☀️ Summer Reads ~ The Glass Key by Amanda Geard

It’s that time of year again when I choose books which would make the perfect holiday reading. The stories which are easy enough to pick up and put down and which lend themselves, both by plot and characters, to lazy afternoons in the sunshine.

I’ll be sharing a few of the books which I think are perfect escapism summer reading. 

Look for #SummerReads

Headline
18 June 2026

Thanks to the publisher for the invitation to read this book

In Ireland, Maggie has grown up hearing her mother tell her the bedtime story of The Glass Key. It's a Nordic fairytale passed down by Maggie's grandmother Anna Swan, who mysteriously left her home one stormy night years ago, never to return. Now Maggie's grandfather has died and going through his things, Maggie is shocked to discover a faded wartime letter, asking him to take in a baby. In that moment she realises that Anna Swan was a woman of many secrets.

Only by travelling to Norway and discovering the story of four brave young women whose lives were forever changed by the occupation of their tiny islands, can Maggie uncover the shocking truth about her family - and finally unlock the mystery of the glass key...

☀️ My Review..

The German occupation of Norway during WW2 is a subject I knew absolutely nothing about and so to have such a descriptive story, about a group of heroic young women who lived on this remote Norwegian archipelago, has been a real treat. 

Following her grandfather’s death Maggie returns to Hellebore House in County Kerry only to be confronted by a family secret which has been hidden for years. Determined to discover the truth about her maternal grandmother Maggie’s quest leads her to Norway and the remote archipelago north of the Arctic Circle where Anna Carlsen once lived. With a fascinating glimpse into life on the islands during the German occupation a complex family drama of hidden secrets, tragedy and betrayal emerges.

Beautifully written and teeming with an emotional depth, this is one of those stories which takes you by the hand into a long forgotten world where danger was never far away and as Maggie starts to uncover more about her family history so the ties which bind her to the past become even stronger. Moving effortlessly between the war years, and 2005, we gradually learn more about life under German occupation and of the perils that living under the shadow of oppression brought to the islanders. 

Emotional and engrossing from start to finish, The Glass Key is a story which lives on long after the last page is turned and for that reason I think it would make a perfect, immersive summer read.

About the Author

Born in Australia, Amanda Geard has lived all over the world, from a houseboat in London to a tiny island in Norway before settling in County Kerry in Ireland. Her debut novel The Midnight House was a Richard and Judy Book Club selection and her novels have been translated into multiple languages.

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