to forge a career for herself, meets the man of her dreams and then is expected to give up on all her ambitions to become a typical 1950’s housewife and mother.

As we are drawn into Isabel’s story, so is Emily, who is also struggling with her own relationships. 

The storylines in both the past and present kept me turning the pages and I found this book both compelling and satisfying.  Rachel Hore pens a story with such a sense of place and time that you can’t help but become involved in the story.  Fans of Kate Morton will love this book.

The Secret Keeper - Kate Morton

Kate Morton is one of my favourite authors and I always eagerly await her next book. Kate's books are weighty, full of complex characters and packed with historical detail so they necessarily take some time for her to write. This means I have to develop some patience.

I was delighted when The Secret Keeper came onto the shelves. As ever, it did not disappoint. I have so much enjoyed her previous books, The House At Riverton, The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours, that I thought they would be difficult to surpass. But once more Kate excelled.

All of her books are rooted in both the past and the present. In the past a dark secret lurks which is gradually revealed as we encounter the story in the present.

The plots are complex but it is the characters and the settings which bring the story to life. Kate Morton's descriptions are so atmospheric you don't feel like you are reading at all but you are actually living in the story. The beauty in Kate's writing though has its down side because it makes me realise that I have an awful long way to go if I ever want to become even half as accomplished as she is as a writer. Sigh.

The Secret Keeper starts in 1961 with the teenager, Laurel, sitting in her tree house on a hot summer's day. Laurel is busily day dreaming about her future when she witnesses a crime which changes everything.

In 2011, Laurel is a well-known actress. Her mother is dying and Laurel goes back to the family home to try to make sense of what it was she actually witnessed on that day, before it is too late.

Her search leads her to wartime London and the story becomes that of three strangers, Jimmy, Dorothy and Vivienne, who's lives become entwined with drastic consequences.

If you want to lose yourself in a really good story, The Secret Keeper is a must read. The only disappointment comes at the end, when you have to say goodbye.