A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore

Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publish Date: February 1, 2012
Format: Audio
Discs: 12
ISBN: 978 

Can dreams be passed down through families?  As a child Jude suffered a recurrent nightmare: running through a dark forest, crying for her mother.  Now six years later her six-year0old niece, Summer, is having the same dream, and Jude is frightened for her.

A successful auctioneer, Jude is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband.  When she’s asked to value a collection of scientific instruments and manuscripts belonging to Anthony Wickham, a lonely 18^th century astronomer, she leaps at the chance to escape London for the untamed beauty of Norfolk, where she grew up.

As Jude untangles Wickham’s tragic story, she discovers threatening links to the present.  What have Summer’s nightmares to do with Starbrough folly, the eerie crumbling tower in the woods from which Wickham and is adopted daughter Esther once viewed the night sky?  With help of Euan, a local naturalist, Jude searches for answers in the wild, haunting splendor of the Norfolk forests.  Dare she leave behind sadness in her own life and learn to love again?

My Thoughts

Was this a story about trying to understand the reason for Summer's bad dreams or Jude finding love again or solving the mystery of the Wickham family and what happened to Esther or tracking down her grandmother's long lost childhood friend?  I'm not really sure because there were so many sub-plots going on that each got lost.  It was very slow paced and I just found the overall plot to be boring and uninteresting.  The novel had so much potential - why couldn't it just be about Jude unraveling the mystery of Esther and be done with it.  The dream aspect was just plain unrealistic and held no value to the story.  I also found the love story to be unnecessary and boring.  I felt zero engagement with the characters and couldn't wait for the story to end.

I listened to this on audio and I have come to the conclusion that I strongly dislike British narrators!  I have listened to a number of them and the attempt at doing different voices for each character (especially a man or child) makes my skin crawl.  

It had been a few weeks since I listened to this book and I can't real how it even ended.  Hate when that happens.

My Rating: ««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

Publisher: Washington Square Press
Publish Date: March 3, 2009
Pages: 473
Format: Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1416550532

On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English county house, a young poet takes his life.  The only witnesses are sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford.  This story unfolds both in the 1920’s and 1999.  Grace Bradley, in the 1920’s is a housemaid of Riverton Manor and in 1999 she is an old lady living in a nursing home approaching death, is visiting by a young director making a film about the poet’s suicide and is looking to Grace to fill in the missing pieces.

The reader knows that Robbie McCourt, the poet, who commits suicide at Riverton in 1925, really didn't  that the suicide story is a cover-up to a scandal.  Grace knows what really happened that night and has kept that secret he entire life – until now, in her final years of life when she starts at the beginning, when she starts work at Riverton for the Hartford family.

My Thoughts
In the page-turner of a novel, beautifully written and reminiscent of the era in England prior to and after World War 1, the author succeeds in weaving a complex tale of passion, jealousy and intrigue utilizing the past memories of 98 year old Grace Bradley and the secret she has guarded for over 60 years.

This story combines love, war, honour, family, money and scandals in an intricately woven web of deceit and secrets.  This book has so many twists and turns that you never really know what is going to happen – until the very last page when the entire story is finally revealed.

This book is a must read for lovers of historical novels and well written mysteries.  The House at Riverton is a literary feast.

My Rating: ««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.