Reviewed by Emma Crowley
As the winter snow falls on the small Irish village of Ballybray, Roisin O’Connor and her young son, Ben, are saying goodbye to their beloved neighbour Mabel Murphy. Mabel lived a bold and colourful life, but the arrival of her brooding nephew, ‘blow-in’ Aidan Murphy, just makes life more complicated for Roisin.
However, in one final act of love, a message arrives from Mabel that changes everything. And as winter turns to spring and the cold snow melts, the secrets both Roisin and Aidan are hiding must be revealed at last…
Many thanks to Harper Collins via NetGalley for my copy of Secrets in the Snow to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Last year I came back to the writing of Emma Heatherington after not having read any of her books for some years. The book of hers that caught my attention was Rewrite the Stars, an absolute brilliant book that left me eager to read more from this fantastic author. Now she has brought us another excellent story Secrets in the Snow and I loved every minute of it and couldn’t bare to leave it down or to finish it. Emma is an amazing writer who has such a way with words.
Time and time again whilst reading this I had to stop and absorb the sentiments echoing from such strong and memorable sentences and in fact entire paragraphs. She just conveys everything so well that it strikes such a chord with you. Secrets in the Snow despite its wintery cover can be read at any time of the year and the story that awaits you is exceptional. I relished every minute of it for its honesty, intensity and emotional fluency and for the compelling and heartfelt plot that right from chapter one transports you to the heart of the story.
Every goodbye holds the promise of a new beginning and for Roisin and her son Ben this couldn’t be truer. They are facing the loss of their neighbour Mabel, she was much more than someone who they waved a hello to every now and again. She was their support system, their best friend, a mother and granny figure when they needed it the most. She had become a member of their family and now they feel as if their world has been frozen in time but their next move must be contemplated. Roisin had already been dealing with the loss of her husband four years ago when she arrived at a cottage in the tiny Irish village of Ballybray. I got the feeling that there was more to Roisin’s loss that first met the eye and that she was even more traumatised for a very serious reason.
Mabel became their saviour in their hour of need when the pair needed protection and a place to heal their troubled souls. Mabel could identify with Roisin as she had lost her husband Peter a year previously. She was the one who helped Roisin come out of her shell. She provided a rock to lean on, a shoulder to cry on and cheered her on and in the right direction. Now that all that has been taken away from her Roisin feels lost, empty and without any sense of direction remaining. ‘I feel deflated, sunk and dead inside if truth be told. I feel like after almost winning a four year long game of snakes and ladders that I’ve landed on the penultimate square and slid right back down to number one, back in time, back to the old shell of a person I was when I first arrived’.
The author sums up perfectly the way that Roisin is coping with this new loss. After building herself up in recent years she feels like she is back at square one and the grief is eating her up inside all over again. It may seem over the top that Roisin is so deeply affected by the void that Mabel has left in her life but it’s not at all as Mabel was a very special person who embraced Roisin into the village and gave her that firm anchor she so desperately needed when she was lost at sea. Now she feels she is back in that place and can see no way out. When Mabel’s nephew Aidan arrives from America to sort the funeral arrangements and put the house up for sale, Roisin feels it's another blow to her and maybe she best leaving the little village she has called home and which has offered her security and friendship.
’I was at my lowest ebb when she came into my life and now she’s gone. I worry I might be sliding down the same slippery slope already. I can feel it in the air. It’s a sense of fear that is so overwhelming, like a tidal wave approaching from which I can’t escape. It’s hopelessness, it’s loneliness, it’s a huge cloud and it’s coming to get me fast’. Such powerful and emotive words used to describe Roisin’s grief and you know it’s for much more than the loss of Mabel, I think it sums up the way grief attacks us and doesn’t let go for some time if indeed ever.
Despite never meeting Mabel as such in the story, she had such a strong, formidable (in a good way) supportive and practical presence throughout. She was a wise woman and knew that when she was gone Roisin would suffer with her mental health as all the fear, insecurities, self doubt and apprehension would creep back in again. Mabel knew that Roisin needed to feel more positive and stronger and in a way too she knew that Aidan needed to be steered in the right direction. Her plan to leave messages and tasks for the pair to do as the seasons changed over the year was so clever and brilliant on her part. She thought of every little thing and she was well aware of the bigger picture. These tasks form the crux of the story as Aidan and Roisin navigate a difficult and stressful journey but in doing so perhaps the separate problems, they both face will create a new bond of friendship and unity and perhaps something more as secrets and much more are revealed and confronted. Throughout reading I couldn’t quite fathom how Mabel had everything so carefully planned out and that messages and things would arrive at a certain time. When this was revealed I thought it was the sweetest thing ever and such a lovely touch, Mabel’s ultimate purpose was to spread kindness and joy. She did that in spades when alive and even with her passing she was trying to work her magic for those who needed it the most.
Aidan initially, and perhaps for a good majority of the book, came across as being rich, arrogant, cold and nonchalant. Yes he was very good looking, and there was something about him that will intrigue readers, but I thought at first he wasn’t that nice to Roisin and didn’t get the bond that she had shared with Mabel. It was almost like he wanted to get in and out as soon as possible and get back to his work in America but when the first message from Mabel arrives he has no choice but to slow down and listen to what she has to say. It was almost as if she knew that Aidan had something going on with him too in a similar way to Roisin.
Aidan needed to slow down and step back from his pressurised job and family situation and being in Ireland away from that would give him the chance to do so. I bet he didn’t bargain on meeting Roisin and for Mabel to leave such an important message for them. Roisin is told to leave her walls down and to let love in again. Aidan is reminded that he is raw, hurt, angry and broken but he needs to make changes, to slow down and put his foot on the brakes. But why is Mabel telling him this? What has happened in his own life that she felt so strongly in her message?
The story moves forward over the year with new messages arriving when least expected but most needed. Aidan begins to warm a little but as Roisin so raw and vulnerable because of past experiences, she just doesn’t want to let Aidan get too close or ingrained into her family life. I’m not quite sure that he wished to develop such a close friendship/relationship with her but he owed so much to Mabel and maybe spending some time in Ballybray would help him sort his heart and mind out and if Mabel’s advice and the new friendship with Roisin helped than that would be all the better. I loved this quote which summed up both Aidan and Roisin perfectly. Each on their own unique and difficult journey but taking the steps together reluctantly at times but they knew they owed it to Mabel to do what she wanted. ‘We are two wounded soldiers, wading in waters so troubled for all our lives that it’s become all we are used to, each of us searching for a love we’ve not yet found’.
Secrets in the Snow is a story that proves Emma Heatherington can spin magic out of words and have me enthralled from page one. The characters are all brilliantly drawn and you are so deeply invested in their journeys and the eventual outcome for two people that are hurt, complex and flawed but never dull. The only issue I had was surrounding a discovery of Aidan’s towards the end, it just seemed to come out of left field and then was dealt with way too quickly. I know I love a twist in a book but for me it would have been fine without its inclusion. Secrets in the Snow is a wonderful read and trust me it’s one you’ll want to go back and reread all over again as soon as you finish it.
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