Tag: readingupdate

Review – A Daughter’s Love

“Overnight, the lives of those who lived at Cuthford Manor were tossed upside down. And as the days turned into weeks, no one seemed to know how to put everything the right way up again.”

What better way to beat the January blues than with a stay at the luxurious Cuthford Manor Country House Hotel? Surrounded by breath-taking landscapes which are almost as dramatic as the lives of the people who inhabit the building itself. It’s 1953, and Angie is now well settled into her role as the firm, but fair, lady of the manor, which seems a lifetime away from her wartime days at Thompson’s shipyard in Sunderland. Of course, the lives of the family she has built along the way, are anything but settled.

Having read (and loved) the previous two ‘Cuthford Manor’ novels, I started ‘A Daughter’s Love’ with firmly established opinions of the primary characters and felt quietly confident that I knew how things would pan out. However, as with all of Nancy Revell’s characters, within a few chapters I found myself questioning everything I already knew about them and racking my brain trying to guess what they were going to do next. By the end of the second (and previous) novel, my opinion of Marlene had gone from that of irritation to respect for the mature young woman she was turning into, and she entered ‘A Daughter’s Love’ having taken on the role of fierce (and very feisty) protector of her family, particularly of her new sister-in-law Lucy, which I really enjoyed in the first few chapters. Her courage and sass really reminded me of Angie and her fearless squad of women welders in Nancy’s earlier ‘Shipyard Girls’ series. That said, without spoiling the plot for anyone who hasn’t yet read this book, as the story progresses, we learn that even the smartest women, like our newly confident Marlene, can have their better judgement skewed entirely by a man, especially the most charming wolf hidden in sheep’s clothing.

“And in that moment, the man she had believed she loved more than anything became the man she hated more than anyone.”

Speaking of being hoodwinked, despite having read all of Nancy’s previous saga novels, as I turned the pages of ‘A Daughter’s Love’, I found that I genuinely had no idea which way the plot twists were going to turn. Yes, I was practically screaming at Marlene at times for having her head turned by a man who I felt, in my gut, was a walking red flag from page one, but the thing about Nancy’s writing is that you never can feel completely confident that you’ve got the measure of any of her characters. Despite all the underlying clues, I still found myself going back and forth on Marlene’s new beau, and that’s to say nothing of all the other plot twists which were interwoven into the story, which also had me changing my mind so often that I practically gave myself whiplash.

“For a fleeting moment, Marlene thought of her previous yearning to be an actress. Well, now was the time to put on an Oscar-winning performance.”

Similarly, even though Mabel had already been well established as the woman we all love to hate, as her story progressed, I found myself discovering new layers of complexity to her character and, for the briefest of periods, having a scrap of sympathy for her. Although, through her final character arc at the end, as much as I hate to admit it, I must say I had nothing but respect for how she navigated that. Again, without spoiling anything, ultimately a leopard does not change its spots, and some people will always be master manipulators, but in Mabel’s case, she played that perfectly to her own satisfying advantage, to the demise of someone who, for once, totally deserved to be on the receiving end of her spite.

“Not for the first time, she felt divided between her life at Cuthford Manor, and those who lived there, and this new life, which seemed to have very quickly, and rather magically, come into being.”

The great thing about having firmly established characters in a saga such as this, is that the writer can juggle multiple plots and character developments, and inter-weave them, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Although, the classic ‘just one more chapter’ promise I make to myself went totally out of the window several times. As I would desperately try to find out what happened next for one character, another character would have an even more dramatic spanner thrown into the works – making it utterly impossible to put the book down. Even the ending, which I approached with a thought of ‘how can she possibly wrap all of these different plotlines up in a satisfying way?’, somehow, in true Nancy style, brought the individual characters’ journeys to perfect conclusions, whilst leaving a hilarious cliff-hanger for the two main villains of the story that has left my imagination whirring as to how that will unfold in the ‘Cuthford Manor’ universe. Although I wanted those two to get their just desserts, to be out of sight and with nothing to their names, in many ways they deserve each other, and a lifetime together is the most fitting punishment for them both.

It may be time to say goodbye to Cuthford Manor, but my mind, and those of all the readers who have enjoyed this series, will definitely continue to work overtime theorising about how the dynamic of Roeburn Hall’s new inhabitants would have played out next!

Thanks Nancy for another great series, can’t wait to see what you have in store for us readers next!

Recent Reading Roundup

Having taken a somewhat unplanned maternity leave from blogging, the pressure around what my first post in about 6 months should be about has felt pretty intense. As with many other difficult periods in life, reading is the only thing which has kept me somewhat sane over the past few months, and mastering the art of holding a paperback in one hand with my napping baby balanced on the opposite arm was a total game-changer. So, having binge-read my way through at least half of my local library’s stock, I started to get a backlog of books I wanted to rave about; but every time I started to get into something approaching a normal routine, my baby would hit another milestone and send everything haywire. If you know, you KNOW. To ease myself and my sleep-deprived brain back into blogging, the easiest thing seemed to be to bullet point the highlights of my recent reads, although being concise is not one of my strongest qualities, as anyone who follows this blog will know; so I will try my best to keep it snappy.

– Letters On Motherhood – Giovanna Fletcher. I love everything Giovanna Fletcher does, from her You Tube to her podcast, fiction and non-fiction I devour it all, and two weeks after becoming a mother myself, this seemed like the perfect read. But, if you want my brutally honest opinion? It was lovely to read in the newborn bubble; full of heartfelt and emotive reflections on past moments of motherhood and those yet to come, I was cradling my bundle of joy and planning all the sentimental letters I would write to him about this wonderful time together. However, just after I began this read, my partner went back to work and the reality of colic, reflux, eczema and sleep regression set in. In a nutshell – can be enjoyed by anyone not currently experiencing what my perinatal mental health worker calls “the fog” (sometimes also aptly referred to as “the storm” by other professionals). I’d recommend this whilst in the newborn bubble or once one’s child(ren) are pretty much self sufficient, but whilst riding the storm, to be honest, it’s as fluffy as an NCT course or a Fairy washing powder advert and overly romanticised the utter hell of those early days in the same way the concept of “the blitz spirit” must infuriate anyone who actually lived through that nightmare. Sorry Giovanna! (In her defence, I found “Happy Mum, Happy Baby” much more realistic and relatable).

– The Midnight Library and How to Stop Time – Matt Haig. My edgy, former teenage self is reeling that I chose a book based on its currently high level of commercial popularity, but sometimes there is a good reason as to why things are popular. I am not usually one for reading books with abstract or magical elements, they’re often a bit too wishy washy for me, but both of these concepts were too intriguing not to explore. I loved the honest and unfiltered depictions of mental health in ‘The Midnight Library’, and wondering what might have been is such a fundamentally human element of everyone’s psyche that we can all relate to Nora’s journey, but Matt Haig manages to balance out the darker themes with a wonderfully optimistic ending which I’m still reflecting on a couple of months later. I then read ‘How to Stop Time’ off the back of how much I enjoyed The Midnight Library and again was intrigued by the concept. I love a historical fiction novel, obviously, but seeing a character experience so many different contexts within one journey is such a unique way of framing this, and raised the age old question of nature v nurture – who would any of us be if we lived in different time periods and cultures? Are we universally ourselves or products of our environment? Again, it’s been two months and I still don’t know.

– The Munitions Girls series – Rosie Archer. Again, we know I love a historical saga, and this was one I hadn’t got round to reading yet, even though I have enjoyed a lot of her standalone novels. I was surprised to learn that this series was only in four parts, since the amount of different characters which Rosie Archer juggles throughout the plots is crazy, and yet is still able to provide enough rich detail to ensure the reader is fully invested in each character’s personal journey. The plot moved very fast, and it’s impressive how far she was able to take each character’s journey in just four installments, but it never felt rushed or skimmed over at any point, nor were any of the more rich or emotive aspects of the plots spared. That must have been a really difficult balance for the author to strike, but I’d absolutely recommend this series for any saga lover wanting a quick and exciting binge without sacrificing the depth of plot, emotive themes and character development.

– Christmas with the Bobby Girls – Johanna Bell. I have followed this series since it first came out, but I somehow got waylaid in pursuing it. When my local library received its first copy of this book, of course I was at the top of the waiting list (also the thrill of being the first person to check out a book was one I didn’t know I needed). I do love that this saga seems to shift focus between different primary characters in each installment, so although the overall passage of contextual time in the story isn’t particularly rapid, the reader’s interest is still gripped by the stark differences in the characters’ lives and journeys as they intertwine with one another. I definitely need to read the most recent installment of this saga, and will be doing so as soon as my baby allows me to have more than 1 hour of sleep in a twenty four hour period!