Iris GowerCritiques

Iris Gower presents us with a novel that is part cozy, part romance, part historical and part good old ghost story. It is set in Wales just after the end of WW II and is based on an existing historic home (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/showbiz/2010/03/17/welsh-mansion-s-legend-inspires-novelist-iris-gower-91466-26049687/). It is a light but enjoyable story. The characters are engaging and there are a number of mysteries. Not all loose ends are tied up but that took little away from the story and may have been because it was her last novel. I am not big on romances but I am tempted to check out more from this author as a relaxing guilty pleasure. Recommended for those who are not overly critical. Three and half stars may be right but I am rounding up.

I listened to the Audible version. Minor nit - the narration was fine but was light on good Welsh accents.

Historical fiction at the time war of the roses begins. Focused on Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VIII.

It's not often I abandon a book, but I know I'm stressed & tired and the last thing I need is to listen to a book in the car that's only annoying me. I got to the start of the 3rd CD (out of 8) before throwing in the towel, but I couldn't bear to listen to anymore trite goings on. From as far as I got, it's set in Swansea in WW2. Hari & Meryl are sisters with a dead mother & a father away in the army. They're bombed out of their house and Meryl is evacuated, while Hari is working in communications at a shell factory (really?). She got given a morse receiver & told to work out how it worked (no instruction, nothing) then sent to take a bag to Bletchley park followed by a bag to the Prime minister. In a borrowed jeep. A girl who could barely drive at the beginning of the book. At that point I decided the blood pressure had risen enough and it was time to stop. But it was Hari's friend Kate who seemed to get all the plot cliches. She gave herself to some airmen because they were frightened. Then found a bloke she loved only he then found out and dumped her - but not before a desperate last shag - when she falls pregnant. She almost has an abortion, but changes her mind, only to loose the baby and her sight in an explosion at the shell factory - only person in the vicinity left alive. At which point the errant boyfriend comes back & swear he loves her, which is a god thing as a bomb has fallen on her family home and killed her entire family. Then the BF goes back to the front and is missing in action. Are there any other hardships that could befall a girl in the space of 2 CDs? because I'm not sure I could think of any.
This was just too superficial and relied too much on extreme levels of coincidence to be an interesting or enjoyable read. Struck me as dated (although i don't think it is) or written for my granny - it would have been right up her street.½

This story was quite good, although it is desperately sad in places. It’s mainly about Catherine Preece, who is running a farm in Wales. Her husband, David, was badly injured in the war and is paralysed from the waist down. Catherine is struggling to manage all the work on her own, so when David’s old army friend Morgan turns up, David offers him a job on the farm.
As the story goes on, David starts to feel more and more sorry for himself as he sees Morgan doing jobs that David used to do. Also Catherine gradually realises that she is falling in love with Morgan.

The book also shows us people in the town of Sweyn’s Eye. There is Mary who is trying to get back her husband, Brandon. There’s Gina and Billy, who won’t admit their love for each other. There’s Rhian, whose husband has moved to Yorkshire while she stays behind to nurse her sick friend Carrie. There’s Katie and Mark who move to France to find work. As well as many more characters. At first when the story jumps to different characters it is confusing, but as the story goes on the characters all become intertwined with each other, and we learn that they are all connected to each other somehow.

I managed to get through this book although at times it was very frustrating and repetative.

It's the 3rd book in a series and I think it would probably help to know the characters better if you read them in order which I did not do.

Gwenllyn Lyons has recently married a drover, Harry Rees, so she could have a father for her unborn child who was fathered by Caradoc Jones, who Gwenllyn nursed back to health after an accident in which Caradoc lost his memory. As soon as Caradoc got his memory back he left Gwenllyn to go home to his wife Non. Life was not easy for all involved.

When Ella Burton takes a job as a cleaner at The Palace Theatre in Swansea she falls in love with the place and it doesn’t take her long to fall in love with the Manager Anthony. She is in her element when he promotes her to wardrobe dresser.

But tragedy strikes and Ella and her mother are left with no money, and Ella does not hear from Anthony who has left take a position in Yorkshire, so she marries the man her father had chosen for her even though she does not love him.

Jolly is a good husband to Ella. He leaves his job and buys The Palace and Anthony comes back to work for him. They fall on hard times though and it is a struggle, then Ella loses Jolly and finds she is again left with no money and 6 children. She does some brain storming and comes with an idea to save The Palace.

This was an okay story, there were parts of it I thought not so good but overall an okay read.

NIL