Book thoughts: The Titanic sisters, by Patricia Falvey

 

    Set between Donegal, Ireland and America, The Titanic sisters, is the story of two very different girls, Nora and Delia Sweeney.  

    Raised on a farm, Nora was adored by her mother and spoiled beyond belief, while Delia was shunned, and accused of being a changeling, of whom no good would come.  

      So when the opportunity to head for America arises, Delia is convinced that she'll  be left behind, while her sister heads out for adventure, but her father has other ideas, and steps in, securing Delia a place alongside her sister on the ill fated Titanic. 

    When the Titanic sinks beneath the waves, Delia is left alone and afraid. Certain that her sister is dead, she stumbles into her shoes, taking her name, in order to escape the life of drudgery as a maid, that her father had arrange for her, and instead taking up the position of governess, for the now motherless Lily. 

    There's just one problem, Nora isn't dead, but when she comes around after her ordeal, her memory is a blank and she has no idea who she is, or where she came from. 

    I was drawn into this book by the Titanic, but held there by the intriguing story, captivating writing style and wonderful characters. 

    Patricia Falvey has a talent for creating captivating storylines and believable characters, that are easy to relate to and grow attached too. 

    Her descriptions, or the places and experiences the girls encounter, make you feel as if you can step through the pages and actually be their alongside them, seeing it all first hand. 

    I laughed, cried and exclaimed over the girls plights, successes and adventures and longed for everything to come good, for them both. 

    This is a story that will captivate you and keep you turning the pages, and longing for it never to end. 

    The only thing I did not like about this book, was that it ended. I wanted to stay a part of their world forever. 

    Thank you to Netgalley, Patricia Falvey and her publisher for allowing me to read this wonderful book for free. I'll certainly be looking for more books by this author in the future. 

If you would like to know more about The Titanic sisters, or get a copy for yourself, you can find by clicking here. When this blog was written it was avaliable in paperback, ebook and audiobook formats. And the current Kindle price was just 99p. 

Here is the official Blurb: One journey will change their lives forever

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To follow her dreams, she must sacrifice everything...

Sisters Nora and Delia have been given the chance of a lifetime - to escape their poor Irish farm and travel on the Titanic to a new life in America. Nora is to become a treasured governess for a rich family, while Delia has only a lowly maid's position.

But when disaster strikes, and Nora dies, a small misunderstanding leads to Delia taking Nora's place as governess. As Delia grows closer to her charge, and the girl's father, will she be able to reveal the truth to find a chance at happiness? And what will happen when she finds out that Nora is actually alive, and coming to take what is rightfully hers...?

Book thoughts: They skylark’s secret by Fiona Valpy

The blurb: 

Loch Ewe, 1940. When gamekeeper’s daughter Flora’s remote highland village finds itself the base for the Royal Navy’s Arctic convoys, life in her close-knit community changes forever. In defiance of his disapproving father, the laird’s son falls in love with Flora, and as tensions build in their disrupted home, any chance of their happiness seems doomed.

Decades later, Flora’s daughter, singer Lexie Gordon, is forced to return to the village and to the tiny cottage where she grew up. Having long ago escaped to the bright lights of the West End, London still never truly felt like home. Now back, with a daughter of her own, Lexie learns that her mother—and the hostile-seeming village itself—have long been hiding secrets that make her question everything she thought she knew.

As she pieces together the fragments of her parents’ story, Lexie discovers the courageous, devastating sacrifices made in her name. It’s too late to rekindle her relationship with her mother, but can Lexie find it in her heart to forgive the past, to grieve for all that’s lost, and finally find her place in the world?

My thoughts: I read one of Fiona’s books fairly recently, The dressmakers gift’s. It seems Fiona’s style is to start slow and gently ease you into her fictional world. A little too slow for me in my present mood. 

There is no denying that Fiona is a very talented writer, and normally I would love reading her books, but at present due to how tired I am most of the time because of my Crohn's if the book isn't fast paced with lots going on, my thoughts tend to start drifting. 

As with the dressmakers gift this is a book I would want to go back and reread when I am a little more with it. 

This book tells the story of Lexi, in the 1970's and her mother back in the 1940's. Lexi is trying to learn more about her father, a subject her mother was always somewhat reluctant to discuss. When her mother passes away, she  returns to her childhood home, with her child and finding herself in a similar situation to her mother, sets out to find out the truth about her fathers side of the family, But it's no easy task, as she finds it difficult to get her mothers two best friends to open up. 

So the story jumps between Lexi's life and her mothers, and in her mothers we slowly began to hear Flora's story, while poor Lexi still remains oblivious. 

It's an interesting read, with a lot of great historical information. The second world war is clearly a subject Fiona is very knowledgeable about. 

I think she is definitely an author that it is worth giving a try, and I apologise for not being able to give the book the attention it deserves at present but I will go back and reread once, my head is in a better place. Sadly, I'm not sure when that will be at the moment, due to the Chemo, and as always apologies for any error I might have made I sometimes get names and words muddled these days. 

Thank you to Netgalley, FIona Valpy and her publishers for allowing me the change to read and advance copy. And I promise I will reread at some point and rereview, when my head is in a better place. 

That said I did find the story very relaxing, and interesting. So it is indeed worth a read. 

Book thoughts: a home for unloved orphans by Rachel Wesson

The blurb: Virginia, 1933: Her heart broke as she took in the scene before her. There were too many orphans and not enough beds. The rags they wore barely covered them and they hadn’t eaten in days. How could anyone let innocent children live like this? She picked up a tiny girl who’d cried as she moved past her cot. “I’ll be back soon, little one.”

Never in a million years did Lauren Greenwoodthink she would be destitute and without a penny to her name. But when her father mercilessly disowns her in the depths of winter, that is her fate. Now homeless, Lauren finds America in the devastating grip of the Great Depression––children run wild in the icy streets, endless queues for soup kitchens line frosty sidewalks, and desperation hangs in the air.

All alone in the world, Lauren finds an orphanage in the sprawling fields of the Virginia countryside, surrounded by snow-topped mountains and magnificent fir trees––a safe haven for those who have nowhere to go. But she is appalled to find children living in shocking conditions, huddled together for warmth, their hunger keeping them awake at night as the temperature plunges. The home for unloved orphans is on the brink of closure and the helpless innocents may lose the roof over their heads…  

Lauren, heartbroken by the rejection of her own father, vows to provide these poor orphans with the love she never received. With Christmas just around the corner, she refuses to see them cast out onto the street, where they will not survive. When she sees an advertisement in the local newspaper, with an anonymous benefactor donating money to families crippled by the Depression, it could be the answer to her prayers.

Can Lauren save these children who have been rejected by the world? Or in a time of so much suffering, is there simply no hope?

My thoughts: This book takes an accurate glance of the life of a young woman from a well to do family, in the early 19 hundreds.

Intelligent and kind, and desperate to help others less fortunate than her, Lauren finds herself trapped by her fathers plans for her future, ones intended to bolster is own, with no regards at all, to his daughters feelings, or future happiness. 

When we look back at the past, we often look on the wealthy with scorn, forgetting that for many women of that period, wealth was no blessing but often a curse. Forced to pursue activities, deemed acceptable for a young lady, and allowed enough of an education to be left yearning for more. Many found life boring and repetitive, and ended up being nothing more than pretty ornaments to adorn some mans arm, pawns in their parents attempts at bettering their own status, or connections, or a way for some man to gain better standing in society. 

Many were often desperate to help those around them who were less fortunate, but were forbidden to do so, And were forced to sit in rooms with stuffy women and converse on bland subjects. 

If they tried to join in with the more intellectual or political conversations of the men, they were made to feel small, or stupid and told that it was something, that they of women should not worry their pretty little heads about. 

Once married off many suffered abusive partners with no means of escape. Divorce was not an option. 

For Lauren, her devotion for her father soon sours as she begins to see that the man she had so admired, is in fact cruel, manipulative and willing to sink very low in order to continue to amass greater wealth. 

Even his own daughter becomes a pawn in his bid for greater wealth. And Lauren finds herself being force to marry a man who disgusts her and who, even before their marriage, begins to beat her mercilessly, while her father, excuses his behaviour and even try’s to lay the blame at his daughters door. 

Raised to be kind and passionate about helping others by her nanny, after her mother died when she was a young child,  Lauren is heartbroken to discover that her father, is responsible for cutting wages, ripping businesses and homes from those in dire straights and forcing people to work and live in disgusting conditions, all things Lauren is desperate to save them from.

As her eyes begin to open not only to her father, but the rest of the high society folks that she is forced to surround herself with, she begins to search for a way to make up, for the sins of the father, and to make her nanny and deceased mother proud. 

But Lauren’s own naivety, often causes more trouble than good, and she discovers that nanny Kat’s  words “kindness costs nothing.”  Don’t really live up to her own ambitions, for saving the orphans, she has becomes so attached too. 

What I love most about this book is how real and believable the characters are, Lauren has led a privileged life, she believes everything can be fixed with either the right words to the right people or by throwing money at it. At times you want to scream at her in desperation as she continues to make the same mistakes, failing to fully understand why her attempts to help are sometimes doing more harm than good. 

Likewise the people she helps don’t always fawn over her, they are distrusting and sceptical. They know, and learned early on that the world is a cruel place and that life is rarely fair, something that Lauren is only just beginning to understand. 

This makes the story believable and Lauren a lovable character, especially because of her determination. No matter how many times she fails, she just keeps on trying. And isn’t that all any of us can do. 

But with Lauren it means so much more, as she could so easily just give up and go back to her life of luxury and forget all the poor people and orphans that she has come to know, it would certainly be easier to do so. But instead she risks putting herself in the same boat as then, by going against her fathers wishes and trying to make their lives that little bit more bearable, she is a true heroin and someone we should all aspire to be more like. Because at the heart of it, her Nanny Kat is right, kindness costs nothing.

So if you are looking for a heartwarming read that will

Make you laugh, cry and inspire, then I recommend a home for unloved children, and I am very grateful to NetGalley, Rachel Wesson and her publishers for allowing me to read this lovely book for free, in exchange for an honest review. And I will certainly look forward to reading more by this author in the future. 

Book thoughts: The stolen letter by Clara Benson

Blurb: Italy, 1944: The longer her imprisonment went on, the more she cast her mind back to the stolen hours they had spent together. His love had blown in like an unexpected breath of warm summer air, giving her the promise of life and joy. But now they had been torn apart and she was tormented by the thought that they might never be reunited.

1939: When Stella arrives in Florence, it’s love at first sight. She is wowed by the rolling hills dotted with olive trees, the buttermilk villas with shuttered windows and terracotta roofs that glow gloriously in the sunlight. Even the breeze holds the scent of freedom – freedom from England, where the shadow of her past haunted her.

Then there is Ted, an American journalist who is wild and mischievous, with an arrogance bordering on rude. Stella is infuriated by him – but she cannot deny the lure of the danger and excitement he promises.

But there is something dark under the bright surface of this beautiful country, with unspeakable tragedies just around the corner. When the Nazis take control of Italy, Stella and Ted – and whatever dreams the future held for them – are ripped apart. As bombs descend, destroying everything in their wake, there is nothing to do but sit in darkness, praying to see tomorrow.

And it seems that even in Italy, Stella’s past has found her. Somewhere in the winding streets of Florence there is a letter that could change the course of her fate. Unknown to her, it holds a secret with the power to rewrite her past, and everything she has been running away from. But will she live to find it? And with the odds stacked against her, will she ever see Ted again?

My thoughts: it’s 5.30 am and I have just finished reading the stolen letter and am in the wonderful stage of book hangover, where I wish there were more left to read and I have no inclination to move on to the next book and away from all the characters I have come to know and love in this one. 

This is an extraordinary book, that slowly but surely pulls you in and devours you. The imagery is amazing, the story both enticing and heartbreaking, while being beautifully crafted. 

I love story’s set in the war, and seeing people overcoming the most devastating circumstances, their spirit and determination never fails to amaze me and Stella is no exception, as we shadow her life, page by page watching her grow from a frighten, naive young girl to a strong and determined young woman. 

Her story is heartbreaking and invigorating, and she meets a whole host of interesting and well developed characters along the way, from the evil and twisted Marius, who marries her, merely to torture and terrorize her, to Beatrice, sharp and distrusting, but ultimately kind and compassionate underneath. 

Clara builds realistic, believable characters, perfectly flawed, as we all are and weaves a historical novel that has you convinced you have actually step back in time, and are witnessing the real happens of world war 2 in all us gruesome reality. 

I cannot recommend this book highly enough and will definitely be looking for more books by this author in the future. 

I receive this book in return for an honest review from NetGalley. As always I apologize for any errors in spelling or grammar and ask for your forgiveness. Due to my Crohn’s disease I often get terrible brain fog and forget how to spell the simplest of words as well as mixing up words and names and such. Unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot I can do about it, except as for your understanding. 

Love and hugs all

Joss xx