Expected: 24 January 2020 (ebook) and 20 February 2020 (paperback)
Lisa needs to disappear. And her friend's rambling old home in the wilds of Yorkshire seems like the perfect place. It's miles away from the closest town, and no one there knows her or her little boy, Joe.
But what secret has Rowan Isle House - and her friend - kept hidden all these years? And what will Lisa have to do to survive, when her past finally catches up with her?
In my opinion
Author Nuala Ellwood is one of those authors who regularly appears on those lists of other authors that I may like, so I was really excited to have this opportunity to read her latest book prior to publication. Unfortunately, however, this one just wasn’t for me.
A remote lakeside house provides the setting for this story, whose chapters alternate between the present day and fifteen years previously. In the present day, Lisa is hiding out in the house with her young son, Joe, having fled from her controlling husband. Similarly, fifteen years earlier the house was home to a teenage Grace and her controlling father, who lived solitary lives fearful of civilisation and the modern world.
The book’s description promised a nail-biting thriller in which main character Lisa needs to disappear and her friend's rambling old home seems like the perfect place. But, Lisa soon realises that the house - and her friend - have hidden secrets. And, so I wasn’t really expecting the underlying theme which was two women abused and controlled in various different ways by the men in their lives. As such this was darker, rawer and more melancholy than I was expecting.
The other problem was that there was a very small pool of characters and I just didn’t warm to any of them. Even four-year old Joe was a very mardy child. Through the author’s clever descriptive writing I was able to understand and muster a certain amount of sympathy for the characters but I still found them very difficult to like or agree with their choices.
On the plus side I had no idea where the two story lines were going to lead. It was very well written, nothing is what it seems with both Lisa and Grace’s stories far from straightforward. Each time I thought I knew what was happening, the story veered off in a different direction. However, whilst I couldn’t predict the ending I also didn’t really like it as it failed to shake of the overwhelming feeling of sadness, offering only a small smidgen of hope for the future of these women.
Nuala Ellwood is a best-selling author and this has received some great comments, but for me it was a difficult read and not really my cup of tea unfortunately.
The author
Follow @NualaWrites on Twitter.
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