Somerset, Christmas 1999. Holly and Mark Jepson find themselves again looking after an assortment of guests at Mark's uncle's holiday chalets.
Each guest is fascinating in their own way - from the eccentric artist and his young daughter to the young married couple expecting their first baby and the wife escaping from a violent past.
Each will have a part to play in the events - unexpected and shattering - which take place before the new millennium dawns...
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MARK HAD his indulgently kind face on. ONE
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(@TransworldBooks, 30 November 2011, 416 pages, ebook, copy from the publisher via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 7 October via @RandomTTours)
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I'd never heard of the author before but the book sounded like something I'd enjoy so I decided to take part in the blog tour. This is really a book where six different stories are all brought together during the festive season just before the new Millennium. I tend to enjoy books that have different story narratives and threads wound through it. This works for the most part. I liked the mix of different characters and how they inevitably clash. I really didn't like Reg, he seems to have slept with every woman around but everyone adores him. His actions made me cringe. Then there's a father / daughter relationship which is really odd and uncomfortable at times. I disliked every scene they were in. I also found the language use very strange and old-fashioned. At times I felt like I was reading a book set in the 19050's or 60's, not 1999. This worked on some level and I did enjoy it.
