Recent Reading

This book is cleverly written which leaves us with a major twist at the end of the book.

A tragic accident. It all happened so quickly. She couldn't have prevented it. Could she?

In a split second, Jenna Gray's world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of a cruel November night that changed her life forever.

Slowly, Jenna begins to glimpse the potential for happiness in her future. But her past is about to catch up with her, and the consequences will be devastating . . .

I loved the living by the sea in a small cottage getting to know the neighbors and town folk.  Jenna working through trusting people again, going for walks and being in nature as a healing process.
 

Sylvia Compson is a quilter who returns to the family manor Elm Creek Manor in the south after inheriting it after her sister passes away.

She has built a business of providing quilting retreats at the manor where the guests stay and the Elm Creek quilters teach classes.

The Runaway quilt focuses on a journal Sylvia found in the attic of a early ancestor Gerda Bergstrom who lived at Elm Creek before the Civil War.

The Master Quilter brings another story of Sylvia Bergstrom Compson who marries her sweetheart.  The Elm Creek quilters decide to make her a wedding quilt as a gift.  The story has secrets, financial hardships, relationships struggles test the bonds of friendship.

I put a hold on this book at the library after I read a review from on of the bloggers I follow reviewed and highly recommended it.   I waited a long 6 weeks for notification that it was now my turn to read it.

I was expecting it to be good and it was terrific.

A story that covers 1913, 1975 and 2005 starts with a little girl sitting on a wharf in Australia with no one to take care of her in 1913.

The little girl does have a family care for her and when she finds they are not her real parents she starts the hunt.  When her father passes she finds has a fairy tale book which was in her small suitcase when she arrived in Australia. Eventually, she heads to England to discover the cottage during her time there. Her plans to move are interrupted.

When her grand daugther inherits the cottage she decides to visit England to find out more about grandmother Nell's family history and see the cottage and the secrets it may hold.  There is more there: The Blackhurst Manor, the Maze, the Walled Garden and the tiny cottage on the edge of a cliff.

I could not put the book down.  It is over 500 pages.  I did sleep but I finished it in 2 days! I loved it!

The layers of the  family  history is quite complex and I certainly will have to read it again in a while to absorb more of it.

Again, English and Australia settings are wonderful. Mothers, grandmothers, cousins and women are the focus of the story.

This book mark given to me by my painter aunt came in very handy with all the reading I have been doing.  I love the colors and texture of this piece of art.

It is becoming my regular bookmark in the book I am reading.

Looking forward to my next escape into a good book.