My most-eagerly-awaited books of 2018

We are into the second month of 2018 and Wildaboutthewrittenword's wonderful post got me thinking - it's time I posted about my most anticipated books of this year. In fact, for the last few months, I've been scouring Amazon and Goodreads for the books I want to get my hands on this year, because let's face it - every true book lover has an inherent acquisitive streak and lives by the unwritten code - grab those hot new books immediately on their release and hoard them, no matter how many unread books you already have lying around!

So here's my list of most eagerly awaited books of 2018 (new releases from February onwards), in no particular order, complete with curated summaries and comments by yours truly to whet the discerning reader's appetite :):

1. Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley (Expected release date - April 24): 

Some houses don't want to give up their secrets - Wilde House on Long Island in America is one such house. Wilde House now houses a museum and Charley is its new curator. She comes to believe that the eerie atmosphere of the house is somehow linked to the legend of a pair of lovers connected to the Wilde family in the 18th Century.

Did the doomed romance of Lydia and her French-Canadian lieutenant really happen or was it just a ghost story invented by the family and passed down from generation to generation? Who is the ghost that haunts Wilde House now? Will the truth ever come out?

My thoughts: Which lover of gothic novels can truly resist the lure of an old house full of secrets and legends of doomed lovers? :) This book sounds like one of Susanna's patented past-present novels, but maybe with a real ghost this time, if I'm lucky enough!

2. Her Mother's Secret by Rosanna Ley (Expected release date - May 15): 

Colette has been estranged from her mother Thea for many years and has been avoiding returning to her homeland in Southern Brittany. But when she hears about her mother's failing health, she is forced to return to the island of Belle-Île-en-Mer and confront the past she had left behind.

What happened all those years ago and how did it cause the rift between mother and daughter? Even as Thea opens up to her daughter and Colette takes over the running of her mother's flower shop, it becomes clear that Colette is still unaware of a devastating family secret. Will unravelling it change the course of her life?

My thoughts: Rosanna Ley's books captivate me more because of their exotic settings than their plots - this one seems to be no exception. Looking forward to reading more about the beauty and customs of this island in Brittany, France.

3. Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb (Expected release date - November 1): 

It's time for the lake to give up its secrets. 
Kate Granger moves into her parent's home in Lake Superior to recover from the breakup of her marriage, only to discover the body of a murdered woman washed ashore. Tucked in the folds of the woman’s curiously vintage gown is a dead infant, as cold as its mother. No one can identify the woman, except for Kate. She’s seen her before in her dreams. 

Kate begins to have more dreams of the drowned woman - is she trying to convey something to Kate? How is the woman's story linked to the tragic love story and mysterious murder that is said to have taken place one hundred years back? Is all this somehow connected to the haunting folktale that has been whispered about for generations?

My thoughts: Be still, my beating heart! Spirits of dead women reaching out through dreams, bodies floating in the lake, haunting folklore and centuries-old murders left unsolved - perchance this will turn out be one of the best reads of this year!

4. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (Expected release date - March 20): 

This novel is about an abandoned boarding school for "troubled" girls in Vermont - Idlewild Hall. There are rumours about something sinister in the shut-down school - ghosts, hidden bodies and long buried secrets. When journalist Fiona Sheridan learns that Idlewild Hall is being restored, she is determined to find out more, because she has a vested interest in Idlewild - it was the spot where her murdered sister's body was found 20 years back. Her sister's boyfriend was convicted of the murder and imprisoned but he always maintained that he was innocent of the crime. Fiona can't let her sister's case go because she has a feeling that something isn't adding up. As she delves deeper into the boarding school's past, she finds out that a girl named Sonia had mysteriously gone missing from the school in the fifties and was never found. 

The story goes back and forth between the lives of four girls who are students of the school in 1950 (Sonia is one of them) and Fiona's present-day quest. Is the murder of her sister somehow linked to the missing girl Sonia way back in the fifties? What is the secret that lies buried in Idlewild Hall? Because of Fiona's search, the ghosts of the past are about to rise again. Here's a rather creepy excerpt:

"Mary Hand, Mary Hand,
Dead and buried under land...
Faster, faster. Don't let het catch you.
She'll say she wants to be your friend...
Do not let her in again!"

My thoughts: Sounds like a perfect goosebumps-inducing mystery to be read with all the lights on :)

5. Untitled Book 6 by Kate Morton (Expected release date - September 20): 

Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items - a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist's sketchbook including the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river. The sketched image of the house is immediately familiar to Elodie as the house from a bedtime story her mother used to tell when she was small. But the only person who might be able to shed light on why that might be, Elodie's Uncle Tip, falls firmly silent upon seeing the photograph of the beautiful Victorian woman. Meanwhile, in its quiet bend of the Upper Thames, the twin-gabled house is waiting. For the house wants the truth of what happened over hundred and fifty years earlier to be revealed. 

In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists, led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe, descends upon the house in rural Oxfordshire to spend the next few months in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time summer is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared, a priceless heirloom - the Radcliffe Blue Diamond - is missing, and Edward Radcliffe's life is in ruins. 

What really happened all those years back? Who is the mysterious beautiful woman whose name history has forgotten? Will Elodie be able to uncover the long-kept secrets of the house?

My thoughts: Promises to be vintage Kate Morton - complete with mysterious house, skeletons in the cupboard (pun intended) and sepia photographs of beautiful women (there are always a few of these lying around in gothic novels)! 

6. A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Numerous Authors, compiled by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman (Expected release date - June 26): 

A mountain loses her heart. Two sisters transform into birds to escape captivity. A young man learns the true meaning of sacrifice. A young woman takes up her mother’s mantle and leads the dead to their final resting place. 

Star-crossed lovers, meddling immortals, feigned identities, battles of wits, and dire warnings. Fifteen bestselling and acclaimed authors reimagine the folklore, legends and mythology of East and South Asia in short stories that are mystical, enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and passionate.

My thoughts: Folklore, legends, fairy tale, mythology - can hardly wait!! 

7. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (Release date pending): 

Set in a darkly glamorous Paris, the book follows the cursed but charismatic heir of a massive fortune as he plots to steal three ancient and powerful artifacts of fate. He and his crew will have to navigate the elite gatherings of secret occult societies, traveling through Paris' catacombs where they must confront their worst secrets as well as a destiny they never imagined. 

My thoughts: Roshani Chokshi had me at "curse" and "occult" :)

8. Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews (August 28): 

This is the much hyped 10th and penultimate book of the thrilling and addictive Kate Daniels Urban Fantasy series. Kate has come a long way from her origins as a loner taking care of paranormal problems in post-Shift Atlanta. She's made friends and enemies. She's found love and started a family with Curran Lennart, the former Beast Lord. She even has a son now to take care of. But her magic is too strong for the power players of the world to let her be. 

Kate and her enormously powerful father, Roland, currently have an uneasy truce, but when he starts testing her defenses again, she knows that sooner or later, a confrontation is inevitable. The Witch Oracle has begun seeing visions of blood, fire, and human bones. And when a mysterious box is delivered to Kate's doorstep, a threat of war from the ancient enemy who nearly destroyed her family, she knows their time is up. 

Kate Daniels sees no other choice but to combine forces with the unlikeliest of allies. She knows betrayal is inevitable. But she has to try. Will she survive the battle? Will her family and Atlanta survive?

My thoughts: Having been a squeal-y fan girl of the snarky Kate, the not-so-beastly Curran and the entertaining clans of werewolf shapeshifters for a long time, I am waiting with bated breath for this exciting conclusion to a long but never boring series. The author duo has been tantalising fans with snippets from the upcoming book on their blog and I am simply dying to know if Kate's all-powerful father Roland is truly evil or will there be a reconciliation in the end. I also can't get enough of Kate's cute baby who will debut in this book.

9. Smoke in the Sun by Renee Ahdieh (Expected release date - June 5): 

The highly anticipated ending to the 'Flame in the Mist' duology is due for release soon. Following the capture of Okami and his band of rebels at the end of the first book (reviewed by me here), Mariko has no choice but to return to Inako and face the dangers that have been waiting for her in the Heian Castle. She tricks her brother, Kenshin, and betrothed, Raiden, into thinking she was being held in the Jukai Forest by the Black Clan against her will, playing the part of the dutiful bride-to-be to infiltrate the emperor's ranks and uncover the truth behind the betrayal that almost left her dead. 

As Mariko beings to peel back the layers of lies and deception surrounding the imperial court while trying to free Okami, she gets ensnared in a political scheme that threatens her honor, her love and the very safety of the empire. Who is on her side and who is plotting against her? Can she right the wrong that was done against Okami's father all those years back and save the empire too? 

My thoughts: I really liked Book 1 and Mariko's growth arc there. I hope this one will take it further and successfully wrap up all the plotlines (thankfully, this is only a duology!)

10. The Sapphire Trader's Secret by Dinah Jeffries (Expected release date - February 22): 

It is the year 1935 in Ceylon. Louisa Reeve, the daughter of a successful British gem trader, and her husband Elliot, a charming, thrill-seeking businessman, seem like the couple who have it all. Except what they long for more than anything: a child. While Louisa struggles with miscarriages, Elliot is increasingly absent, spending much of his time at a nearby cinnamon plantation, overlooking the Indian ocean. After his sudden death, Louisa is left alone to solve the mystery he left behind.  Revisiting the plantation at Cinnamon Hills, she finds herself unexpectedly drawn towards the owner Leo, a rugged outdoors man with a chequered past. All is not as it seems in the plantation on Cinnamon Hills and soon a shocking betrayal is revealed. Is Leo somehow connected with Elliot's death? What is the secret that Elliot was trying to hide from Louisa before his death?

My thoughts: I like Dinah Jeffries' historical fiction novels because of her ability to transport the reader to exotic settings of the bygone era - be it vivid descriptions of India under the British rule in Before the Rains, Ceylon in the 1920s in the lushly written The Tea Planter's Wife or Vietnam under the French rule in The Silk Merchant's Daughter. The latest by this author appears to be another intriguing one set in bygone Ceylon.

I just noticed that most of the books on this list appear to be about "secrets"!! Hmmm...what does that say about my reading preferences, I wonder! Maybe I'm a person who really likes ferreting out secrets :)

With such a long TBR list, one thing that's no secret is that my plan for most weekends spent at home this year will look something like this - no matter what the weather, I'll be curled up with a book!!

My top reads of 2016

A seductive sojourn in Sicily

Book review: The Villa by Rosanna Ley

Italy has long been one of my favoured destinations and I eagerly pick up every book that has this ethereal, ancient land as the backdrop. Rosanna Ley is my new favourite author, because of her astounding ability to capture the true essence of a place through her descriptions of colours, scents and food of the land. So when I read that she has set a novel in Sicily, Italy, I grabbed the book instantly.

"The Villa" lived up to all my expectations - it is one of the most seductive novels I have read - every page, every word is drenched with the flavours and fragrances of the magical land of Sicily. I felt like I could taste the golden olive oil and the sun-dried tomatoes on my tongue, and see the azure sea and the ruined Greek temples right before my eyes.

Sicily; Source: travel.allwomenstalk.com

The book starts with Tess Angel, a 39-year old single mother, receiving a letter from a solicitor that she has inherited a villa in Sicily from a stranger, Edward Westerman. She has never met or even heard of Edward Westerman, though she realizes that he must have some connection to her mother, Flavia. Flavia is a Sicilian by birth, though she left Sicily long back to settle permanently in England after marrying Tess' father, Lenny. In fact, Flavia has shunned all mention of Sicily and Tess has never been able to find out anything about her mother's mysterious past.

Tess has just broken off an affair with a married man, resigned from her demotivating job and also needs a break from her volatile relationship with her rebellious teenage daughter, Ginny. So she takes this opportunity to visit Sicily for the first time, to find out what link Edward Westerman had with Flavia and if someone in Sicily can shed more light on her mother's past. Tess is convinced that Sicily holds the key to her mother's unnatural reticence about the past. Also the will stipulates that she cannot sell the villa without visiting it once.

Villa in Sicily; Source: www.casainitalia.ch

On arriving at the village of Cetaria in Sicily where her villa is located, she meets an old lady named Santina, who she discovers is her mother's childhood friend, and Santina's enigmatic great-nephew Giovanni Sciarra. Tess is enthralled by the Villa Sirena perched on top a hill overlooking the beach and spends her initial days soaking in the atmosphere of the small seaside fishing village, exploring its shops and markets full of fresh produce, and scuba diving in the sea. Her nights are peaceful - sitting under the stars, eating the local cuisine and listening to the soft sounds of the sea below.

A village market in Sicily; Source: www.thewealthscene.com

Near her villa, on the way to the beach, Tess notices a small shop displaying stunning, many-hued mosaics made from bits of sea glass and stone pieces. She meets the reticent and moody mosaicist, Tonino Amato, and spends hours listening to him recount the folklore and myths that he brings alive in his mosaics - fascinating tales of a singing mermaid (after whom Villa Sirena or House of the Mermaid is named), a cursed serpent prince, a fisherman named Ciccu who rescues a fish from death and many others. Tonino also takes her to the picturesque ruins of a Greek theatre and temple in Segesta amidst olive groves. Tess starts feeling a strange pull towards this vibrant and mystic land and decides that she wants to renovate the villa instead of selling it.

Greek theatre in Segesta in Sicily; Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Back in England, Tess' daughter, Ginny, slowly comes to terms with what she wants from life and realizes how much her mother means to her. Flavia also starts reconciling herself with her painful memories and writing down the events of the past in a diary so that Tess can finally know the truth about what happened all those years ago. She painstakingly puts down her beloved recipes as part of a tradition of handing over family recipes to the next generation - Sicilian favourites such as Arancine or rice balls, Panelle or fried chickpea Polenta, Pasta alla Norma, breads drizzled with olive oil, and Cassata.

Sicilian food; Source: www.siciliangirl.com

In Sicily, Tess is caught up in the seductive beauty of the place and drawn to the brooding Tonino. Giovanni also seems to be interested in her, though his motives remain mysterious. Tess talks to Santina and starts to find out more about what happened to her mother all those years ago. She also gets embroiled in an age-old feud between the Sciarras and Amatos, represented in the current generation by Giovanni and Tonino. It seems that there is a mysterious treasure or 'Il Tesoro' that disappeared years back and which everyone seems to believe is hidden somewhere in the Villa Sirena. The plot thickens as Tess tries to figure out who among Giovanni and Tonino she can trust.

Why did the unknown Englishman, Edward Westerman, leave his beautiful villa to Tess? What happened to Flavia in the past that led her to cut off all ties with her family and Sicily? Are the Sciarras or the Amatos connected to the infamous Sicilian mafia? Who is trying to threaten Tess off her property and why? Is the hidden treasure just a myth? All these questions are answered most satisfactorily in the end.

Sicilian landscape; Source: www.planetware.com

But what mesmerized me were the descriptions that flowed effortlessly from Rosanna's pen. Rosanna uses landscape, weather and food very effectively to convey emotions and passions. The allegorical legends of the sea, the tempestuous weather, the temperamental people, the fresh produce of the markets, the earthy Sicilian breads and pasta are all so vividly portrayed by Rosanna that I guarantee that anyone reading this book will be instantly smitten by an uncontrollable yearning to visit Sicily. I, for one, now have Sicily on my list of top 10 must-visit destinations! 

In an exotic land

Book review: Return to Mandalay by Rosanna Ley

Rosanna Ley is an author who any travel-loving reader like me will adore - because of her remarkable ability to bring the sights, sounds, people and cuisine of a place alive through her descriptions. Be it an English cliff-side town in West Dorset (in several of her novels), the spice-scented by-lanes of Morocco (The Saffron Trail), the white-sand beach of Fuerteventura in Canary Islands (Bay of Secrets), or a beautiful seaside village in Sicily (The Villa), her vivid prose has enabled me to virtually travel to these countries and places. Add to this a past-present mystery and a dash of romance and I'm sold! Small wonder that I picked up her "Return to Mandalay" after realising that it is set in Burma or Myanmar, as it is now known, a land I've never before encountered in fiction or in reality, even though the country borders mine.

"Return to Mandalay"revolves around Eva Gatsby who is an antique dealer in an emporium in England. She has always been fascinated by Burma, after hearing innumerable tales of the golden land from her grandfather, Lawrence. Lawrence had spent his youth in Burma in the late 1930s and early 1940s while it was still under British rule. Even though after the end of WWII, he came back to England, never to return, Burma and its people seem to have left an indelible impression on him. So when Eva's boss asks her to go on a business trip to Mandalay to explore some antiques, she jumps at the chance.

On hearing that she is going to Myanmar, her grandfather gives Eva a "chinthe" or a small statue of a lion-like creature which is supposed to guard Burmese holy temples. Chinthes always come in pairs and it seems that a Burmese lady who Lawrence had loved gifted him this chinthe as a protection against evil. Lawrence now wants it to be returned to its rightful owner and be reunited with its twin.

Pair of Burmese chinthes; Source: pininterest.com

Before she leaves for Myanmar, Lawrence tells Eva about Maya and how he had met and fallen in love with her back in the 1930s, just as the Second World War was about to break out. Maya realises that Lawrence has never forgotten or stopped loving Maya, even though he later married Helen, Eva's grandmother (now deceased). Eva is determined to uncover the whereabouts of the mysterious Maya so that Lawrence can get some sort of closure to his story. So begins Eva's adventure in Mandalay on the banks of the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar.

Mandalay; Source: pandaw.com

Eva does manage to locate Maya and her half-English grandson, Ramon, and discovers secrets that even her grandfather does not know. The chinthe too is not what it seems and has an interesting back-story intertwined with the period when the last king and queen of Burma, King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat, were deposed by the British. As Eva tries to find out more about the past, she gets involved in a quest to find a missing chinthe and even embroiled in an international smuggling ring. Her passion for the past, especially antique furniture, draws her closer to the mysterious Ramon who may or may not be involved in the smuggling trade himself.

The story alternates between past and present here, with the past providing a glimpse of the deep and abiding love between Lawrence and Maya and the forces that drive them apart. In the present, parallel to Eva's unfolding quest in Myanmar, there is a side story of Eva's mother, Rosemary, in Dorset, England. Rosemary has never been able to move on in life after the death of her first husband and Eva's father, Nick. Consequently, she has alienated herself from her father Lawrence and her daughter. As Lawrence's health deteriorates and Rosemary nurses him through it, she comes to terms with her relationship with her father, daughter and second husband.

In the present, as Ramon shows Eva around Mandalay, the reader is allowed a leisurely sensory exploration of Myanmar. I felt instantly transported to the roads filled with the aroma of cooking, men and women in colourful "longyis" and clean shaven young Buddhist monks in saffron robes, the lush green gardens of teak and tropical orchids, the traditional houses smelling of coconut oil and sandalwood, and the moonlit nights fragrant with jasmine and fangipani. I too wanted to stand on the U Bein bridge in Amarapura, the oldest and longest teakwood bridge in the world, and watch as dusk descended on the lake.

U Bein bridge; Source: natav2.com

I found myself more involved in the present-day adventure that Eva goes through than the doomed love story in the past. Ramon comes across as mysterious yet strangely enticing, just like the intoxicating land to which he belongs. Maya is serene and accepting of her destiny, strong in spite of her outward fragility. Lawrence and Rosemary are perhaps the weakest characters, who too find redemption at the end.

I loved the hours that I spent immersed in the textures of this exotic country of teakwood, gold and Mogok rubies - a land of forgotten riches which still retains its deep spirituality. For me, it was a memorable read - one that is meant to be savoured and not breezed through.

The sands of time

Book review: The Egyptian Years by Elizabeth Harris

I accidentally stumbled upon this book on Goodreads when I was in the mood for a past-present book with a gothic feel. It was written in the early 1990s and frankly, I hadn't heard of this author before reading this book. I couldn't find many reviews of Elizabeth Harris' books on the net either. But this book actually managed to exceed my expectations - it was a nice past-present mystery with a paranormal element and worth a read.

The book centers around Willa Jamieson who leads a boring life working in a museum with two aged employees. Her staid life changes suddenly when she receives a trunk full of old Victorian clothes from her distant relative, Hester Montsorrel. Willa doesn't recollect Hester very clearly, as Hester seems to have been an oddity in their family, mostly keeping to herself and always being whispered about. It seems the clothes belonged to Genevieve Montsorrel, Hester's mother, and Hester wants Willa to have them due to her interest in antiques.

On her way to Hester's house, Willa meets Hugo Henshaw-Jones, a collector of antique items, who has come to buy an Egyptian mummy-mask from Hester. Once she reaches Hester's house, Willa finds that Hester is now a very old and somewhat eccentric lady, though all her faculties are very much intact. Hester is apparently disposing off her old and antique items by selling them at nominal prices or giving them away as gifts.

After going back home, Willa is very curious about the unknown contents of the trunk, especially since nothing much is known about Genevieve. Willa is intrigued by Genevieve and finds out that according to the family bible, there is a mysterious question mark against Genevieve's year of death. Willa manages to open the trunk with Hugh's help  and is excited to find a lot of well-preserved and good quality dresses and hats from the Victorian era. She is attracted to a beige suit in particular and tries it on in front of the mirror. The dress fits her perfectly and for a moment, she thinks she sees another woman's face superimposed on her own face in the mirror. Willa, of course, dismisses this as a trick of the light. When she checks the pockets of the jacket, she finds grains of red-brown sand and hears a voice whispering "Egypt" in her ears. Then a whirl of images hit her - wide azure skies, golden sand, mummy-masks and she feels a frisson of a strange, momentary fear which goes away the moment she takes off the suit.

Willa is somehow sure that Genevieve had visited Egypt in her lifetime and is determined to find out more about what eventually happened to Genevieve. She soon discovers a journal written by Genevieve in the trunk and is sucked into the events of 1890 when Genevieve travelled with her husband, Leonard Montsorrel, to Egypt. It soon becomes apparent that Genevieve wasn't happy with her marriage and Leonard was a cold and unfeeling man, incapable of understanding his sensitive wife. As Willa keeps reading the entries in the journal, Genevieve's voice seems to reach out to her from the past and her own present world seems to fade away. She starts living in a trance-like state, forgetting to eat or sleep or go to work for days, so strong is her identification with Genevieve's life.

The events in Genevieve's life soon take an unexpected turn and Willa starts having surprisingly realistic dreams of Egypt. Willa realizes that she is fast losing her grip on the present and Genevieve's emotions are somehow taking over Willa's life. As Willa stays alone, she has no one to turn to for help. Her parents are also out of the country and are unable to come to her assistance. In her desperation, she reaches out to Hugo who seems to be her only connection with the present. Hugo and his mother take care of her and help her make sense of her visions. Willa is increasingly driven to find out more about Genevieve's disappearance and to know why Genevieve's voice seems to call to her. She knows that she will have no peace till she finds out the truth behind Genevieve's mysterious disappearance.

Shocking secrets are slowly revealed about Genevieve and Hester, and Willa and Hugo travel to Egypt to finally bury the past. What really happened to Genevieve in Egypt? Who is the red-haired man Willa keeps seeing in her dreams? Why was Hester shunned throughout her life by her family? Why is there a dark stain on the beige coat that looks suspiciously like blood?

There is an unexpected twist in the end that I didn't see coming, and I was glad that the ending to the tale is a happy one. My only complaints with the book are that it drags somewhat in the middle and Willa is a bit too passive for my taste, but I think I can live with that, considering that this book was written almost 25 years back. All in all, a nice, little mystery read :)

Home is not always where you left it..

A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley

For the past few months, I had been on a steady diet of fast-paced adventure and fantasy novels, full of swashbuckling action, thrilling chases or magical mayhem. Then, last week, I realized that Susanna Kearsley's "A Desperate Fortune" has been languishing on my bookshelf since last year, and decided to pick it up. I had read Susanna's "Mariana" as well as Slain's series before, and knew that she was an author who I definitely liked. Hence I picked up her latest book too.

However, I had reckoned without the fact that my reader's mind had, by this time, got accustomed to surprising twists and turns happening after every few pages of a book. Anyone who has read a Susanna Kearsley novel before, will know that her writing style is more exploratory and gently-paced, reminiscent of yesteryear's authors such as Mary Stewart. Her novels need to be savoured and not raced through in one sitting! So in the initial few chapters of "A Desperate Fortune", when nothing much happened, I kept getting distracted by other books on my TBR list. It's only because of my great respect for Susanna Kearsley's writing that this book didn't land up in my DNF pile. I'm now glad that it didn't, because my impatience would have caused me to miss a book whose characters I ended up liking.

This is a past-present book, like most of Susanna's latest novels, and alternates between the present- day France and France and Italy in 1732. It is a well-researched book, and Susanna devotes the first few chapters to setting the context carefully, before the actual story begins. I found the story and relationships in the past much more evolved than those in the present. For me, the book started getting really interesting after a certain Scottish character with dubious motives gets introduced in the past, but more on that later.

Sara Thomas has always known that she is different from the others, but it was her caring cousin Jacqui who helped her identify that she had Asperger's syndrome and trained her to cope with her condition. Over the years, Sara has learnt to tune her senses to be calm in social situations and to pretend to be normal. She has also discovered that she is good with numbers and complex codes, and enjoys working as a programmer and an amateur code breaker.

At a family wedding, Jacqui offers Sara an intriguing opportunity to work for a famous historian, Alistair Scott. Alistair is writing a new book on the Jacobite exiles, based in the period in British history when there were a series of unsuccessful rebellions in Scotland to restore the Stuart kings to the English and Scottish thrones. It seems that one of Alistair's friends has stumbled upon a diary written in 18th century which can provide him with valuable source material for his book. The only problem is that the diary is encrypted with some sort of a cipher which no one has been able to decode yet. Sara takes up the offer and travels to Chatou, a suburb on the outskirts of Paris, where the present owner of the diary, Claudine Pelletier, stays.

Chatou, France; Source: Wikipedia

On reaching the pretty Maison de Marronniers  or the "House of Chestnut Trees", Sara meets the polite but somewhat aloof photographer, Claudine, and her friendly, young housekeeper, Denise. She is not very happy to know that their next door neighbours are Luc Sabran, Denise's handsome ex-husband, and their nine-year-old son, Noah. Sara knows that she is incapable of socialising on a regular basis and wishes that she had absolute solitude while working on the diary. She also feels an unwelcome attraction to Luc and does her best to ignore it because she believes that she is bad at sustaining relationships, given her condition.

As she starts working on the diary, Sara realises that it belonged to Mary Dundas, a well-educated, young woman of Scottish origin, who was staying in the same region as the present-day Chatou, back in 1732. It is revealed from Mary's entries that her father was a supporter of the Jacobite Revolution and had left her to be raised by her well-off uncle and aunt in France. One day, her brother Nicolas, whom she barely remembers, comes and takes her from her uncle's house and sends her to Paris on a mission to provide cover for a fugitive who is working for the deposed Stuart king, King James. Nicolas assures her that there is no danger involved in her few weeks' stay in Paris, and that she will also be accompanied by a suitable, elderly chaperone and by her faithful dog, Frisque. Mary has always hungered for adventure and is excited to finally be able to leave her known surroundings. On the advice of another Jacobite supporter, she starts to encrypt her diary using a simple cipher, so that any information on the Jacobites that is contained there will stay hidden from prying eyes.

In the present, Sara struggles initially to break the so-called simple code. As she tries to solve the puzzle, she discovers, to her surprise, that she doesn't really mind being around Noah and the house cat, Diablo. She even takes Noah's help to understand the code. She also starts spending more time with Luke, exploring the sites and sounds of Chatou, and discovering that she actually enjoys his company. I liked Susanna's descriptions of the French town and of the nearby Chateau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Along with Sara, I savoured the quaint French customs such as celebrating Epiphany or the end of Christmas season with "king-cakes".

Chateau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France; Source: Wikipedia

In the past, Mary meets her kindly chaperone, Madame Roy, and Jacques, the supposed fugitive who is to pose as her brother in Paris. Jacques looks harmless enough, but Mary soon realises that all is not well. There is a sudden murder of a guest by an intruder and they have to flee across France, pursued by an unknown number of strangers bent of capturing Jacques. Susanna does a great job of peeling off the layers of the story gradually, and the reader is as mystified as Mary as to what is truly happening and  where they are actually bound for. Who is Jacques and why is he a fugitive pursued by the English? Who is the Scottish man, Mr. Macpherson - a murderer or a saviour? Who is Madame Roy? Who, out of these, can Mary really trust?

As the journey progresses and the story unravels, we see Mary growing up as a person - from a young, eager-to-please girl to a poised, confident young woman who is steadfast in her loyalties, convictions and affections. She has the unique ability to weave fairy tales inspired by the tales written by Madame d'Aulnoy, and invents enthralling, magical stories about a Chevalier to keep other passengers travelling with them distracted from her group's true purpose. Before reading this book, I had no idea of the existence of such beautiful fairy tales written primarily by French women writers in the late 1600s and early 1700s.

In the present, Sara too starts realising that she can be herself with Luc and Noah and lets go of her inhibitions. There are not one but two romances in the present, but somehow they did not grab me as much as the poignant relationship between Mary and the one she eventually ends up loving. The development of their relationship is a gradual, slow-burn kind of love, where words are hardly exchanged but every look, every touch is filled with profound meaning. In Mary's own words:

"He watched me from afar when he believed I could not see him. He followed me when he believed that I was not aware of it."

There are several memorable passages in this book, especially towards the end. Here's one I found very touching:

"How do you go from...fixing things, making things work, to --"

He finished the thought for her. "Killing them?"...She had expected his words to be bitter as well, but instead she had heard resignation in his level voice as he'd answered her, low, "Step by step."

"But surely, if you marked the steps as you made them, you could then turn around and retrace them and find your way back to the place you began," she had reasoned. "Like taking the road that you left by, and letting it lead you back home."

He had looked at her quietly. "Home is not always where ye left it."

This phrase stuck me as so true; not always in life can we retrace our steps back to where we were at the beginning of our journey - because circumstances have changed, surroundings have changed, and most importantly, we have changed by then. This is what Mary too realises at the end of her journey - that she cannot get back the relationships that she has lost. But along with that understanding, she also displays remarkable resilience and strength in her willingness to rebuild her life:

She felt a strange kinship with that ancient bridge that was forever being carried off in tiny pieces by the underlying current, and yet did not have the sense to yield, to let go of the shore and simply fall....

"Yet the bridge still stands, and surely every broken thing can be rebuilt."

While the present story is wrapped up quickly, the threads in the past take a bit longer to tie up and it is fitting that the book ends with Mary's thoughts:

Let currents flow and kingdoms fall and time move onward, Mary thought - this moment was for them....It mattered not that no one else would bear that moment witness nor remember it, for if the future could not know them, neither could the past confine them, and the choice was always theirs to make, the tale their own to finish...

Isn't that true for us all?