Be careful what you kiss for...
Esme Posorsky is an enigma. For as long as people can remember, she has been part of community life in the quaint Cornish fishing village of Tremarnock, but does anyone really know her? She is usually to be found working in her pottery studio or at home with her beloved cat, Rasputin. But when an old school friend turns up with a secret from the past, nothing will ever be the same again.
Meanwhile teenager, Rosie, is excited to find a bottle washed up on Tremarnock beach with a message from a former German prisoner of war. While the rest of the village is up in arms about a new housing development, she sets out to find him. Little does she know, however, that her discovery will unleash a shocking chain of events that threatens to blow her family apart.
Tremarnock may look like a cosy backwater, but some of its residents are about to come face-to-face with tough decisions and cold reality...
Amazon Affiliate Link: Kindle
Many thanks to Head of Zeus via NetGalley for my copy of A Cornish Secret to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Emma Burstall just goes from strength to strength with her Tremarnock series, each book gets better and better and the more I read such a fabulous series, the more I fall deeper in love with the characters and all the various goings on. A Cornish Secret is the fourth in the series but like with most books that form part of a series it is easily read as a standalone. As we meet new faces, and reacquaint ourselves with old favourites, the author slots in a brief little paragraph every now and then explaining said characters back story so you feel story lines are refreshed if there has been a significant gap between you reading the books. This will also help readers new to this special coastal village in Cornwall as you don't feel you have missed out on heaps or are confused by the various story lines.
Tremarnock is a very special place and the author’s love for her characters and Tremarnock itself despite it being a figment of her imagination shine through in the writing. It's so easy to lose yourself in the writing for a couple of hours as you feel you are catching up with old friends and all their news after a brief absence and seeing what has happened and how the different characters are working through the trials and tribulations that life presents themselves with. As for that cover it is just beautiful, so vibrant and colourful and looking at the street that leads down to the sea it's exactly how I picture Tremarnock to be.
Emma Burstall strikes a lovely balance between descriptions of the setting and the numerous ongoing plots. I enjoy the fact the book is not all endlessly character driven instead where they live fuels their actions and in this book more so than ever as the residents gather together to fight as one to save the local playground. Their campaign to stop the council selling the land to make way for a housing estate which will taint the charm of the village is what forms the main plot but as with all the books the author provides the reader with lots of little sub plots which keep our attention. This also allows the story to move along at a lovely pace and before you know it you are over halfway through the book.
Everyone who lives in Tremarnock doesn't want to see the unique atmosphere and small community feeling shattered by the building of vast soulless houses where people may buy them and then only stay during the holidays. With narrow cobbled streets, rocky beaches, cream teas and pasties in cafés, the Winkle in Time restaurant and so much more to offer they feel a new housing estate replacing a community amenity is not what is desired. Joining forces and setting up a live in protest showed such great community spirit and a deep love for their home place. Plus it provided endless scenes of humour which added to the lovely overall tone of the book. The only question remained would any of their actions prove worthwhile or have the council made up their mind and the playground would be no more?
Saving the playground plays a significant part to A Cornish Secret but I was glad to see Esme the local potter now gets a chance to share her story and what an interesting, thought provoking and heartbreaking story it was. She has hovered on the fringes of the previous three books and definitely is an enigma. She does engage within the community to a point but no one really knows her deepest thoughts and where she wants to go with her life. What she reveals is certainly an eye opener and it just blended so well into the overall story. I felt great empathy for the situation she finds herself and could see it had been eating her up for so long with no expected resolution in sight.
It all felt so natural and not out of place and I am so glad authors are starting to include this in their books as the usual plot lines in books in this genre have been done to death. Going away on a walking holiday to a different part of Cornwall connected to the Santiago De Compostela with her old school friend Caroline, who herself is facing turmoil and many decisions, opens up a can of worms for Esme. Everyone sees a different side to her character and as the title suggest will all her secrets be revealed or will she continue to shoulder the burden which she has carried for many years?
Liz is the stalwart of this series, I love how with each book her story line is expanded and we get to delve a little deeper into the goings on of her and her family. Things aren't always plain sailing now that Liz is married to owner of A Winkle in Time, Robert. He works harder than ever and Liz seems to be left to mind their young daughter Lowenna on her own for the most part. Her older daughter Rosie has her own issues to master but she deals well with these and it's great to see the friendship developing between herself and Rafael. When Rosie discovers a message in a bottle on the beach, uncovering who the author of the letter is sets in motion a chain of events that will have far reaching consequences. Testing times are ahead for all involved. Some waver more than others with doing the right thing and there was a certain character who I lost some respect for because of the choice they made. Spur of the moment or not I didn't like what they did even if they felt they needed some form of comfort because things in their everyday life weren't as they wanted them to be.
As the tension grows between Robert and Liz as he goes about setting up another business his time away from the family only increases. I don't think we have really gotten to know Robert yet despite this being book four. He seemed very much on the periphery and I really wanted Liz to sit down with him and just express how she was feeling instead of letting resentment just keep on brewing. His absences, the lack of communication lead to not seeing eye to eye and the fun in their relationship seems to go out the window. I sense their issues are not something that can be quickly resolved. I love Liz as a character and hate to see her struggle be it with Robert or tiffs that occur between herself and Rosie but at all times she puts on a brave front. She is known in the community for being a helper, who will always volunteer or get involved in a cause. She looks out for people in need offering support, comfort and encouragement. She balances her life well for the most part so I desperately hoped this stumbling block with Robert could be overcome.
In times of crisis the people of Tremarnock, too many too mention here but all are such great characters, pull together and this time it proves no different but will they be successful or are the secrets about to be exposed just too devastating to come back from? You'll have to read this gen of a book to discover the answers. Some might view the ending as being very ambiguous if they search for definitive endings with everything neatly tied up. I am normally of this viewpoint but here I didn't mind at all that we were left on a cliffhanger because it confirms there will be more books in the Tremarnock series. It has set us up nicely for future books and really left me wanting more. I'm just disappointed that I'll have to wait another year to see what happens but I know that the wait will be worth it as Emma Burstall has created a brilliant series that I haven't the slightest hesitation in recommending.
All book titles in bold are Amazon UK Affiliate links which will earn me a few pence if anyone clicks through and makes a purchase - any money earned will go towards buying books or gifts for giveaways.
No comments:
Post a Comment