Currently reading
Alex
The Glass Room
Peter the Great: His Life and World
If I Can't Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children
Skin Deep
The Good Daughter
A Boy in Winter
The Tie That Binds
The Idiot (Everyman's Library, #254)
The Velvet Hours
The Shell Seekers
3.5 Stars A beautifully written character driven novel about family and life, love and loss, greed and hope, a book that has the charm and eloquence of books from a bygone era, just a good old fashioned family saga, a story with real characters and places that are interesting and vivid.
I had never read a book by this author before and as a couple of Goodread friends have really enjoyed her novels and the fact I saw it on the BBC list of Top 100 books I just had to try one and I was in not disappointed by the story or the writing style as the characters and images in the novel are so well drawn with little details that bring a wonderful sense of time and place to the story which makes this novel so readable and enjoyable.
This is the type of novel that while it didn't move me or have me on the edge of my seat, I loved picking it up and spending time with the characters and just enjoyed the good feeling it gave me. It would make a terrific holiday read or a book for cosy winter nights by the fire, It the sort of book I will remember reading 10 years from now and still be able to recall the characters.
I did find the book a tad long but I am not a fan of long books anyhow but I am certainly looking forward to reading more by this author soon.
I bought a paperback edition of this novel and delighted to place this one on my bookshelf for future re-reading.
