Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Meteorologist Sky Matthews does not like surprises.
Sky monitors her life like she does the weather, carefully and with a scientific eye. So, when she misses out on her dream job abroad and finds herself with no choice but to take a position on a tidal island off the Cornish harbour town of St Felix instead, she feels completely at sea. Worse still, she has to work alongside TV weatherman Sonny Samuels, who barely knows his storms from his tsunamis.
It doesn't take long for Sky to become enchanted by the strange weather patterns over St Felix. Sonny is convinced they link to local folklore, but Sky knows her science too well to fall for that. Until she meets Walter, a local weather watcher with no qualifications beyond a lifetime of experience and Sky is forced to question everything she thought she knew about the weather, herself... and Sonny.
Many thanks to Little Brown UK via NetGalley for my copy of Cornish Clouds and Silver Lining Skies to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
It’s been so long since I have read a book by Ali McNamara and after reading this brilliant new book, Cornish Clouds and Silver Lining Skies, I can’t for the life of me figure out why. I enjoyed her earlier books but for some reason she seemed to drop off my reading radar but now is very much firmly back on it. I adored every moment I spent reading this wonderful book which was full of raw emotion, romance and quite a bit of mystery along the way too. After reading this book, I discovered the setting of St. Felix and some of the characters that are mentioned here featured in several of the author’s latest books but I didn’t feel in any way that I had missed out in not reading these. In fact, it just made me want to go back and read more of this stunning and special setting and I am so glad I have a nice little back catalogue which allows me to do so. This is a book where I didn’t feel like leaving the characters or the setting of the tidal island Aurora behind once I had finished. Everything about it quickly gets under your skin and I found myself not wanting to set the book down for any reason so enraptured was I by the plot, the gently simmering romance and the fact that I felt that I had escaped from the real world for a pleasurable couple of hours in the company of Sky, Talia and Sonny and of course not forgetting their two canine companions.
Sky is a meteorologist, which was so refreshing to have a main character with such an interesting career, and the themes of weather and forecasting were intertwined with the main plot so perfectly throughout the entire book. I was fascinated by all the meteorological details and it was evident the author had done lots of research. Sky has been on extended leave due to ill health and now she has to prove herself to the bosses at Met Central that she is ready to come back to work. But in order to do this she has to take a temporary position on the island of Aurora just off the coast of the village of St.Felix. There have been lots of strange goings on with regard to the weather there and she needs to get to the bottom of it. She feels it’s a bit of a downgrade from the work she is used to but she understands she needs to prove that she can do her job or else her career will slowly start to slip away from her grasp.
The weather itself played such an important role throughout the story. It was like a separate character itself and I’ll say there were magical elements here where you need to suspend your disbelief and normally I would throw my eyes up to heaven and scoff at some of the things that happened throughout the book but the author really made it work. It felt believable and it was if everything that was occurring could happen in real life and without the presence of this element I don’t think Sky would have gone on the incredible journey that she undertook. It could have been laughable and made me want to skip over some parts of the book instead it was the complete opposite and I never thought I would be saying that.
Sky is very career driven and wants to be the best at everything in her field. She won’t stop until something is completed to the best of her ability. She knows every little detail when it comes to the weather and prides herself on always getting things right. Right from the start Sky’s dedication and passion shine through and never waver and due to her personal circumstances these traits are tested time and time again the further the book progresses. I loved Sky as a character, she was so perfectly written and I could definitely see characteristics of myself within her but at the same time the reader could see fairly early on that she is struggling with something. She doesn’t want to admit defeat or that she is flawed or weak in any way and will never accept help though it becomes fairly obvious that she will need to at some point as she learns to deal with her new situation and to come to know and embrace the new version of herself.
Sky has an illness, the details of which she is reluctant to share with anybody for she sees that as admitting that she is vulnerable. She comes across as being uptight and a perfectionist and unwilling to relent the reins of control over to anybody else. You could say she needs to loosen up but that’s easy enough to say but unless you have walked in her shoes. It’s not that straightforward especially when you are so accustomed to being in control of all aspects of your life. Her illness has made her weak, both physically and emotionally, and she does her best to hide it at all times but this new job will test her to her very limits and maybe now the time has come where she has to open up and admit that a problem shared is a problem solved and help is always out there if she needs it.
As Sky arrives in St.Felix, she knows she has been given another chance and she shouldn’t waste it. Life is for living not for worrying about what might happen. She is ready to embrace this attitude and enjoy her time on the island recording and predicting the forecast. It will give her time to think and heal and hopefully prove she is ready to go back to work full time. But all that is up scuttled when she discovers as well as having Talia as an assistant (which she didn’t mind at all) there is to be a new addition in the form of TV weatherman Sonny Samuels who arrives to join her and boy could she never have predicted this happening. How is Sky going to get through the next few months with such an arrogant man who is not even a qualified meteorologist and even worse that she will have to share the small house on the island with him? This was not in her plans at all and she can’t help but let her feelings be known through her thoughts and actions. It seems like she will just have to put up with him and make it through as best she can as well as keeping her weaknesses hidden as much as possible.
Until you get to know Sky as a character, and she reveals more about herself, you do think she overreacts big time when she meets Sonny. But then you slowly come to learn the reasons why she did so and you gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of her. Sonny, who prefers to be known as Jamie off screen, may have a brash and loud exterior when he is front of the camera or meeting fans but underneath it all he too is hiding something and hurting. He comes across as loud and energetic and eager to work alongside Sky observing the weather and trying to understand the strange weather patterns a phenomena. Whereas Sky feels like he sails through life with no problems at all and that he loves to antagonise her. Really she read him the wrong way completely and I think that’s because of the way she was feeling regarding her illness and what it meant for her life. She thinks the time spent on the island will be a battle and a fight between her and Jamie but I was hoping she would be proved wrong.
As well as the more personal side of both Sky and Jamie’s personal journey’s the author wove a fabulous mystery alongside their emotional issues and problems. I never expected to have a mystery/intrigue element in a book in this genre but boy was it welcome because it was so brilliantly connected to the overall storyline and I was as keen as Sky and Jamie to discover the truth behind what was going on in St.Felix. I found it worked perfectly alongside all the themes being explored in the story and I felt a bit like a super sleuth trying to decipher what little cues and titbits were actually relevant and would there be an actual concrete explanation for all the perplexing things going on?
I also loved trying to figure out who may have featured in previous books as there were quite a few characters who make appearances and I could sense that there was some backstory to some of them. I loved how they helped Sky and gave good advice when needed and slowly but surely she relinquishes her personal fight and starts to embrace her new life. At the same time she grows stronger in more ways than one and becomes determined to find the root cause of the unexplained events that are starting to cause anguish for some of the residents in St. Felix. A dramatic climax had me racing through to the final pages and the ending was deeply satisfying. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Cornish Clouds and Silver Lining Skies. It has been the highlight of my summer reading and I sincerely hope it finds its way to lots of readers as it was a highly impressive and entertaining read.
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