A Place for Us (Part Three) by Harriet Evans
Release Date: 25th September 2014
Publisher: Headline Review
Buy: Kindle
Rating:
The day Martha Winter decided to tear apart her family began like any other day.
The house has soft, purple wisteria twining around the door. You step inside.
The hall is cool after the hot summer’s day. The welcome is kind, and always warm.
Yet something makes you suspect life here can’t be as perfect as it seems. After all, the brightest smile can hide the darkest secret.
But wouldn’t you pay any price to have a glorious place like this?
Welcome to Winterfold.
Martha Winter’s family is finally coming home.
In Part Three of this superb instalment of Harriet Evans’ latest novel, A Place For Us, we are dealing with the aftermath of all of the secrets, revelations and drama that exploded during Parts One and Two.
The Winter family are struggling to come to terms with all that has happened, as the family seem to be disintegrating piece by piece. During Part Three we also find out a lot more about David’s childhood, and I must say, it’s quite dark and upsetting. Growing up during wartime some of the things that he experienced and the sights that he saw were horrific and I found myself really in admiration of him by the end of this instalment, not just because of what he went through, but also due to the decisions he made when he was still only a child himself.
Certain parts of the Winter’s mysterious past become a lot clearer and a few more questions are answered for the readers too. In no way as dramatic and action packed as the previous instalments, Part Three tends to focus on both the past and how various members of the family are dealing with certain events in the present. However, by no means has the standard of this breath taking story slipped and it’s still as enticing and exciting as the parts that came before it.
My opinion not only of David changed, but I’m also having doubts about how I feel towards Martha now. I just don’t know what to make of her, I liked her at first but part of me feels different after Part Three and I can’t quite put my finger on why… OH it’s all so tense!
A Place for Us is going to be ONE HECK of a story and I am itching to get Part Four and to see what happens next. I’m so surprised at how much I have enjoyed reading this story in instalments; I really was tempted to wait for the full novel because I didn’t think I’d be able to get into the story in parts but I’ve completely loved it. I wish there were more than four parts; I feel as though I could read about these characters forever. Not only Martha, David, their children and their grandchildren but Joe…Karen…Cat! There’s such a blend of characters and storylines going on, which makes for such intense reading.
My other worry with reading in instalments is that I would forget who was who and what was going on, but nothing could be further from the truth. It’s been a while since I read Part Two, yet I slipped back into life at Winterfold like falling into my favourite, old, comfy slippers. It was all there, stored away in some part of my brain, just waiting to be continued.
After reading Part One I knew that this was going to be one of Harriet’s best novels yet, and I still firmly stand by that suggestion. Bring on Part Four!
A huge thank you to Headline Review for approving me to read A Place for Us (Part Three) on NetGalley.♥
I have written eight novels (WHAT? how did that happen. That’s completely bonkers.) Yes, eight. Anyway while I get over that, what else do you need to know? I live in London, near the canal. I like: the Golden Girls, karaoke, the clothes shop Anthropologie, books books and more books, and my daughter Cora and my boyfriend Chris. Not in that order. I used to work in publishing and look at authors and think well, I can do that! So I thought I’d fulfill my life-long ambition and try writing a book because how hard can it be? Now I know the answer which is: er, kind of pretty hard. But it’s the best job in the world (apart from acting in musicals which one day I also hope to do *stop kidding yourself & get back to work*) and I know that too.
Bookaholic Confessions 