📖 Blog Tour ~ The Beloved Girls by Harriet Evans

Delighted to be part of this blog tour

Headline Review
19 August 2021

My thanks to the publishers and to Random Things Tours for my copy of this book
and the invitation to the blog tour

Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure - someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind? 

The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot, seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes - a mysterious West Country manor house - where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold.

Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. She and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later, is still shaping the present..

📖 My thoughts..

When we first meet Catherine Christophe it is 2018 and she is a successful barrister working in London, where she lives with her husband, Davide and her two teenage children. On the surface life is good, but there are undercurrents in Catherine's life which seem to be affecting her state of mind. Bothered by the events of a troubled past Catherine, not the most reliable of narrators, leads us slowly towards what happened at the family home in the late summer of 1989.

With hints of menace, the gradual air of suspicion gradually reveals a story which is buried in the events at Vanes, a West Country manor house, where the eccentric Hunter family live, and the house where Catherine spent her childhood. The arrival into their lives of Janey Lestrange, a young teenager, with more than her own share of mental health problems, only adds to the sense of intrigue which surrounds this unusual family.

The story flits effortlessly between three time frames and it pays to keep focused as there is much to learn about the Hunter family, and many secrets need to come to light before the whole of this rather sad, and decidedly, creepy story is revealed. I found the many complexities intriguing, especially the weaving of the story around an old English folk song which highlights the danger of keeping some ancient traditions alive. The author, with her trademark skill for storytelling, fires the imagination right from the start with an intriguing prologue which gives a fascinating insight into Catherine's troubled state of mind. 

Beautifully written, The Beloved Girls is a multi-layered, and intriguing, family drama which looks at the unreliability of memory, the dangerous association of keeping hidden secrets and of a past which would rather remain locked away forever.

About the Author

Harriet Evans is the author of several top ten bestsellers including the Sunday Times bestselling The Garden of Lost and Found and Richard and Judy book club selection The Wildflowers. She used to work in publishing and now writes full time, when she is not being distracted by her children, other books, sewing projects, puzzles, gardening, and her much-loved collection of jumpsuits. Last year, she and her family moved from London to Bath.

Twitter @HarrietEvans #TheBelovedGirls

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Blog Tour ~ The Garden of Lost and Found by Harriet Evans

Jaffareadstoo is thrilled to be hosting one of today's first stops on 

The Garden of Lost and Found Blog Tour

Headline
18 April 2019

My thanks to the publishers and Anne at Random Things Tours for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of this blog tour

Nightingale House, 1919. Liddy Horner discovers her husband, the world-famousartist Sir Edward Horner, burning his best-known painting The Garden of Lost and Found days before his sudden death.

Nightingale House was the Horner family’s beloved home - a gem of design created to inspire happiness - and it was here Ned painted The Garden of Lost and Found, capturing his children on a perfect day.

One magical moment. Before it all came tumbling down...

When Ned and Liddy’s great-granddaughter Juliet is sent the key to Nightingale House, she starts a new life with her three children, and opens the door onto a forgotten world. The house holds its mysteries close but she is in search of answers.

For who would choose to destroy what they love most? Whether Ned’s masterpiece - or,in Juliet’s case, her own children’s happiness.

Something shattered this corner of paradise. But what?

My thoughts..

Set between two times frames we meet with Juliet Horner in the present time who is a descendant of Ned Horner, a respected Edwardian artist whose most famous art work was destroyed many years ago in a fire. When Juliet’s home circumstances change she takes her three lively children back to Nightingale House, the now dilapidated residence which was once Ned’s home and which has been owned by various members of Juliet’s family since the house was built in late 1800s.

Moving seamlessly between two frames a complicated story of hurt and despair starts to be revealed and without giving too much away about the historical part of the novel, it’s safe to say, that both time scales have their own unique strength. I was just as comfortable reading about the goings on in the Edwardian era as I was in learning all about Juliet and her complex family drama in the present day.

The author has given us such an absolute gem of story that once I started The House of Lost and Found I found that I really couldn’t put the book down. The story is beautifully reminiscent of a bygone time with all of the social and moral predicaments which so blighted the early years of the twentieth century. And yet, the modern day dilemmas of infidelity, marriage breakdown and complicated motherhood are also highlighted with a genuine sense of reality.

The Garden of Lost and Found brings the world of art to life in a glorious tale of long lost treasure and devastating family secrets, which, in the hands of this talented writer, reach out from the past to threaten the future.

I’ve now read several of this author’s excellent books and, without doubt, The Garden of Lost and Found, is my favourite story to date.

About the Author

Harriet Evans is the author, Going Home, A Hopeless Romantic, The Love of Her Life, I Remember You, Love Always, Happily Ever After and Not Without You. Before becoming a full time writer Harriet was a successful editor for a London publishing house. She lives in London with her family.

Twitter@HarrietEvans #GardenOfLostAndFound

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