Tag: NetGalley

#BookReview Bad Relations by Cressida Connolly

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Bad RelationsAbout the Book

On the battlefields of the Crimea, William Gale cradles the still-warm body of his brother. William’s experience of war is to bring about a change in him that will reverberate through his family over the next two centuries.

In the 1970s, William’s English descendants invite Stephen, a distant Australian cousin, to stay in their bohemian house in Cornwall – but their golden summer entanglements will end in a dramatic fall from grace.

Half a century later, a confrontation between the surviving members of the family culminates in a terrible reckoning.

Format: Hardback (288 pages)     Publisher: Viking
Publication date: 19th May 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

The first thing to say is that if you looked at the cover without reading the blurb you might be surprised to discover the first part of the book, making up nearly one third of the story, is set during the Crimean War.

I found these early chapters particularly powerful, depicting as they do the mismanagement of the campaign and the needless loss of life both as a result of the conflict and of disease. An officer in The Royal Welch Fusiliers, William Gale returns from the Crimean war to a hero’s welcome but is a changed man. Whether as a result of the trauma of his experiences or the manipulation of others, he makes a rather inexplicable decision that has longlasting repercussions for his family, especially for his wife, Alice, and their young son.

The novel than makes a massive jump in time – from the 1850s to the 1970s. I found myself rather disappointed that I wasn’t going to learn more about what happens to William and Alice (particularly Alice, who comes across as a really interesting character) or their descendants over the next century. Instead we find ourselves in the 1970s, generations later, with a story that explores family dynamics in an insightful way but which seems quite different from what went before. Having said that, I have to admit the author does a great job of matching her writing style to the different periods: the formality of the Victorian age in the first part of the book and the more vibrant and liberated spirit of the second part, all ‘sex and drugs and rock’n’roll’.

The connection between the first and second part of the book felt a little tangential. Although it features descendants of William and Alice Gale, it could really have involved any family group to which an outsider is introduced. In fact, I think the second part of the novel could have made a book in itself because the story is compelling, insightful and ultimately rather sad. To me, the third and final part of the book felt a little like a prolonged epilogue, a way of tying up some loose ends, in particular regarding an object that features in the first two parts. And I’m not sure that I would categorise the book’s conclusion as ‘a terrible reckoning’ – more some expression of home truths – and I felt it ended on quite an uplifting note.  Some of the characters who reappear in the final part of the book were a lot less likeable than when we first encountered them. For example, the beautiful Cass seems to have been transformed from coolly unattainable to rather cold and avaricous, especially when the prospect of an unexpected fortune presents itself. This contrasts with one of the new characters, Stephen’s sister Hazel, who despite being treated with a degree of snobbery comes across as entirely open and honest in her intentions.

At times Bad Relations seemed to me like three separate books. (I confess I did have the uncharitable thought that the author may have come up with three ideas, couldn’t decide which one she liked best and so put them all together.)  In a way I felt the same about Bad Relations as I did about the author’s earlier book, After the Party, that whilst I admired the skilful writing and there were bits of it I enjoyed, overall I was left with a slight sense of disappointment.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Viking via NetGalley.

In three words: Insightful, emotional, thoughtful

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About the Author

Cressida Connolly is a reviewer and journalist, who has written for Vogue, the Telegraph, the Spectator, the Guardian and numerous other publications. Cressida’s book, The Happiest Days, won the MacMillan/PEN Award. She is the daughter of writer Cyril Connolly and lives in Worcestershire.

#BlogTour #BookReview The Shimmer on the Water by Marina McCarron

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The Shimmer on the Water Blog Tour BannerWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Shimmer on the Water by Marina McCarron which was published as an ebook on 4th August and will be available in paperback later this year. My thanks to Amy at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy via NetGalley.  Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today Wendy at Wendy Reads Books.

The Shimmer on the Water Author Square shareable 3About the Book

Three women. Two generations apart. One secret they share.

Maine, 1997. As the people of Fort Meadow Beach celebrate the Fourth of July, four-year-old Daisy Wright disappears and is never seen again.

Maine, 2022. Fired from her job and heart-broken, Peyton Winchester moves back home for the summer. Bored and aimless, she finds a renewed sense of purpose when an ad for a journalism course reminds her of a path not taken. Returning to life in her home town brings back all kind of memories – including Daisy’s disappearance when she was a young girl herself.

As Peyton begins to search for answers about Daisy’s disappearance, she finds that they might be closer to home than she thinks – and their lives become intertwined with irreversible consequences.

Format: ebook (413 pages)             Publisher: Aria
Publication date: 4th August 2022 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

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My Review

The Shimmer on the Water alternates between two storylines, one in the present day and one starting in 1966.

The book is not so much about solving the mystery of Daisy Wright’s disappearance, although it does provide a number of connections between the two storylines, as about family secrets and the impact they have when they are finally revealed.  For Peyton, trying to discover the person responsible for Daisy’s disappearance allows her to focus on something other than recent events in her life. ‘Getting dumped. Getting fired. Losing friends. The embarrassment of all her failures.’ Having to return to her parents’ home feels like the final humilation. Peyton feels there is a story to be told about Daisy’s disappearance, one which might help in her ambition to become a journalist.  It’s not a plan that finds much favour with Peyton’s mother whose attitude to her daughter is one of disappointment and often cool indifference.

A separate storyline follows the early life of Euella and her younger sister, Minnie, in 1960s Tennessee. It’s a powerful and moving story which was the standout element of the book for me. Euella’s father and brother are both drunks prone to violent outbursts as a result of which her mother has become absent emotionally, and later literally absent. It is left to Euella to care for and protect her young sister. It’s a struggle to put food on the table and to keep them warm through the harsh winters. The family’s poverty and increasingly dysfunctional nature mean they are ostracised by the local community. Fuelled by anger and an innate fortitude, Euella is determined to make a better life for herself and her sister. ‘A plan is forming. New ideas are coming. She can feel herself changing, becoming something different. Someone different.’

The connections between the two storylines become apparent fairly early on but this doesn’t stop Eualla’s story continuing to be utterly compelling as we see her literally reinvent herself. That’s not to say she doesn’t make mistakes along the way, quite costly ones as it turns out that will have repercussions in the future. Gradually Peyton discovers more about her family, and in particular her mother. It will result in her seeing things in a completely new light and bring about a fundamental change in her relationship with her mother. It also triggers memories of events on the day Daisy Wright went missing. But after so many years can those memories be relied upon?

And the ‘shimmer on the water’ of the title? This early description of what Peyton observes as she gazes out to sea made me think it is the prospect of calm returning after a period of turmoil. ‘The sound of a boat grows louder and she turns to watch as it speeds by, the frothy white wake it leaves disturbing the shimmer on the water before it is absorbed again into the waves and the water is once again flat.’

If The Shimmer on the Water is less of a mystery novel than the book description might suggest, it is still a skilfully crafted dual time novel that explores the impact of fractured family relationships.

In three words: Moving, insightful, intriguing

Try something similar: Only May by Carol Lovekin

Marina Image by Julia HawkinsAbout the Author

Marina McCarron was born in eastern Canada and studied in Ottawa and Vancouver before moving to England. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Publishing degree. She has worked as a reporter, a freelance writer, a columnist and a manuscript evaluator. She loves reading and travelling and has been to six of the seven continents. She gets her ideas for stories from strolling through new places and daydreaming. Her debut novel, The Time Between Us, came to her as she stood at Pointe du Hoc on a windy June day and asked the magical question, what if…?

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