I think that the students in our school library need to hear lots of diverse voices and read stories and lives of many different kinds of people and experiences. When I inherited the library it was an incredibly sanitised space with only 'school readers' and project books on 'the railways' etc. Buying in books that will appeal to the whole range of our readers with diverse voices, eclectic and fascinating subject matter, and topics that will intrigue and fascinate them was incredibly important to me.
This is a book that I think our senior readers will enjoy very much indeed - not just because it's well written with an arresting voice that will really keep them reading and about a fascinating topic - but it's also a book that doesn't feel worthy or improving, it doesn't scream 'school library and treats them like young reading adults who have the right to explore a range of modern diverse reads that will grip and intrigue them and ensure that reading isn't something that they are just forced to do for their English project - this was a solid ten out of ten for me and I'm hoping that our students are as gripped and caught up in it as I was. It was one that I stayed up far too late reading and one that I'll be recommending to the staff as well as our senior students - thank you so much for the chance to read and review; I really loved it and can't wait to discuss it wth some of our seniors once they've read it too!

*Many thanks to Jacqueline O'Mahony, Quercus Books and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review*
This book spent far too much time on my shelf, for which I beg forgiveness, the more that it is an absolutely fascinating book dealing with the past and the present of Ireland through complicated lives of two women.
The two protagonists live one hundred years apart, have different life experience and handle their problems differently. What I liked a lot about the book was the theme of the house which connects them.
This book does not belong to the type described as page-turners, however, for me it turned out to be exactly this kind of a read.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Quercus Books, Riverrun and the author, Jacqueline O'Mahony, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of A River in the Trees in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
Unfortunately, while I did enjoy some parts of the storyline, I felt the overall telling was very slow. Not a book for me.

How much do we honestly know about Ireland’s bid for independence in 1919, I for one knew little or nothing until I read Jacqueline O’Mahoney’s A River In The Trees.

Now I love historical fiction but I don’t like the sort that overwhelms you with facts and the minutiae of events, happily A River In The Trees was not of those novels. It was a novel that instead concentrated on the human aspects of conflict, and loyalty, and in particular the life of Hannah, a woman whose strength and bravery shone from the pages. It was her tenacity, and sheer bloody mindedness that drew me to her, that had me enthralled from the start.

Yet, it wasn’t just a novel about Hannah, it was also the story of Ellen, a woman who travelled to Ireland, her home country to view the old family farmhouse where Hannah once lived. Ellen was broken, grieving for the longed for child that died and a marriage that is literally non-existent. Where Hannah was strong and resilient, Ellen was quite literally a mess, emotions all over the place and her decision making at times left me frustrated. I wasn’t entirely sure if I felt sorry for her, or just wished that she would pull herself together and get on with it. She did however redeem herself as she slowly uncovered the history of her family and it was this angle that was most intriguing as I slowly began to link the past and the present.

The dual timelines were seamless and the use of alternating chapters each told from Hannah and Ellen’s point of view added depth, O’Mahoney able to explore the emotions and events that impacted on the two women’s lives. Although I enjoyed Ellen’s story I felt more drawn to Hannah’s, and at times wanted to read more about but appreciated the balance the author embedded in the novel.

It wasn’t only the characters that had a role, the Irish landscape lent itself to the drama of Hannah’s story. You could imagine the isolation, the bleakness and hardships the landscape imposed, that provided the perfect hiding places for the rebel soldiers and hindered the Black and Tans intent on catching their prey. The modern landscape was perhaps not quite so bleak but O’Mahney’s descriptions of the abandoned farmhouse with the families furniture still in situ, instead provided the dramatic picture of a family who left in a hurry and perhaps not for good reasons.

What I admired most about A River In The Trees was the slow but intense pacing, the gradual intertwining of the past and the present, the unknown fate of Hannah and Ellen preying on your mind as you read.

It was a novel that successfully balanced the history of a divided country with that of the pressures of modern life, of the cost to those personally involved, but with glimmers of hope that flickered throughout.

It was a novel that enthralled and one that I would highly recommend.

Just before the War of Independence in Ireland, in 1919, Hannah O’Donovan’s family are on the side of the rebels, a stance the consequences of which are far-reaching. A hundred years later, Ellen’s life is falling apart and when she hears that the old family property is up for sale, she flees back, determined to buy it. Narrated in alternating chapters from alternating points of view, the two women’s lives start to intersect in a dramatic and gripping story that engaged me completely. It’s an amazingly accomplished debut novel, and one which I enjoyed very much. Some basic knowledge of Irish history enhances the reading, but even without it’s still an absorbing tale told with insight and empathy, and I heartily recommend it.

This tale in two timelines is more women's fiction than romance, but could have been better researched. In 2019 at the start, a woman buys a pack of ten cigarettes. I was wondering what country she is in, but she's in Ireland. Where packs of ten were made illegal in 2007.

I never took to the contemporary part but the historical time line is interesting; the Cork area in 1919 as independence and soon-to-be civil war are causing huge tensions. A comparatively well off farm family get involved when a rebel needs shelter. Here, I am not sure the date is accurate, as the Black and Tans were founded in 1919 but only got well established in numbers by 1920 and according to The History Learning Site they were sent to Ireland in March 1920. Local records would say exactly when they were sent to Cork. The modern half brings the traveller back to the farmhouse, which is now for sale.

Some readers will enjoy this more than I did, and it's always good to see fresh voices.
I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

Ireland in 1919. Hannah O’Donovan, aged nineteen, lives on her family’s farm. It is a time of political, nationalist turmoil in Ireland and her father is a supporter of the nationalist cause, keen to help activists escape from the hated Black and Tans who are hunting them down. When a trio of desperate IRA men arrive at their isolated farmhouse in West Cork, they are given shelter, and the trouble starts for the family.
The story alternates with that of Ellen, in 2019, one hundred years later. Overweight and in a troubled marriage to Simon in London, Ellen travels to Ireland to see the O’Donovan house, which is for sale, the same one that Hannah lived in a century ago. Ellen is a distant relative of Hannah, and grieving for her still-born daughter after a series of miscarriages and is very probably suffering from some form of post-natal depression. When she starts looking into her family’s past, she uncovers some surprises which challenge her own sense of identity
This is a novel about Irish and English identities – how you can never really shrug off your beginnings or your origins.
It is wonderfully well written and Jacqueline O’Mahony has a poetic vision that sees the beauty and the tragedy in all that we do, and a delightful narrative voice. Some of the characters (the men mostly) are perhaps a little too clichéd, such as her high-achieving husband Simon and the philandering estate agent, but both Hannah and Ellen throb with vitality and are excellently delineated – Hannah’s difficult and poor life in rural Ireland, her sparky, feisty character and the suffocating limitation and threats to her settled rural, limited life, are superbly portrayed and dissected. This is the author’s first novel; on the evidence of this book she is a writer with a great future.

This is a duel timeline book. It is based around a family mainly 2 members- be it 100 years apart 1918-2019. Like in all families it is about secrets, love, loss and conflict.
At first I did find it difficult popping from 1 era to the next however the more I read the more I found I enjoyed it and that you needed the duel timeline to make the story work.
It’s a good historical fiction.
I did enjoy this read.
Highly recommended
Thank you to both NetGalley and Quercus Books for my eARC of this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

Told from alternating points of view, the stories and experiences of the two women – Hannah in 1919 and Ellen in the present day – subtly mirror each other in some respects and provide contrasts in others. The author leaves it to the reader to make the connections or note the differences between how the two women respond to the events that unfold in their lives and the choices they make.

Ellen is a troubled, lost soul, seemingly suffering from a form of post-natal depression, who has turned to alcohol as an emotional crutch and reached a crisis point in her life. ‘I’m in a tunnel now, she thought – my life is narrowing down and down and behind me is every wrong decision I’ve ever made and ahead of me if only fear, and I can’t move forwards, and I can’t move back.’ The loss of their baby has exposed the pre-existing fissures in the relationship between Ellen and her husband, Simon. Their instincts, choices and responses to events seem so fundamentally different it is no surprise that their marriage is in trouble. (What is a surprise is that they married in the first place). ‘There was so much of Simon and he was so sure of himself and so unshakeable; he moved through his days like a ship moving through an icy sea, breaking through the ice before him, unaffected, untouchable.’ In a way, Ellen’s interest in Hannah’s story is a distraction from having to think about her own future. She has spent her whole life running away from things. ‘It is easier to leave, to disappear, she thought sadly. The harder thing is to stay and face yourself.’

The sections written from Ellen’s point of view, especially as she struggles to control her anxiety, evoked feelings of sympathy in this reader but she is a character it is difficult to really like. I felt more personally engaged in Hannah’s story and concern for how the unfolding events would affect her, especially as I was drawn to the historical aspects of her story. From fairly early on, the reader knows there is some mystery about what happened to Hannah – but will the answers be revealed by Hannah herself or by Ellen’s discovery of details about past events?

I found myself thinking as I was reading the sections from Hannah’s point of view that I wished I knew more (or perhaps should know more) about the history of Ireland in the early part of the 20th century. The reader gets a strong sense of Ireland and Irish identity from the way in which the author writes about its landscape, culture and history and the narrative and dialogue is gently permeated with the rhythm and vernacular of the Irish language. Through Hannah’s deeply felt connection with her family home and lands, and Ellen’s desire to own something that connects her to her ancestral roots, I was left with a sense of Ireland as a place that inhabits those who are born there, even if they move away.

The book is full of clever, skilful writing, imaginative language and evocative descriptions: ‘The ditches on either side were too high to see over. It was like descending into a sea of green water: the air was green, the sky overhead was green; the car was swimming through the greenness.’

A River in the Trees is an assured and impressive debut. From the dramatic opening scene, I found myself transfixed by the story it tells and I look forward to reading more from Jacqueline O’Mahony in future.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, riverrun, and NetGalley.

This is the type of book that I absolutely love! A dual timeline story seeped in interesting history and some fabulous characters makes it a perfect read for me.

The story follows Hannah in 1919 who helps her father fight for Irish independence and Ellen in 2019 who is struggling with life and wants to try and work through her problems by visiting her ancestry. Although both stories were interesting I did prefer Hannah’s story as she was the fiesty, independent character that I love to read about. Her guts and determination to fight for her family’s beliefs was wonderful to read about. I was completely on her side and really wanted there to be a good outcome for her and her family. That’s not to say Ellen’s story wasn’t interesting I just found it a little slower paced than Hannah’s and I didn’t take to her as a character straight away, finding her a little depressing. However I did warm to her as the story continued and it was very interesting to see her investigation into her past develop.

The author has a fabulous way of setting the scene for this book so that the reader can really picture it in their minds eye. The wonderfully vivid pictures of the Irish countryside along with the Irish language really helped to bring the setting to life for me. I sadly don’t know much about The War of Independence so I found the historical details very fascinating. The courage and bravery of the Irish people was wonderful to read about making what happens all the more poignant.

The story is quite fast paced and very absorbing. I found myself staying up to read a few more chapters of the book fully emersed in what was happening. The author shows great skill in weaving a fabulous story of war, bravery and ultimately betrayal which takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. It’s a story I felt very sad to have finished.

This is the first book by this author I have read and I really look forward to reading more from her in the future. If you like gripping, dual timeline historical fiction then you’ll love this book.

Huge thanks to Quercus for my copy of this book via Netgalley and to Ana from Quercus for inviting me onto the blog tour.

I just love Irish lit and books that feature politics - and her debut novel clearly proves that Jacqueline O'Mahony knows how to write a captivating story. In the book, she elegantly interweaves two storylines: In 1919, during the War of Independence, young Hannah helps her father to hide rebel soldiers on their farm , falls in love with a young IRA fighter (mind you: As I learnt, thanks to the book, the "Old IRA" is not the same IRA we know today) and gets pregnant - which is very shameful for a young unmarried woman at the time. 100 years later, the marriage of Hannah's relative Ellen disintegrates because of her depression, rooted in her inability to have children. Ellen decides to leave London and come back to her native Ireland and Hannah's old family home in order to find stability and direction by connecting to her ancestors: She wants to know what happened to free-spirited Hannah and her baby.

O'Mahony connects these narrative strands by mirroring and opposing events in Hannah's and Ellen's lives, and once you get the technique, every turn of the story will make you wonder whether there will be a contrast or a mirror image in the other narrative strand. This way of connecting storylines does not play at the same level as, let's say The Maze at Windermere with its 5 alternating timelines, and it's also less subtle, but it clearly is effective and makes for a fun read. What bothered me though where the unneccessary excursions into the field of chick lit: "I have been blind, and only now do I begin to see." *sigh* "The house was calling out to her now, calling her name." *double sigh* Sentences like that really take away from a story full of good ideas.

I would also have loved to learn more about the war, and the time between Hannah's disappearance and Ellen's birth - we get hints at the developments in Ireland and the repercussions for the family, but I wanted to learn more about the political and historical background (of course these infos might be superfluous for Irish readers, I can't judge that). All in all, I think the story would have profited from a more sober approach - sometimes there's an overload of emotional descriptions which burden the text, especially as I am sure that the emotional effect could have been achieved without writing über-obvious sentences like the ones cited above. But as I said: Many, many passages in the book prove that Jacqueline O'Mahony can write, and I will read her next book as well.

I'm in two minds about this book: I loved the historical part and was tempted to give up reading when it came to the part set in the modern times as the heroine grated on my nerves.
On a general level it's a very good book, well written and engaging.
The historical part is magic, you want to know more about the characters and you're sad when it's over.
The modern part seems to be written with the left hand and disjointed, like it was part of another book.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for this ARC

Jacqueline O'Mahony writes of two women from the same family set a hundred years apart, with a narrative that goes back and forth in time, from the present to the past. In 1919 in West Cork, Ireland, Hannah O'Donovan has her life splintered apart amidst Ireland's efforts to throw of the yoke of English rule with the War of Independence. She and her father become involved in offering refuge to Irish rebels in their home, endangering their family as the British make their presence felt in the area. There are inescapable repercussions on Hannah's life and that of her family with her relationship to the leader of the rebels, O'Riada. In 2019 in London, a griefstricken Ellen has marriage problems and has suffered the loss of her baby. She makes the decision to return home to Ireland and deal with the issues that resulted in her departure from the country. She is drawn to the past and her ancestor, Hannah, but she is faced by silence from the family. Why?

This is a story of family, love, loss, betrayal, deceit, secrets that span across time. O'Mahony's historical fiction elements of the novel are atmospheric and stunning. It held my attention, and had me completely gripped, with the horrors of war laid out, the characters and the lack of integrity displayed by the English Army. In comparison to this, the present day parts of the story are lacklustre and struggle to hold its own with the past, which is a shame. I recommend reading this novel for the historical parts, readers will not regret reading A River in the Trees for this, here the author showcases her considerable writing talents. Perhaps in her next book, O'Mahony might like to purely focus on historical fiction as in this area she excels. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

Two women from the same family,but years apart.
To be honest,this felt like two completely seperate books.
One of them,set in 1919 was interesting. Some history thrown in about the fighting Irish,some soldiers,scandal.... nicely written.
The second part,set in present day,for me,didn't add much to the book.
I was glad to have those chapters over and be back to the farm.

This book is a very beautiful tale that's divided into 2 time periods. One is in 1919 and the other is in 2019.
I liked the writing overall, and it was a solid book. However, there were parts that was lingering and didn't touch my heart a lot. Probably, I liked the part in history and couldn't feel much in present day.
I would definitely read from this author in the future. Her characterisation and historical fiction strength was obvious. I wish it was fully in the past. It would make the book magical.

Thanks a lot to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This a book which falls into two halves: the first part set in Ireland, 1919, is superb - a tight, intense tale, lyrically and powerfully told, worthy of 5 stars.

Interspersed, though, is one of those stories of the modern descendents of the first tale, set in 2019, of which authors seem to be so fond... even when it does little other than fill space. This part was a 2 star experience for me.

It feels to me that the 1919 story was written from the author's heart, the 2019 narrative from her head. You could cut the whole of the latter from the book and far from losing anything, would have a tauter, starker tale made more beautiful by its purity and lack of distractions.

Hannah in the 1919 story is a heroine with whom I fell in love, and the narrative is written in achingly gorgeous prose, full of the cadences of Irish speech. It's a brutal tale of acts of war, not least the shameful behaviour of the English army in Ireland, and betrayal on all kinds of levels. It reads effortlessly: character, plot, language, atmosphere all woven together seamlessly. Such a shame, then, that this magnificent story keeps being forcibly interrupted by the uninteresting 2019 sections... It's a common mistake of debut novelists, trying to cram in too much - how sad that an editor or early reader didn't pare this one back.

Still, the 1919 story is outstanding and crafted perfectly - O'Mahoney is definitely on my watch-list.