📖 Blog Tour ~ The Irish Key by Daisy O'Shea

Bookouture

24 April 2024

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of the book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

‘Take the key, my pet. I can’t ever go back. The last letter I had from Ireland was clear about that. But one day you may need a safe haven, and it’s the one thing I can give you. Ireland is in your blood, it will keep you safe.’

When Grace arrives tired, tearful and rain-soaked in Roone Bay, the little Irish village where her grandmother Caitlin grew up, she is overwhelmed with longing for Caitlin’s safe, warm arms. The crumbling wreck of Caitlin’s once-beautiful childhood cottage – whose key Grace was given on her wedding day as a secret refuge if she ever needed it – is not the fresh start she’d hoped for. But with her young daughter Olivia to look after and a painful past to hide from, Grace has to stay strong. 

Plucking up the courage to ask for help from her kind new neighbours – including quietly rugged carpenter Sean Murphy – Grace gets to work making the house habitable. Soon the view of the deep emerald sea has her captivated, Olivia is blossoming, and Sean makes her laugh in a way she’d forgotten she could… As she learns more about her family history, with Sean by her side, Grace’s curiosity unearths only further mystery. 

What drove Caitlin away from Ireland, never to return? But when Grace uncovers a long-lost letter to Caitlin that reveals the heartbreaking truth, she is suddenly threatened by her own devastating secrets. Grace may have finally found a home for her little family. But when faced with everything she ran from, will the past tear her apart once more? Or will Grace find the strength to stand up for her daughter, her love for Sean, and her new life in Ireland?

📖 My Review

Grace and her daughter Olivia arrive in the small coastal village of Roone Bay in Ireland. Leaving her controlling husband has been a huge upheaval but Grace is determined to make  a fresh start in the place where her family once called home. However, she arrives to find the family home little more than a ruin and with no place to stay Grace is astonished at the kindness of strangers and with the help of these kind people Grace and Olivia can begin to heal.

Beautifully written with a strong theme of special friendships and the anguish of long buried secrets The Irish Key soon finds its way into your heart and I couldn't wait to see how Grace and Olivia's story would play out in the wider context of this lovely story. I enjoyed the interactions between the central characters especially Grace's burgeoning relationship with Sean Murphy and the special connection she has with Noel O'Donovan who owns the big house in the village.

Filled with a strong sense of time and place the story moves between time frames so that we get to understand what Grace is leaving behind and with the strength of the story in Ireland pulling the whole thing together this really is a memorable story and one which stays with you long after the last page is read.

About the Author

Sue Lewando was a teacher for several years before migrating to the office environment, where she was PA to the Treasurer of Clarks Shoes, a multi-national company, then, briefly, PA to Susan George, the actress best known for Straw Dogs. Sue had many genre books published (M&B and Virgin), under pseudonyms, and self-publishes her crime thrillers. She was on the committee of the Romantic Novelists’ Association in England, for whom she assessed typescripts. She has been a fiction tutor for the London School of Journalism for twenty years. She has two grown-up children, a happy second marriage, and a bundle of cats and dogs. She moved to West Cork with her husband to undertake a farmhouse refurbishment project, foster their joint passion for playing Irish traditional music, and to invest time in their individual academic projects. She recently completed a Masters in Creative Writing at UCC, taking the opportunity to explore diverse writing genres. She works with the Jeremy Murphy Literary Consultancy in the capacity of typescript analyst, ghostwriter, editor, and online publishing advisor. She loves good commercial fiction, and is a devotee of the Oxford comma.

Twitter / X @bookouture #TheIrishKey #BooksOnTour

Buy Link