Reviewed by Emma Crowley
When Grace arrives tired, tearful and rain-soaked in Roone Bay, the little Irish village where her grandmother Caitlin grew up, she is overwhelmed with longing for Caitlin’s safe, warm arms. The crumbling wreck of Caitlin’s once-beautiful childhood cottage – whose key Grace was given on her wedding day as a secret refuge if she ever needed it – is not the fresh start she’d hoped for. But with her young daughter Olivia to look after and a painful past to hide from, Grace has to stay strong.
Plucking up the courage to ask for help from her kind new neighbours – including quietly rugged carpenter Sean Murphy – Grace gets to work making the house habitable. Soon the view of the deep emerald sea has her captivated, Olivia is blossoming, and Sean makes her laugh in a way she’d forgotten she could…
As she learns more about her family history, with Sean by her side, Grace’s curiosity unearths only further mystery. What drove Caitlin away from Ireland, never to return? But when Grace uncovers a long-lost letter to Caitlin that reveals the heartbreaking truth, she is suddenly threatened by her own devastating secrets.
Grace may have finally found a home for her little family. But when faced with everything she ran from, will the past tear her apart once more? Or will Grace find the strength to stand up for her daughter, her love for Sean, and her new life in Ireland?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Irish Key to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Daisy O’Shea is a new author for me and what a pleasure it was to read The Irish Key. It’s a story of family, secrets and of having the courage to find oneself. The setting is absolutely perfect although at times it did border slightly onto the side of being a bit too twee in describing Irish people and Irish life. But the author reeled this in just at that juncture when I felt things were going a bit overboard. If you’ve never been to Ireland then by the time you finish this book you certainly will feel as of you were there alongside the main character Grace as she navigates through a tough time in her life having taking a very brave decision. The stunning scenery of West Cork, the rugged and harsh landscape not much good for farming, the coastline and the power of the sea and the weather and not to mention the small fictional village where narrow mindedness still very much existed all really helped to being the plot to life.
We meet Grace and her six-year-old daughter Olivia as they are fleeing from Birmingham. They hope to reach a cottage in West Cork which was given to her as a safe haven by her grandmother. There is a dark and menacing tone to the first quarter of the book as Grace is mentally and physically exhausted having finally plucked up the courage to leave her controlling husband Graham. Grace can’t settle until she has reached the cottage which she has never laid eyes upon before. It’s her last chance. Her only hope that she can break free from the shackles and unpleasantness that Graham has forced upon her. It’s evident that it has taken a lot of will power and strength for Grace to break free. Olivia thinks that they are just going on a holiday. But Grace has plans for this to be a long term move and clings to the belief that Roone Bay will offer the peace, independence and contentment she so desperately needs. The author does a very good job of showing Graham in his true light and it’s only now that Grace has made the leap that she can see how manipulative, arrogant, possessive and overbearing he truly was.
There were no redeeming characteristics to Graham and even later when we meet him he has not changed one bit and always had ulterior motives at the centre of everything he does. Grace was a woman under a black cloud who was trying to do the best for her daughter in the long term. She knew she couldn’t help her stepson Arthur as he was older and had been under Graham’s influence for far too long but it wasn’t too late to save Olivia and of course herself. She had bided her time and saved some money and when her grandmother said she could use the key that she had given her at the time of her wedding. Well there was the opportunity she needed having fallen directly into her lap.
As Grace and Olivia reach Roone Bay, a small and isolated townland area near the coast, her vision of a warm and safe cottage is shattered as the cottage is nothing more than a wreck. Having been abandoned for decades and left exposed to the elements it’s nowhere near fit for purpose. This is where an angel in disguise steps in and becomes a saviour for Grace and that person is Sean. What a man Sean was, kind, considerate, caring and always looking forward in a positive light to the future. He was strong, steadfast and impenetrable. He was reliable at a time when Grace needed stability and certainty in her life. His job as a builder slotted ever so perfectly into the plot as he set about renovating the cottage to make it a dream home for Grace and Olivia. In doing so a close friendship was formed and yes it could have been a bit too predictable and just that bit too fast but sure look that’s the way this book was going to go no matter what and I didn’t really care as I was enjoying it so much.
The renovating of the cottage is not the sole focus of the book and I am glad that it wasn’t. New characters needed to be introduced and this did occur and allowed for new strand to open up and there was an element of a metaphorical key unlocking the secrets of the past. Grace gets a job and a sanctuary whilst works are ongoing on the cottage and this allowed for both herself and Olivia to flourish. The new characters that featured at this point were wonderful, homely, caring and gentle. Grace, slowly starts to uncover her own family history and there were plenty of twists and turns to this and also in the present. I have to say I wasn’t expecting that ending with regards to a certain someone. It was almost imperceptible to have guessed at it and I thought bravo to the author you certainly had the wool pulled over my eyes. Connections, trust, love and endurance are established but not before some danger and dramatics were thrown in too all of which was very enjoyable to read.
I will say though it took me some to establish the actual time period of the book. It would have been handy to have what year it was mentioned at the top of the first chapter as I was reading through and several things made me think oh this is not set in the present modern day as they were talking about things that I know for sure can and do happen here in Ireland now. It’s only when we go back to the past set around the 1930’s that it made sense to me as to what decade Grace’s story was set and then a lot of things she said and did and other characters too made an awful lot of sense. I did find it funny actually the scene where Grace and Noel are introduced to this new and wonderful machine that would be so much better than a typewriter and you could even save things on a floppy disc. Their wonder and awe was a sight to behold and Grace was very dubious about this new technology. Over 40 years later as I sit and write this on my laptop it just shows how far we have come.
One another point that I found a bit disconcerting was around the halfway point the chapters were then told from a different viewpoint and yes thankfully the year was mentioned which did help things. But the chapters were not in year order, so events were told and then we went back again and learned more. I know that this was deliberate and was a way of slowly unravelling secrets even though admittedly I had guessed at most of them fairly early on. I found this technique a bit confusing at times and perhaps a wrong fit for the book and perhaps having these chapters starting earlier on in the book and maybe even more of them might have worked better for me. But that’s just my own opinion and in no way do I mean it as a big negative because it wasn’t it’s just the thoughts that sprung to mind as I read.
Overall, this was a very good book and I found myself drawn into it right from the start. Grace was incredibly well written and the fear and angst she was experiencing was portrayed very well. It’s not often I can say this as I loved the author Maeve Binchy’s writing and stories so very much but there are glimpses here of those characteristics in the writing of Daisy O’Shea. She has a certain style of writing that I really enjoyed reading and I hope she writes lots more books in the future. I’d love them to be even longer with even more of a mystery element because that trait she did nail very well. Grace went from someone meek and curtailed by another person to a strong independent woman whose inherent strength lead to fulfilment and happiness. Both of which she very much deserved. For a debut story for Bookouture Daisy O’Shea has written a book that is provides you with hope and light in a time of darkness and she certainly had me rapidly turning the pages to discover what would happen next.
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