For many years Colette has avoided returning to her homeland - the magical island of Belle-Île-en-Mer in Southern Brittany - afraid to confront the painful memories she left behind. She is living on the Cornish coast when she hears about her mother Thea's failing health and realises that the time has come for her to go home. But can Colette ever forgive Thea for what she has done?
Despite Colette's wariness, romantic Belle-Île still fascinates her. She takes on the running of her mother's flower shop and makes friends with Élodie from the Old Lighthouse where Thea once worked as a nanny and with the enigmatic Étienne who shares Colette's mixed feelings about the island. As Thea opens up to her for the first time, Colette finds herself softening and being drawn back into the landscape of her past. But can Belle-Île also be a part of her future?
The ghosts of that past still linger. What happened all those years ago and how did it cause the rift between mother and daughter? It becomes clear that the beauty of Belle-Île hides a devastating family secret - one that Colette is determined to unravel at any cost.
Many thanks to Quercus via NetGalley for my copy of Her Mother's Secret to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Rosanna Ley's new novel Her Mother's Secret was an intriguing read right from the opening page and this sense of mystery did not abide until the last few pages. Although I may have been reading this excellent story from the comfort of my own home and not on a sun lounger as I would have liked to, I still felt transported to the island of Belle-Lle-en-Mer in the Brittany region of France. The setting always plays such a pivotal role for me in my overall enjoyment of a book and here the author has got it spot on. The main characters are drawn back to their home place, haunted by the past, yet still unwilling to let go and seek forgiveness, acceptance and understanding. Circumstances have brought them home, reluctantly it must be said and given no choice, and within the confines of the small island community they must slowly start to unravel the knots of tension that have existed for them for so long.
There are one or two key players who have remained on the island not being able to flee like the others and the reasons for everything slowly become apparent and built up to a magnificent finale. I had my suspicions as to what the big secret could be, there were flashes of revelation throughout but I couldn't quite reach that point where everything clicked for me. This was an achievement in itself for the author and I was delighted not to have sussed everything out before the natural point of discovery was reached. Normally, I am quite smug that I have guessed what has tormented the characters but here I was left open mouthed when things came to the surface but in a pleasant way as everything finally made sense.
I have loved Rosanna Ley's writing right from her very first novel -The Villa- and have enjoyed every book published since but Her Mother's Secret really got under my skin thanks to such in-depth, emotive and sensual writing. So many questions arose, suspicions, tension and apprehension pervaded every chapter as each character wrestled with their emotions and whether they should confront what has tormented them for so long? But as Thea who runs the local flower shop lies on her bed waiting for the end to come everything that was kept hidden has to come to the fore. Truths needs to be told with frank honesty in order for those left behind to reconcile and seek forgiveness and move on with their lives once she has gone.
Thea's more or less estranged daughter Colette lives in England and has been there for many years since she fled the island. She receives a letter from her mother's neighbour Francine explaining that her mother is gravely ill. Colette no matter what has occurred in the past needs to come home, both for her mother's sake and her own. There has been a long detatchment with so many things left unsaid but now is the crucial time for the secrets to be exposed and for everyone involved to get what they are feeling off their chest once and for all. Of course Colette loves her mother but there is a stubbornness and reluctance within her to return but she faces up to her duty and comes back to the island. In many ways it has remained unchanged since she left but in others are dramatically different.
I admired Colette for taking that step into the unknown. She had been deeply hurt by an argument she witnessed between her mother and father. Since he is now dead she cannot ask him all the questions that race through her mind but is she willing to take that chance and ask her mother given that there is so little time left? It appeared to me that Colette was at a crossroads in her life. Her relationship with Mark although meandering along nicely was maybe not the spark of long term love she was seeking. Maybe now was the time to return, to go back to the past or else she herself would never be free. It took endless courage and strength to return but maybe she would acquire these qualities when she needed them the most. I enjoyed how the story was told from different perspectives and that each chapter would alternate between the main characters.
Etienne was another character who featured. He is a writer drawn back to the island by the fact he must clean out and sell his family home as his mother had died. He too was tormented even more so I would say than Colette. He was very much an enigma. He never gave anything away, never let people in close enough to express his deepest feelings and the hurt and pain he was experiencing. I had no idea as to what was causing him such suffering and stress. But similar to Colette I sensed there was a reason that at this particular point in time they were called back to the island. In a way I hoped they could help each other through the challenging and emotional times ahead. Their friendship was subtly played and the undercurrents of something more deeper developing were not thrown in the reader's face rather they were explored at a steady pace. I don't think either could contemplate something more until their own personal situations were resolved. But they did become a support and a backbone for each other and this was written in such a beautiful way.
I did for some time question the inclusion of Etienne and perhaps Elodie and Mathelide, the mother and daughter who live in the lighthouse. I think I have done this with several of Rosanna Ley's novels but then it always comes right, that every character deserves their place and they are part of the fabric of the overall story. Each person needs to be there, they hold a piece of the string of the story which the main characters are following and when they reach the end it will all be tied up carefully and satisfyingly.
Elodie and Mathilde had their own secrets to hide. Elodie seemed to be a drifter almost like the pieces of driftwood that wash up on the beach which she uses for her creative sculptures. I loved the development of her character and her family situation was complex and intriguing. I did suspect something different with regards to the storyline with her brother but I turned out to be completely wrong. I think it was more the way that certain sentences were phrased that led me down the wrong path. Mathilde herself was meek and sub servant and hiding something. I felt she needed to find confidence and the strength to meet things head on. The family dynamics here were strange and posed many questions for the reader.
Too little communication coupled with so many secrets made for a wonderful story that I readily lost myself in. If the stunning cover doesn’t make you want to read this book than the subtly of the themes being explored will certainly have you picking up this book. The shadows of the past are far reaching and have many repercussions for those in the present but it is up to Colette and everybody that features to deal with these in the best way possible to soothe their tortured souls, to quench their secret sadness and find peace, comfort, warmth, hope and love. Her Motherr's Secret is a wonderful story and showcases Rosanna Ley at her very best. Definitely one not to be missed this summer.
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