From the outside, anyone would think that Lucy Palmer has it all: loving children, a dashing husband and a gorgeous home.
But when her marriage to Michael comes to an abrupt and unexpected end, her life is turned upside down in a flash.
As the truth of her marriage threatens to surface, Lucy seizes the opportunity to swap her house in London – and the stories it hides – for a rural escape to her parents’ farmhouse in the Chilterns.
But Lucy gets more than she bargained for when she moves back to her childhood home, especially when it throws her into the path of an old flame.
Coming face-to-face with her mistakes, Lucy is forced to confront the secrets she’s been keeping from herself and those she loves.
Is she ready to let someone in? Or will she leave the door to her past firmly closed . . .
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Catherine has sold over 3 million bestselling novels worldwide and is translated into eighteen languages.
The first of these novels Catherine started under the desk when she worked as an advertising copywriter. She was duly fired. With time on her hands, she persevered with the novels, which happily flourished.
In the early days she produced a baby with each book – but after three – stuck to the writing as it was less painful.
She writes with her favorite pen in notebooks, either in the garden or on a sofa.
Home is a rural spot on the Hertfordshire border, which she shares with her family and a menagerie of horses, cows, chickens, and dogs, which at the last count totaled eighty-seven beating hearts, including her husband. Some of her household have walk-on parts in her novels, but only the chickens would probably recognize themselves.
All her novels are published by Penguin Random House internationally, and by No Shooz Publishing in America. Catherine Alliot | Instagram | Facebook
My thoughts: this is quite a dark and sad book, Lucy’s husband gaslit her and bullied her for years and she finally has the chance to be free and happy. But she’s gnawed on by guilt and plagued with worry. She’s also trying to organise and care for her parents, who drink too much and forget to go to the doctors. But her sister, friends and children want her to start finding happiness and living for herself, not someone else.
As Lucy begins to dig her way out, and I was rooting for her all the way, chinks of light start to appear in the darkness of her sad life, and she begins to really live again, putting the guilt and pain behind her. She also finds she has allies she didn’t know about, and that she doesn’t have to support people who don’t support her.
In the end, there is hope and light and happiness for Lucy, the book is ultimate redemptive and I cheered for her. Her parents got a bit more sorted, her children and extended family were always there for her and she finally found proper love.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 