A strange encounter. An unlikely friendship. But will it survive when they both know the truth?
As single mother Leah struggles to get her children ready one morning, the doorbell rings. Standing on the doorstep of their terraced house in Whitley Bay is a well-dressed stranger, Clio, who feels an emotional tie to the house that she can't explain. The story should end there, but a long-buried secret is already on its way to the surface...
In some ways the two women couldn't be more different: Leah's a mother of two and the daughter of a barmaid; Clio's a perennially single heiress to her baroness mother's estate. But where Leah lacks grown-up company, Clio lacks any experience of the real world, and the unlikely friendship sparked by their curious first meeting offers both of them a welcome respite from the routine of their lives.
It is a friendship that will answer questions neither of them knew to ask, uncovering secret stories from the past that have stayed hidden for decades. But will it also be the catalyst for them to finally feel that they belong?
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['The body of a woman has been found on the beach in Whitley Bay' the newsreader announced in a suitably sombre tone]***
(Lake Union Publishing, 28 May 2019, 334 pages, ebook, borrowed from @AmazonKindle, #KindleLearningLibrary)
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This book, or rather, the last 50 or so pages made me cry like a big baby like the author punched a hole in my chest, reached inside and gave my heart a good squeeze. I loved the way the book is structured. There are multiple POV characters and the chapters alternate between the four of them as well as moving between the present and events in the past of each character. I like non-linear narratives and this works really well. Another thing I liked is the way the author gradually reveals how the four POV characters are linked. There's no rushing. I knew from a couple of chapters in the four women were linked in some way but I wasn't sure how. The author drip-feeds information and I had to keep reading to get the next thread or link in the chain. When the author finally reveals the link between the women this surprised me because I'd been thinking something completely different. This is a great book.
