Catherine King

This book was far too dull for me to enjoy it. It started off kind of OK with Mabel, a young girl, that's working to get a better life, but then the story took a jump to the future and her daughter Nell took over and then the story started to drag. I just didn't care for her and her mother anymore because the story went on and on and on without really getting anywhere. At least that's how I felt.

Nell has been let go of her work and her mother Mabel is not really clear in the head since Nell's father died when she was little. Mabel accuses a man called George of being responsible for her husband's death and she keeps on doing it over and over in the book, living in the past and letting her daughter take care of her. And, at that time in history, 1910, the only places for a woman like that either a lunatic asylum or a workhouse and Nell is trying everything in her power to keep her mother from the places and I should be touched by her plight, but I was more annoyed with Mabel all the time getting in trouble and speaking to everyone that she met how George killed her husband. Nell is a very good daughter and I feel I should be taken with her love for her mother, but I couldn't help being annoyed with Mabel and I wonder how on earth could she even raise a daughter with her state of mind, but perhaps it deteriorated. It's hard to know when you jump twenty years ahead in time.

I just kept reading to know how it all would and to my surprise (a bit of sarcasm) it had a HEA ending with Nell finding out the truth about the circumstances around her father's death and finding true love at the end. The true love thing felt weird since there had not been much said about the love between them before that. I would have preferred a more subtle ending with some hints about a promising future for them instead.

This book felt long and it took me a long time to read it since I kept reading other things instead because I just couldn't really get into the story and I wish I could because the author died this summer so this is her last book. But this book just didn't work for me, I didn't find myself engrossed in the story and several times I just skimmed the text to get on with the story to get to the end. and, that's too bad because it didn't start off so bad.

Thank you Piatkus for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!… (más)