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The Long Way Home by Audrey Howard 

The Long Way Home

by Audrey Howard 

The Long Way Home is a beautifully written book. The first by this author for me but hopefully not the last.

Set in Liverpool in the early 1900s we meet Amy when she is just ten years old and doing a grand job of looking after her mother and her ten siblings whilst her father goes out to work. Her mother is ill, with tuberculosis, and is unable to leave her bed often. Can you even imagine living like that these days. Thirteen people to one bedroom! People seemed to just get on with things in those days, doing whatever they had to do to survive. No such thing as universal credit or such like back then. You worked whenever work was available, made the best of what you had, and older children helped to bring up the younger children. Everyone mucked in. Despite this they quite often came across as happier and closer as a family.

Unfortunately, Pa’s wealthy sister, Aunt Zillah is unable to carry a child to term so she decides she is adopting Amy and plans to bring her up as her own. With his wife now in hospital and him having to work to keep food on the table, Amy’s Pa allows it as Zillah has promised him money to move to better housing and support for the other ten children.

Amy is understandably traumatised by being dragged from the family she loves, to a massive unfamiliar house, by her aunt who blatantly doesn’t have a maternal bone in her body. My heart broke for her, and I prayed she might escape the claws of her aunt one way or another.

I was engrossed in her story as she grows into a beautiful young lady who never gives up hope of finding her family again. I love how her relationship with Joe grows as they grow. However, Zillah has other ideas and what she puts Amy through at only sixteen years old is horrific.

Zillah’s husband, Caleb, is a much more likeable character. I’m so glad Amy has him to help protect her from his heartless wife. Whatever he saw in Zillah I’ll never know, but quite often in those days people of wealth married for money and the hope of suitable heirs rather than for love didn’t they. I can’t even imagine.

Amy’s story is one of true resilience. With her aunt, an abusive husband, and a war to contend with it seems as though happiness is impossible, but true love always wins.

There are so many beautiful characters throughout this book, including some of the staff at the Seymour home (which reminded me of Downton Abbey). It’s such a rollercoaster of emotion and is so full of love. Love for family, love between friends, and fighting for the love of your life. I absolutely loved it!

** I read the paperback edition of The Long Way Home. I have no idea where I bought it from though. It’s been on my bookshelf for years. Published in 2008, I assume I bought it from a book sale some time ago **

Amy Pearson’s family is desperately poor – even by the standards of Edwardian Liverpool – but they have each other. Until Amy is torn from her home by her rich aunt, a woman obsessed by religion and snobbery who wants a girl she can mould as she wishes. Clever and pretty, ten-year-old Amy is perfect for her purposes. It is the beginning of a long journey for Amy, as she desperately searches for the family she lost, and a home where she can be free at last from her aunt’s possessive tyranny. But she will have to endure a forced marriage and a tragic war before she can at last find what she seeks.

Happy reading!

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We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker @WhittyAuthor

We Begin at the End

by Chris Whitaker

We Begin at the End grabbed my attention from the very beginning. I wish I could have read it cover to cover in one sitting. It’s one of those books I thought about often when I wasn’t reading it. It’s a heart-breaking story really. Duchess is a fascinating character. She has a foul mouth, is disrespectful of authority, and pretty much seems to hate the world and everyone in it, but she has dealt with a lot in her 13 years already so it’s kind of understandable and I couldn’t help but like her. She does her best to look after her younger brother Robin, as their mother has her struggles. She doesn’t always make the wisest decisions though and she very much ends up paying a high price for her mistakes. My heart truly went out to her towards to the end.

Local police officer, Walk, does his best to look out for the family. I really liked him. I liked his loyalty to Vincent even when the rest of the town was against him.

Vincent is an intriguing character. I didn’t know what to make of him at first. We don’t hear much from him really considering he is a central character, so it was hard to form an opinion of him.

I loved the children’s Granddad. I love how he seemed to just get Duchess and give her the space she needed despite her rudeness and apparent lack of appreciation considering she had never known the full story behind his relationship with their mother. I love how their relationship slowly developed and was devastated by what happened and what was to follow.

I had no idea which direction this story would go in, and I couldn’t wait to find out.

By the end I had experienced all the emotions.

It’s so brilliantly written. I highly recommend it to all.

We Begin at the End is the first book I’ve read by Chris Whitaker. I sincerely hope it won’t be my last. (I have added all his other titles to my wishlist.)

** According to Amazon I purchased this book on the 5th of November 2021 **

Thirty years ago, Vincent King became a killer.

Now, he’s been released from prison and is back in his hometown of Cape Haven, California. Not everyone is pleased to see him. Like Star Radley, his ex-girlfriend, and sister of the girl he killed.

Duchess Radley, Star’s thirteen-year-old daughter, is part-carer, part-protector to her younger brother, Robin – and to her deeply troubled mother. But in trying to protect Star, Duchess inadvertently sets off a chain of events that will have tragic consequences not only for her family, but also the whole town.

Murder, revenge, retribution.

How far can we run from the past, when the past seems doomed to repeat itself?

Happy reading!

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Things I Wanted To Say by Monica Murphy 

Things I Wanted To Say

by Monica Murphy 

This book was gifted to me from a lovely Bookstagram friend for my Birthday last year. It’s nothing like my usual kind of read and if I’m honest I wasn’t sure I was going to like it at first.

The main characters are 17-year-old American students, Whit and Summer. Whit has been born into a wealthy family and is in line to inherit a fortune. He struts around like he owns the school, and pretty much does. He’s a handsome lad and everyone bows down to him, but he’s not a particularly nice boy. And he is a boy, but with the confidence of a much more experienced man. I didn’t like him at all to begin with. His behaviour towards Summer is shocking, although I could kind of understand his animosity towards her mother. The bullying at the beginning made for uncomfortable reading at times. It takes ‘treat them mean, keep them keen’ to a whole new level!

The chemistry between them is obvious from the start though. However, I have no idea why Summer puts up with the way Whit treats her. I know they say some girls love a bad boy, but oh my days! She’s got her own past she’s battling to recover from, but she’s a beautiful girl who deserves so much better. Does she want better though!?

Their relationship soon becomes one of obsession and they can’t get enough of each other. (This is a very explicit book so it might not be for you if you’re offended by that kind of content.) Summer isn’t good enough for Whit though, according to his family. She isn’t marriage material, and they have his future mapped out for him, so she can only ever be a temporary plaything as far as they’re concerned. Whit has other plans though….

He grew on me eventually 😉

I found myself completely invested in their story!

** Many thanks to @mama_bookworm_ for my paperback copy. Hope you enjoy it. I see I sent it to you for your Birthday too! **

Whit Lancaster is the cold, heartless and devastatingly handsome bad boy at Lancaster Prep.

Beautiful Summer Savage has no time for Whit. But his intense gaze traps her under a spell. Fills her with a longing she doesn’t understand.

When Whit gets into trouble one night, Summer invites him in. Tends to his wounds. Lets her guard down, just for a moment . . .

Which is when Whit takes off in the dead of night. Taking her journal with him.

Now he holds all her darkest secrets, threatening to expose her to the entire school. So Summer strikes a deal with Whit.

A deal that leaves her at his mercy behind closed doors . . .

But what if he’s at hers?

Happy reading!

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Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Badani @sejal_badani

Trail of Broken Wings

by Sejal Badani 

Trail of Broken Wings is an emotional, difficult read, but completely compelling.

I didn’t have any expectations about this book. It is one which has been waiting patiently in my kindle library for a while and I didn’t even re-read the blurb before I started it.

I was not prepared for the heartache.

The story is told from the point of view of a mother and her three daughters. Three grown up daughters who couldn’t be any different to each other, living very different lives.

They all once lived under the same roof as their abusive father though. The father who now lies in a coma he is unlikely to come out of.

I’m struggling with what to say without giving anything away, but my heart broke for all four women along the way. I struggled to understand the mother, but I have no experience of abuse so I can’t really judge. I can’t even begin to imagine how I would cope with a husband like hers. Nor could I ever imagine my dad laying a finger on me.

Learning how their childhoods are still affecting the daughters’ adult lives is heartbreaking. How could anyone not be affected by such a past.

As the story progresses truths are revealed, secrets are shared, and the heartache increases. I never imagined things could have been any worse, but it’s just devastating. No one should ever have to endure what these women went through.

However, a mother’s bravery, finally having an opportunity to talk things through and be truly honest with themselves and each other means healing can begin and there is hope for a happier future.

Such a beautifully written novel. I highly recommend.

**According to Amazon I purchased this kindle book on 15th April 2015. Sejal Badani’s other book, The Storyteller’s Secret, is now on my wishlist and I look forward to anything else she might write in the future**

Goodreads Best Fiction Finalist and Amazon Charts and USA Today Bestseller

When her father falls into a coma, Indian American photographer Sonya reluctantly returns to the family she’d fled years before. Since she left home, Sonya has lived on the run, free of any ties, while her soft-spoken sister, Trisha, has created a perfect suburban life, and her ambitious sister, Marin, has built her own successful career. But as these women come together, their various methods of coping with a terrifying history can no longer hold their memories at bay.
Buried secrets rise to the surface as their father–the victim of humiliating racism and perpetrator of horrible violence–remains unconscious. As his condition worsens, the daughters and their mother wrestle with private hopes for his survival or death, as well as their own demons and buried secrets.
Told with forceful honesty, Trail of Broken Wings reveals the burden of shame and secrets, the toxicity of cruelty and aggression, and the exquisite, liberating power of speaking and owning truth.