Reading Schedule:
The votes have spoken – our November read-along choice is Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote (and this is a novella folks!)
The following is our schedule for reading this week (you can click the picture to take you to the month’s schedule):
Summary from GoodReads:
A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Milderhurst Castle, a great but moldering old house, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted 50 years before as a 13 year old child during WW II. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives looking after the third and youngest sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941.
Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in ‘the distant hours’ of the past has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.
Morton once again enthralls readers with an atmospheric story featuring unforgettable characters beset by love and circumstance and haunted by memory, that reminds us of the rich power of storytelling
My Review (Spoiler free!):
I’ve lived in this book for the last three days. Every time I’ve put it down, I’ve done so with regret; regret that I couldn’t read more, regret that the world I’m living in is not the world portrayed in the book. This story appealed to me on so many levels, from taking influences from books such as Jane Eyre, Rebecca and Wuthering Heights to providing drama on such a perfectly, laid out scale.
..and honestly, how can you go wrong with a story centered around a crazy old man and his daughters, with quirky names such as Persephone, Seraphina and Juniper?
I’ve struggled with how to write this review and not reveal anything – and it is a struggle because all I want to do is talk about the story. This was not a light, comfort read – but I don’t turn to Kate Morton for that sort of read. I picked this tome up.. (and at nearly 700 pages, it’s a doozy) expecting an interesting book with well-developed characters. What I got was the following:
- Well developed characters, I particularly loved the evolving relationship between one of the main characters, Edie, and her parents.
- A perfect setting. Morton did a beautiful job of describing the castle – decaying it was.. and I could practically smell the mold, hear the leaves crunching and see the bathing pool as she describes it.
- A haunting mystery. I actually was disappointed about halfway through the book because I knew I had it all figured out. Did I? Well… you tell me once you’ve read the book.. did YOU?
- The “Chill Factor”. I got chills so many times while reading this book I lost count. Also, I didn’t sleep the first night with my light off after reading the opening of the book. I get spooked easily.. and this book qualifies as “spooky” – much like Jane Eyre does.
The Distant Hours is, simply put, fantastic. One of the best books I’ve read this year and my battered ARC can testify to how much handling it has had over the past few days. I liked Kate Morton after The Forgotten Garden, but The Distant Hours has made me a firm fan and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.
Check out these review(s):
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