Tag Archive | Boldwood Books

Finding Family At The Cornish Cove by Kim Nash

Oct16

Acts Of Kindness

Finding Family At The Cornish Cove by Kim Nash is a beautiful contemporary novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. It is the second book in the Cornish Cove series but can be read as a stand-alone.

This is a book about love, friendship and family. We see there are many types of family, just as there are many types of love – sibling, new love, old love, family love. Each is similar but different requiring different responses.

Likewise, families come in all different shapes and sizes. Family is those who love us. When we find family, we find home.

We see the deep grief that the loss of a mother brings. “There was a time… that I never thought I’d laugh again… I just existed in a little bubble of sadness.” We need to move beyond our grief and learn to live again. We fear losing sight of our loved one but they live on in our heart.

There is also the damage created by an absentee wife and mother. A family learned to live without her but there were emotional consequences as we see a teen learning to find her way.

We witness a character trying to live her mother’s dream, for fear of losing a memory but “this is where your memories are. In your heart and in your mind.” Her mother’s dream is enlarged when the lead character owns her own dream.

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Take Me Home by Beth Moran

Oct15

Learning To Live Again

Take Me Home by Beth Moran is a delightful contemporary novel that warmed my heart and made me smile.

The novel is about friendship and love. The fragrance of love wafts over the whole novel. It is a love between friends that brings out the best in each other. It is a love that looks for goodness. It is a love that builds up and doesn’t tear down. It is a love that gives strength and encouragement to others, helping them to live abundantly free.

A character is suffering from a trauma that has held her captive for years. She has hidden from the world, never getting close to anyone for fear that they would leave. A locked-up heart is free from new hurts but cocooned in old pain. The locks need to be severed and a character needs to learn to take a chance on love and begin to live again.

We see the hurt that so-called family members inflicted on a life – literally and figuratively locking a character up and damaging her for decades.

We see a love that does not die. The years pass but the love remains.

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The House Keeper by Valerie Keogh

Oct10

Atmospheric & Gripping

The House Keeper by Valerie Keogh is an absolutely gripping contemporary psychological suspense that I just could not put down.

It was very atmospheric. It employed techniques from the Gothic tradition with an isolated, long forgotten house. The hairs on my head definitely rose at times, especially on the moonless nights when the action ramped up. The house became a character in its own right as it refused to yield its secrets.

All the characters were well drawn and realistic. An air of suspicion and mistrust wafted over many as I wondered just who was hiding what? Whispers in the night and huddled secrets need to come out.

Guilt and grief surrounded a newly widowed character. She felt burdened and was hiding a guilty secret. All was not as it seemed.

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The Daughter Of The Fens by Elena Collins

Oct4

For All Time

The Daughter Of The Fens by Elena Collins is the most awe inspiring, beautiful timeslip novel that I could not get enough of. I read it in just two sittings, pausing only to sleep.

The action is set in the Fens in present day and also two millennia earlier under Roman occupation. It is an area of mystery where the past and present collide as the veil of time is thin.

This is a beautiful story about a forbidden love that will last a lifetime. A character is searching in the past, and her presence is linked to a soul in the present, through dreams and the landscape.

Alternating chapters reveal the parallels between the characters and the time periods.

Elena Collins brings the landscape of two millennia ago to life as we enter a Roman villa and follow the life of an Iceni servant girl. She is a good soul, loyal and true.

As we follow the servant girl, we see that her Roman mistress is more imprisoned than she is. Roman wives knew their duties. They knew their places. They were not free but had to do the bidding of their fathers and then their husbands.

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