Louise WaltersRezensionen

CR Library recommendation. Enjoyed very much.KIRKUS REVIEWLetters and postcards once used as bookmarks flutter out of used books, forgotten signs of liaisons.Roberta treasures books so much that she pines away in her beloved job at Old and New Bookshop, watching Philip, her boss and the man she can?t yet admit to herself that she loves, take the beautiful Jenna as his lover. But secrets begin to spill out of the books�secrets that will change her understanding of the past and hopes for the future. One fateful day, Roberta?s father, John, brings in an old suitcase labeled ?Mrs. D. Sinclair,? filled with her grandmother Dorothea Pietrykowski?s old books. Between the pages, Roberta discovers a letter dated Feb. 8, 1941, signed by her grandfather Jan Pietrykowski, warning Dorothea that what she is about to do will dishonor her, imperil her very soul, and wrong some unnamed mother and child. If only Roberta could ask her grandmother or her father about the letter, but at 109, Dorothea has entered hospice care, and John?s health is failing, as well. Meanwhile, Jenna confesses to a bewildered Roberta that she's pregnant with a child fathered by her ex-boyfriend. Walters? debut novel nimbly weaves together Roberta?s and Dorothea?s stories¥the reader almost expects to pull a shadowy missive from its spine. Roberta?s life is a mess; she stifles her feelings for Philip, twisting her desires into a sad affair with a married man. But Dorothea?s story is the stuff of films: disowned, disappointed in marriage, crushed by multiple miscarriages¥Dorothea rises above it all to manage her own farmhouse, to take into her home two young women, part of the Women?s Land Army, and to find new love with Jan, the dashing Polish Squadron Leader.A breathtaking, beautifully crafted tale of loves that survive secrets.

The plot of this novel has been used many times before which sadly, made it one of the most cliche filled, predictable pieces, of overly sentimental romantic tripe, I've ever read

The Hermit is Louise Walters' fourth work of fiction, this one being a novella at 146 pages. Despite its brevity, it is not lacking in content or depth, far from it. The hermit of the title is Theo, an old man living in a hut by the side of a row of three cottages, two of which are used as holiday lets. Sylvia and her daughter, Antonia, come to stay in one of them, with Sylvia's estranged mother living in one of the others and managing the lets. Set over the course of seven days, it is Sylvia's attempt to see if the relationship is worth rescuing, and her daughter's first meeting with her grandmother.

I thought the setting of the holiday cottages was inspired, the impermanence of it for Sylvia against the constancy of it for her mother immediately puts her on a back foot. Dealing with a teenage daughter's moods and the other slightly peculiar guests in the cottages doesn't help an already fraught situation. I didn't really take to the characters but some of the reasons for their behaviour unfolded as the week went on and it highlighted the complexity of family relationships and the generational impact they can have.

The writing put me very much in mind of the writing of Sarah Moss: an observational manner, damaged and unlikeable characters, and set over the course of a few days, giving an intensity to the story which doesn't let up. It kept my attention, and had I not had to sleep I could have read it easily in one session. The threads of this story that go back years are pulled taut in The Hermit which showcases Walters' unique style and writing ability. This work of accessible literary fiction comes recommended by me.

I picked this book because of the book shop, the WWII story. The summary had a cute premise, but the truth is that I have a little trouble with plots that go back and forth. The back cover made me believe that the story is in letter form; even though it had letters between Dorothy and Jan, I could understand who was narrating Dorothy's part of the story.
Also, Roberta, the main character, is a weird character, and I felt her story was all over the place.
Finding memorabilia in a second-hand books store is a fun idea, but it didn't give me any input on the story. I am happy that I borrowed this book from the library.
For me, it was a 2.5-stars book.

3.5 stars. Review to come.

This was a very intriguing book that looked very innocent from the cover but contained a darkness inside that I could never have imagined. It's a past and present story whereby we learn of Tina and her Aunt Lucia's stories. Both as heartbreaking and painful as the other but for very different reasons.

Tina blames herself for the death of her twin sister, Meg. She cannot let go of her sister and hears her voice clearly when she regularly visits her grave. Tina is so engrossed at Meg's graveside that she doesn't notice the mysterious woman in the green coat who seems to be taking an interest in her. Who is this woman and why is she interested in Tina?

Lucia is Tina's bitter old Aunt and it is no surprise to learn that she was horrid as a child. She doesn't forgive her little brother William for being born on her darling brother Edward's birthday. Poor little William suffers at the sneaky hands of Lucia and when big brother Edward finds out what is going on, he takes a softly softly approach with Lucia when she really could have done with a clip around the earhole.

The stories intertwine nicely as Tina talks about Meg in therapy and flashbacks show us Lucia's life as she grows up. Lucia grows up a little too quickly and as she plays with fire she does indeed get burnt. I found some of these scenes hard to read but that just shows the depth of emotion that was present in the writing.

A very well-written and addictive book, A Life Between Us surprised me at every turn. I found myself engrossed equally in both stories, which is rather unusual for me as I usually prefer one timeline over another. It is shocking at times but compassionately so, ensuring that the reader is made aware of the butterfly effect of one badly made decision.

I chose to read to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

An enjoyable read that could have been much more.


It came as a pleasant surprise when I tucked in, that there was not one but two stories running simultaneously; set in the past and the present.

The story begins with Roberta, the heroine who works in a second hand book shop and loves to collect forgotten letters, postcards left behind in books. Interestingly, each chapter that tells Roberta's story starts off with a discovery of a letter or a postcard and the details of the book that she finds it in. I was eagerly looking forward to a treat, but admit to some disappointment by the time I got to the end.

Shuffling through the pages of a book, Roberta chances upon a letter written by her grandfather to her grandmother, raising doubts and forcing her to dig into the past and unearth a long hidden family secret.

As the story flashes back to her grandmother, Dorothy Sinclair, her circumstances and life during the war, the story starts off with a bang but meanders down the middle. Although it is well written, the plot seems a bit stretched. Perhaps the focus was more on painting wartime lifestyle setting and how people lived then but it slows down the plot and makes it more predictable.


However, it is Roberta's story that is more interesting as it strikes a very contemporary note of isolation, the bonding of colleagues at the workplace and eventually romance with her employer.

The book is very well written. Walters has a turn of phrase which makes it a delightful read. Mrs. Sinclair's story wans a bit although Walters' description of life during the war has an authentic and pictureseque ring to it.

What works for it:

The flashback/flash forward technique of story telling, strong female characters and well written descriptions

What doesn't:

Predictable plot that stretches out in the middle and hurriedly goes about resolving itself in the end.

My recommendation:
The blurb and the one liner builds up a lot of hype that unfortunately is not delivered by the novel. However it is a delightful light read and one looks forward to reading more from Ms Walters.

I struggled to get into this book the first time. So this was the second time in a year I tried this one. I liked the young Dorothy character but I struggled a bit more with the contemporary Roberta character. Some of the minor characters felt a bit two-dimensional but otherwise the book would have been epic so it was probably a necessary loss. I enojyed the period nature of the early material which is unusual for me who would usually not pick a non-contemporary novel.

I do think the writing was great and i would totally read something else by the same author as my "not getting into it" was more my taste than the writing or the style. It was a clear and structured story that I think stands up well. the ending was a little weak for me but it was conclusive.

I think Louise Walters has just broken my heart. The Road to California is a beautiful story of love, loss, friendship and family.

We meet Joanna, single mum coping on her own with her sometimes tricky teenage son, Ryan, and running a small sewing business. Joanna is sometimes tricky herself, being a bit proud and sometimes a bit too principled but ultimately she's doing her best and I admired her for it.

But even she accepts that she needs help with Ryan and contacts Lex, Ryan's dad. I loved Lex for the difference he made when he came back into Ryan and Joanna's lives. As he had left them once before I was on a knife edge. I cared about what happened to Ryan and Joanna and I didn't want Lex to hurt them again. I wanted a happy ending for these flawed yet likable people.

Louise Walters is such a lovely writer. Here she's writing about subjects she understands and puts them across in such a way that I empathised completely with all of the characters. And when something happened that I thought could have one of two outcomes, neither of which was exactly favourable, I knew that either way it would be earth shattering for the main characters and I was saying "no, no, no" to myself as I realised the turn the story was about to take.

The Road to California is a perceptive novel, looking at inner feelings and how they can affect everything you do. It's such a moving story and I do freely admit that near the end my eyes leaked. The final section was a little surprise and I thought it was a fine way to end such a entrancing book. Altogether a fabulous read.½

Despite its World War II setting, this book felt more like a soap opera than something I cared about. The story has a historic element, focusing on Dorothy Sinclair, her husband Albert, and her lover,a Russian flyer. In the modern portion, the woman is now 109 and her granddaughter is unraveling the story. I listened to the audio book. Different narrators were used for the different time periods. The narrator for the earlier time period read too slowly, making the story drag on far too long. (Upping the speed to 1.5x for a bit helped but it also made it seem a bit choppy.) The modern narrator did a better job of holding the reader's attention. This one was not my cup of tea. I almost stopped listening but decided to stick it out.

Thanks to goodreads and the publisher for a free copy of this book!

Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase explores family secrets and history in an intriguing story that juxtaposes past and present. One storyline follows Roberta, living in the present day and working at a used bookstore. The other follows Dorothy, Roberta's grandmother, living the 1940s.

My favourite parts, far and away, involved the used bookstore. The descriptions of the smell of books were vivid and reminded me of everything I love about stepping into antiquarian bookshops.

And then there were the chapter beginnings. Many of the chapters began with descriptions of items -- letters, photographs, postcards -- found in books, as well as details about the books themselves. While these generally weren't related to the overall plot, they provided a wonderful aside, mingling the simplicity of daily life with the power of books.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as enamoured of the characterization. Maybe it's because I'm not a parent and would prefer to keep it that way, but I found it difficult to become invested in Dorothy's story. Both of the romantic plots also didn't work for me (but I could say that about just about every fictional romance in existence, so this could well be a personal bias here). I just couldn't see completely what Dorothy saw in Jan, and I wish that certain revelations about finances hadn't happened in Roberta's storyline.

Still, I liked the family secrets angle, the historical details were wonderful, and I enjoyed the writing style. Overall, reading this book was an enjoyable way to spend the day.

Survivor’s guilt, revenge, memory tricks, childhood friendship and rivalry are at the centre of this family drama. In ‘A Life Between Us’ by Louise Walters, forty-something Tina visits the grave of twin sister Meg each week and holds conversations with her. Tina has buried a secret so deep even her husband doesn’t know it. Only one other person was there when Meg died, the twins’ Aunt Lucia. But this is a complicated family with so many stories of betrayal, flight, lies, secrets and denials that until the end I was waiting for someone else to appear as a witness.
The first half was a slow-burn and I longed to get to the first turning point of the story, which when it came was not a surprise. This slow-burn means this is not a psychological thriller but a study of the long-term effects on children violently bereaved, survivor guilt, misplaced memory and grief. We are told the story via multiple viewpoints: Tina, then and now; Tina’s childhood letters; Tina’s husband Keaton who loves his wife but struggles to cope with her depression and guilt; and Aunt Lucia, then and now. For me, this was too many viewpoints and too many characters, making it rather involved and at times repetitive. Walters’ story involves a large family and perhaps the story would be stronger with less siblings. Certainly the absent Robert and jailbird Ambrose added little to Tina’s story, and her parents are virtually invisible. The device of Tina’s childhood letters to cousin Elizabeth in California became repetitive and irritating, it is so difficult to write in the voice of a child. I also found myself sympathising with Aunt Lucia who is portrayed as something of a harridan in a dysfunctional family, though she too has experienced difficult times which she has kept secret.
An at times long-winded story which, at its heart, explores something deep, difficult and sensitive.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

Roberta collects the old letters, cards, lists.. whatever she finds in the old books she comes across while working at a second hand bookshop. Her grandmother is ancient and living in a care facility. Roberta has been given some of her belongings including a letter from the grandfather she never knew that was written after he died in the war.

This book switches back and forth from present day Roberta to her grandmother, Dorothy, during World War II.

Dorothy is unhappily married. While her husband is away at war she meets, and falls in love with, Squadron Leader Jan Pietrykowski.

Roberta sets out to find answers to the questions she has about the letter she found.

I wanted to like this book but it was just blah. I love the concept of the old book store and finding and collecting old letters. But that was it. Roberta's story was flat and boring. I didn't like it after her cat died, to be honest. Dorothy's story wasn't bad until near the end. It just went on and on and on about the damn baby. I didn't like the ending. Some things in the book had me wondering why they were written in, some things went on too long, some things were just too convenient. A forgettable book.

I won a copy through Goodreads First Reads.

Story follows present day Roberta who works in"The Old and New Bookshop". She finds old letters in books she is shelving and finds one written to her 110 year old grandmother.. It's a mystery. The s tory also follows Dorothea in the early years of WWll in her cottage where her husband has gone off and we learn how she has lost babies to miscarrage and the last as a still born. She meets a Polish pilot and they form a sweet, innocent relationship. Meanwhile Roberta in present day really likes her boss and they dance around their relationship, while Roberta tries to talk to her aged grandmother.
Both lives are interesting with a common beauty in these characters daily struggles, repressed desires, misunderstandings and secrets.

A Life Between Us is the story of how losing her twin has affected the whole of Tina's life and about how secrets within families can eat you up. We have two time frames: one is 2014 in which Tina and her husband, Keaton (by the way, what a fab name!) are going about their everyday life. Tina has never been able to come to terms with Meg's death at the age of eight. Keaton loves Tina dearly but temptation is coming his way and Tina's strange behaviour is pushing him closer towards it. And we also have the sections in the past: mean Lucia's story and then the long, hot summer of 1976, that summer when Tina and Meg are eight and we know disaster is coming.

Louise Walters has a really charming writing style. She deals with key issues of grief, loss and disappointment so well. In the interview at the back of the book she talks about trying to put a twist into her writing but finding that that is not something she excels at. And isn't that refreshing at the moment? A straight up and down story with no big reveals, just a really well put together narrative where events unfold as we read them.

There are characters to really care about in this book. I really took to Keaton and Edward in particular, and I did also like Tina and her friend, Kath. Lucia was the villain of the piece and her dissatisfaction with life and everything in it was palpable. She was a character I loved to hate!

I'd previously read Louise Walters' first book, Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase, which I enjoyed, but I enjoyed A Life Between Us more. It's a brave foray into self-publishing for the author which I believe will pay off. It's an excellent read. I love to read about families and how they interact with each other and deal with life's trials and tribulations and this is the perfect book to showcase that. The different time frames work well as a vehicle for revealing the story and it all came together beautifully at the end. I loved it!

Love, love, love this story. Loved it! So beautiful and well written. Love and pain and history and all comes full circle beautifully. Thank you Mrs. Walters for a truly enjoyable reading experience!

Land girls! Polish pilot! Mysterious letter!

In England during WWII, Dorothy Sinclair lives in a cottage with two Land Girls, Aggie and Nina, and does laundry and mourns her stillborn son while her husband, Albert, is off in the army. Many years later, Dorothy's granddaughter Roberta, who works in a bookshop, discovers a puzzling letter addressed to her grandmother from her grandfather.

As usual with a past-and-present split narrative, the past is the more interesting and has more action, but Roberta's sections are not boring. It's a little unclear why she's quite as passive as she is, but it isn't really her story; it's Dorothy's. Ultimately, Dorothy realizes her dream of becoming a mother, but she sacrifices romantic love to do so.

See also: The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

Quotes

"Sadness turns us into people, surely you understand?" (Jan to Dorothy, 68)

"There is no sense to this life...All around is madness and cruelty and things that are unfair. That which pleases one person dismays another. Nothing is personal, no great being is up there or down here, plotting against us. Everything that happens, happens because it can. There is no meaning beyond life itself....And the losses, we lose from the minute we are born, or whenever life begins." (Jan to Dorothy, 69)

"I've feared so much in my life, and my worst fears came true. The spell of fear has been broken somewhat. There's no fear left in me." (Dorothy to Jan, 74)

I wrap my life around this longing. (Dorothy, 179)

It was happening to her and so only she knew. (Dorothy, 192)

There's a freedom in forgiveness. (Roberta, 259)

Een heel leesbaar boek waarin afwisselend het verhaal van de grootmoeder en de kleindochter wordt verteld. Het geheim van de grootmoeder (mevrouw Sinclair) wordt langzaam onthuld door middel van o.a. brieven. De kleindochter werkt in een boekhandel en vindt van alles in de boeken, is onderdeel van het verhaal.

Probably not super-memorable, but an enjoyable read. I liked the two main women, although the story is primarily about Dorothy and there's actually not much substance about her granddaughter--although I sympathized with her too. Guess I'm a sucker for the oft-overlooked, down-to-earth woman.

Realistic, individual lives that are as inspiring as they are tragic. This is a real page turner of a book and Ms Walters enviably achieves what every storyteller sets out to do, keep the reader wondering what happens next.
Past and present intertwine seamlessly. Characters are just ordinary and complex enough to warrant empathy and compassion.

Set in England, alternating stories of a contemporary granddaughter and her grandmother real both their lives and the mystery of the family's history during the early years of World War II. Well done, but slightly marred by an ending that is a little too pat....still a good read.

A perfectly lovely book to read---I had tears in my eyes when I reached the end. I thought Walters captured a time in history and presented it in a very believable way and then to contrast it with a current relative made for a double story. The only thing that was a tiny bit hard to take was how "able," really, the grandmother was---at 107 plus???? --NOT that an incredible number of people are now living to 100 and beyond! It fit the story so it was perfectly all right for this book---but just maybe there were some very convenient overlapping events. But, getting them all in the right place is what a good novel is all about and this one succeeds, for me, beautifully.

Roberta is a clerk at a local bookstore and becomes captivated over her family tree and how she came to be. The mystery crosses generations back to her grandmother who had a loveless marriage in the war years during World War 2. Through a series of flashbacks we learn about an extramarital affair she had with a Polish pilot stationed in England during the war. There are many twists and turns along the way and a very satisfying ending.. Nice new voice in British literature.

This is a gentle mystery of a love affair during war and its consequences for the following generations. We follow the stories of two women: Dorothy Sinclair in 1940, and today Roberta who works at The Old and New Bookshop. Roberta is particularly fond of the secondhand stock, treasuring the notes and letters she finds hidden within their pages, wondering about the stories of the writer and the addressee. Each chapter starts with an excerpt from such a note.
The letter which starts Chapter One is dated 1941 and addressed to “My dear Dorothea” from Jan Pietrykowski in which he writes he “cannot forgive” her for “what you do, to this child, to this child’s mother, it is wrong.” The letter makes no sense to Roberta as it was written by her grandfather to her grandmother, and dated 1941 when Jan died in 1940. This is the puzzle which Roberta must unravel. What woman does Jan refer to, and what child?
Dorothy’s story starts with a plane crash. She lives on the edge of an airfield deep in the quiet Lincolnshire countryside, alone in her cottage [her husband is away at war] which she shares with two land girls. The plane crash brings the Polish pilot to her door. Nervous, Dorothy serves afternoon tea. She “watched Jan take a bite from a sandwich. His teeth were small, even and white. She noticed the way his fingers curved lightly around the sandwich. He was an elegant man... She watched him eat and he seemed unabashed, eating under her scrutiny. She, for her part, always ate guardedly. She hated the way eating contorted her face, and it made her feel exposed." From their first meeting, he unsettles her. She is so buttoned-up; he is open, curious and confident.
There is a lot of sensuality in this tale. Despite herself, Dorothy wonders about the pilot. She does not miss her husband. When Jan visits the cottage again, she notices his "brown, lean, strong forearms and realizes how she feels... His arms were poetry." But there is grief too, as this is wartime and what happened in the 1940s knocks on down the decades to affect Roberta, her father and her grandmother Babunia.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/