Margot Sorrell lives in Edinburgh in Scotland, she left home when she was sixteen and she's estranged from her family. She receives a text message from her sister Lucy, she needs her to return to England and she’s getting married. The three sisters Eve, Lucy and youngest Margot grew up running around their parents Kit and Ted’s seventeenth century property in Somerset, it’s in a beautiful location, by the river, the sisters were close, now secrets and tension within the family have kept them apart.

Lucy and Tom have decided to get married, giving everyone a week’s notice and are holding their wedding at Windfalls. Eve’s in her element, she planned her own wedding and she offers her assistance to help her sister Lucy. Things begin to get a little tense, Lucy wants a very casual wedding, Eve gets rather exasperated and when Margot arrives the situation escalates.

The tension in the family is from the past, they all have grievances against each other and some have secrets. Kit’s a rather free spirited person and unconventional, she found motherhood difficult, Ted suggested she try writing a book and she becomes a successful published author. Ted’s a playwright, his career was put on hold to raise the girls and sadly his relationship with Kit ended. When her parents separated Margot was the only child living at home, her mother became even more distracted and just when Margot needed her the most.
The wedding forces the whole family to be together, it’s a pressure cooker type of situation, everyone needs to get along for Lucy and Tom's sake, can they move on from the mistakes of the past and tragic secrets will be revealed.

The River Home by Hannah Richell is an amazing story, it’s about a broken family coming together for a happy occasion, all the emotion that comes with it, trying to heal their fractured relationship and receiving unexpected news. You will need a box of tissues, it’s beautifully written, it tugs on your heartstrings in so many ways and I was sobbing at the end.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Hachette Australia in exchange for an honest review and five stars from me.

Margot is the youngest of three sisters. Rebellious and estranged she has no interest in returning to her childhood riverside home. But her sister, Lucy, is getting married and begs her to return. And behave.

This story winds its way through the lives of the family, but mostly Margot and how her relationship with her parents became so damaged. There are quite a few secrets that need to be told and long term pain to be healed.
I thought this was generally a good read, a little slow at times, and the characters could have been slightly better drawn, but it is not a difficult book to pick up when you find a comfy spot to sit with a cup of tea.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Margot Sorrell has been estranged from her family for several years, since she was sixteen in fact. Since then she has enjoyed a fairly uncomplicated life arranged mostly on her own terms.

Growing up in their country home beside the river was in many ways idyllic, and although Margot got along well with her two sisters, she was a bit of a loner inasmuch as she was often left out of activities and often felt excluded.
Her relationship with her mother was strained as she blamed her mother's lack of attention for the ultimate breakdown of her parents' marriage.
Margot's mother enjoyed some notoriety as a writer of popular fiction which kept her locked away for days at a time in her space, and left the family to fend for themselves. As a result the sisters formed a closer bond with their father.

So when, after so many years of absence, Margot received a message from her sister Lucy asking her to come home... "I need you"...she was torn.
She loved her sister and didn't want to let her down, but how would she face her mother again after all this time without talking, how would she cope with the memories such a visit was bound to dredge up?

Secrets, lies, and unuttered truths, all combine to make one very noxious cocktail... placed in a capsule of time...these facts develop the soul destroying qualities of any well guarded secret left to fester untended.

This is a very believable story of three sisters raised in the same family who all have very different memories of home and why they all turned out so differently...at least one of them.
I very much enjoyed reading this story and was totally absorbed in the family dynamics, it kept me wanting more.
I would definitely recommend this to my friends and others.
5⭐️s

Many thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy to read and review.

This novel is exquisite. I'm not sure why this has surprised me so much about it; Hannah Richell is an author whose work is known to me and highly appreciated. And yet, the depth in which this story has reached within me is unexpected. It is beautifully written: atmospheric and heartfelt with an honesty that is pierced with raw pain. The issues at the forefront of this novel are weighty but they are explored with attuned sensitivity whilst also retaining the gravity they deserve. This is a novel that invokes a range of emotions, indeed, I felt myself swinging from anger to despair and heartbreak to hope right the way through.


‘It’s something she learned years ago – the hard way – and that she knows she will never forget: even the sweetest fruit will fall and rot into the earth, eventually. No matter how deep you bury the pain, the bones of it will rise up to haunt you, like the sickly scent of those apples, like the echoes of a summer’s night, like the river flowing relentlessly on its course.’


The symbolism of the river within this novel cannot be underestimated. For Margot, it is the source of her trauma, but the complexity of this is threefold. Hannah Richell demonstrates how layered trauma can be; Margot's story has so much more to it than meets the eye. Her suffering affected me greatly. As her trauma came to light, the incredulity of no one noticing what Margot was going through at the time incensed me. But upon deeper reflection I was struck by something profound: as the reader, I had been given all the clues that Margot's family had, and yet, I was still shocked by what was revealed. I hadn't seen what was happening right before my eyes either, and all of a sudden, my rage at Margot's mother evaporated. We see what suits us, yes, but we also see what a person wants us to see. As humans, we all too often accept what is presented to us, satisfying ourselves with the answers to our paltry, “you're okay, aren't you?” Dismissing behaviour changes as stages a person might be going through, attributing it to what we know without seeking the answer to what we don't. This was intelligent writing, skilful on a whole other level. I am still in awe.


‘The silent river waits to embrace her. With a deep breath, she dives out towards its centre. The cold water claims her. The shock is electric. It envelops her traitorous body. As she pushes for the surface, she feels her wild, beating heart, her breath rising hot and urgent in her throat, her undeniable, incredible aliveness. She floats on the surface of the river and experiences a certain peace. She feels herself connected to the flow of life all around. Here I am, she thinks. Here I am.’


This is a story about a fractured family. There is still love, but there is anger and pain too. Blame as well. And so much misunderstanding. The characters were all fabulously crafted, authentically flawed, each with something about them that we were inclined to dislike, be it questionable morals, a tendency towards selfishness, self-sabotage, or ignorance to the effect of one’s own actions. I had a problem with each character at some point in time throughout the novel, but these flaws were balanced, as they are within humans, and so too did I accept them within these characters and move on. Hannah Richell appears to have an intimate understanding of human nature and the ability to articulate it through her characters, gifting us with these pop-up human beings on paper, people we become invested in and deeply attached to.


‘For too many years, this river has been a place of pain. Yet is also a place of joy. Perhaps, this place – this silent river – is all of these things. Or perhaps it is none. Perhaps it just is. Margot understands now that what she has been frightened of facing is not her mother’s studio, nor the river, nor Windfalls but the hurt place inside of her – the dark wound she has carried for so long. This is what Lucy has been asking her to confront. Joy. Pain. Life. Death. Each casts the other in sharp relief.’


The River Home is fiction at its best. There is nothing light and fluffy here, it is at times incredibly hard to get through without crying. But it's so worth it. After I finished reading, at 1am, I just sat there for about ten minutes, feeling the weight of the story and contemplating the path each of the characters had walked. This novel is haunting; brutally beautiful and the very best that fiction can be.



Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a review copy of The River Home.

Book blurb…
The river can take you home. But the river can also drag you under...
'It's something she learned years ago - the hard way - and that she knows she will never forget: even the sweetest fruit will fall and rot into the earth, eventually. No matter how deep you bury the pain, the bones of it will rise up to haunt you ... like the echoes of a summer's night, like the river flowing relentlessly on its course.'
Margot Sorrell didn't want to go home. She had spent all her adult life trying not to look behind. But a text from her sister Lucy brought her back to Somerset. 'I need you.'
As Margot, Lucy and their eldest sister, Eve, reunite in the house they grew up in beside the river, the secrets they keep from each other, and from themselves, refuse to stay hidden. A wedding brings them together but long-simmering resentments threaten to tear the family apart. No one could imagine the way this gathering would change them all forever. And through the sorrow they are forced to confront, there is a chance that healing will also come. But only if the truth is told.
The new novel from bestselling author Hannah Richell. A wise and emotionally powerful story of a broken family and the courage it takes to heal.

My thoughts...
PLOT
Well-constructed, full of conflict, a great read until the last page.
PACE
The first half of this story I felt was quite slow. Only because I have read the author’s previous books did I persist, convinced something wonderful was waiting. I was not disappointed. The last half of the story packed more than a punch.
LANDSCAPE
I do love vivid landscapes. But there was not a lot of time spent describing the river house or setting, which I had expected. The story focused on what happened in the river house.
CHARACTERS
Each of these characters are well-rounded and with good internal conflict.
Margot was the primary character and I did struggle to understand why she didn’t want to help herself until that second half of the story.
OVERALL FEELINGS ABOUT THE STORY
I enjoyed this book and hope other readers persist and don't let the slow start stop them because they will miss out on a great story about characters with some major baggage to unpack.

“The memory brings an ache - nostalgia for the past, when everything felt so simple and uncomplicated, for a time when they didn’t have to let go of anything more weighty than dandelion seeds.”

I have been eagerly anticipating my first book of Hannah’s and I was not disappointed. The River Home is a story about family secrets, past and present, and the impact it has on the various members. With a strong focus on the three sisters, events slowly unravel over the course of the novel with far reaching ramifications.

The story moves between past and present with Hannah masterfully moving all the puzzle pieces, slowly revealing the fallout from each of the various characters' interactions over the years. Can this dysfunctional family, broken apart through miscommunication and failure to be honest, heal itself? A story of several characters is easy to follow thanks to Hannah’s skill in writing - each being so real and their individual tale, as part of the whole, is seamlessly presented. Overall themes of tragedy and heartbreak make you wonder if they will each find their closure and be able to move on. The plot lines speak to the heart and you will reflect and ponder how you may have reacted when in such dire circumstances.

What is so appealing about this novel when there are a plethora of books out there on dysfunctional families? It all comes down to how engaging Hannah's writing is. Her eloquent prose is engaging with its imagery and nuances to make it feel as if you are sitting at the kitchen table as events unfold - a spectator to both the joy and grief. Featured throughout is the river ... symbolic as it too winds its way through events with a role of its own to play.

“She would never, ever utter a word about what happened that night, down by the river.”

The River Home by Hannah Richell is an emotional mystery, filled with family drama - from the longfelt bitterness and resentment to the hope of a brighter future.

“You’re not empty. You’re afraid. Let yourself feel. Let yourself feel it all. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“I’m afraid I will crack”.
“If you crack, perhaps you might start to heal?”
“What if I don’t? What if I break?”
``Then I will be here to hold the pieces.”




This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

The River Home is the fourth book by Hannah Richell and as soon as I saw it was releasing I knew that I wanted to read it. All of her novels have been an emotional journey and this one is no different.
Fractured families, long held secrets and a vein of suspense that I kept thinking I had a handle on, but it was so much more than I ever could have imagined, make for an emotionally engaging read that will not leave you untouched.
Margot Sorrell has been running from her past all of her adult life; in the move away from her family and childhood home and her refuge in a vodka bottle. She avoids returning home where she can but the summons for a last minute wedding is not one that you can ignore, especially followed up with a text from her sister that reads ‘I Need You’.
There is an absolute wealth of baggage being carried by this family, it’s a surprise they function as well as they do to be honest, but for all of their history there is also a lot of love.
Margot is the youngest of three sisters, the enigmatic and elusive one with one monumental mistake in her past that no-one can understand, or move past. Lucy is the impulsive and free-spirited middle child getting married on a week’s notice and Eve is the level-headed eldest who has always taken it upon herself to be responsible for everyone.
Richell explores the day to day minutiae of family life for a working wife and mother of two and I found Eve to be relatable though some of her decisions were certainly not ones I would have made. Her plate is full to overflowing with extracurricular responsibilities and parts of her life are starting to suffer, this is something I’m sure many women are going to be able to relate to.
The girls grew up in a rambling old home alongside the river in a far from average family dynamic. Their father was a promising playwright who has found the words to be stilted and the inspiration a struggle to find. Their mother, on the other hand, is the bestselling K.T. Weaver, author of a racy fantasy series that is secretively passed around between the teenage girls at school. It seems that as Kit’s career has taken off her husbands star has waned and the girls are often left out in the cold at the hands of Kit’s muse as she forgets events and closets herself away in the old apple store on the river that Ted transformed into a studio for her when she was struggling to find herself in the early days after Eve’s birth.
Kit and Ted have separated, Margot is living her life far from the family home, Eve is caught up in the neverending demands of family life and Lucy decides she needs to bring them all back together for her whirlwind wedding, hoping that somehow they can start mending the rifts that threaten to always keep them apart.
Richell helps us navigate the tricky terrain that is this family’s dynamic while slowly feeding us flashbacks to how this came to be.
Margot was a tough character to crack, from the beginning you could tell that there was something there behind her distance, behind the event that came between her and Kit. I knew it was something big and the further we got into the story the more I started to think about what it could have been. I had an idea, and it turns out that I wasn’t wrong…. but I also only scratched the surface of what was locked up behind her walls.
Richell handled that whole story arc with great sensitivity and wove the suspense to perfection. I enjoyed the way it all became clear but it was certainly not easy to read and is sure to trigger some people. I am not going to say any more about that because we are encroaching on spoilers and I don’t want to do that.
The only issue that I have with this book is the ending. Personally, I would have loved a little more because the story just stopped; leaving me wanting to know how the next few hours played out. At the same time, it makes perfect sense to end that way because it leaves the reader to take the characters where they think it will go to next.
The truth shall set you free, and only then can the healing begin. The River Home explores secrets, the walls we build to protect ourselves, the pain of loss and the way that we all handle that in our own private ways but at the end of the day you need to have those you love around you to support you through that process.
I loved these characters, though some of them I didn’t always like very much, and I love the journey they all took through the pages. Margot was definitely my favourite character and I would really like to know what happens for her next but if I have to imagine it I think I’ll give her a happy ending.
Hannah Richell writes pain and grief with heart, sensitivity and honesty and I am confident that her books are always going to be emotional reads that will leave you changed. She definitely gets better with every book.

Book #7 for #AWW2020

EXCERPT: 'Lucy, I know you're all for straight talking, but I don't think now is the time -'

'If not now, then when?' She turns to Eve in frustration. 'Now is the time, don't you see? Now is all we have. We've spent far too much time tiptoeing around each other, I think Margot needs to know -'

'She knows, Lucy.' Eve gestures to where Margot stands. 'Look, she knows.'

Lucy turns back to Margot and sees her standing crumpled in on herself. She is bent over with her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking.

'Margot?'

She doesn't answer.

'Margot? Are you -'

But before she can say anything else, Margot has spun on her heel and fled the marquee.

Eve throws Lucy a worried look. 'Well done, Luce.'

Lucy sighs and throws her hands up. 'Somebody had to say it.' She stares after Margot, at the light falling through the opening of the tent, wishing she could shine a light on the secrets her sister seems hell-bent on keeping. 'What do you think she meant?' she asks, turning back to Eve. 'The real truth? What was she talking about? What didn't we see?'

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Margot Sorrell didn't want to go home. She had spent all her adult life trying not to look behind. But a text from her sister Lucy brought her back to Somerset. 'I need you.'

As Margot, Lucy and their eldest sister, Eve, reunite in the house they grew up in beside the river, the secrets they keep from each other, and from themselves, refuse to stay hidden. A wedding brings them together but long-simmering resentments threaten to tear the family apart. No one could imagine the way this gathering would change them all forever. And through the sorrow they are forced to confront, there is a chance that healing will also come. But only if the truth is told.

MY THOUGHTS: Families....we take them for granted, but when the chips are really down, it is usually the family who are there. But what happens if one day they aren't......? Is there any way back?

Families are complex entities. We love them. We hate them. We treat them badly. We expect to be loved by them. No matter what. Complex. There is always someone who feels the odd one out. In this case, it's Margot, the youngest. She doesn't feel 'seen', and I can quite see why. But when her family calls, she comes.

Hannah Richell is masterful in the creation of her characters; every nuance of them is so real that I live her books as I read them. The River Home is no exception. The plot is exquisitely intricate and swaps from the past, starting in 2005, to the present. Hurt feelings and misunderstandings are layered one atop the other, the writing powerfully emotional. You will need tissues. When I closed the cover on this book, tears were running silently down my face, happy/sad tears, tears of sorrow, tears of joy, and the feeling that I had read yet another wonderful offering from this author overwhelmed me.

I love this author. Another book I will be adding to my personal collection in hard copy.

****.5

#TheRiverHome #NetGalley

'Grief is confounding, wild and unpredictable.'

'We can hold ourselves so tightly. We build our protective walls and set ourselves apart. But what I see more and more is how much we all need each other.'

'The past can have a funny way of haunting us if we don't face it head on.'

THE AUTHOR: Hannah Richell was born in Kent, England and spent her childhood years in Buckinghamshire and Canada. After graduating from the University of Nottingham in 1998 she worked in book publishing and film. Hannah began to write while pregnant with her first child. The result was Secrets of the Tides, picked for the 2012 Richard & Judy Book Club, the Waterstones Book Club and shortlisted for the Australian Independent Bookseller Best Debut Fiction Award, ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year (2013) and ABIA Newcomer of the Year (2013). The novel has been translated into sixteen languages. Her follow-up novel was The Shadow Year and her third, The Peacock Summer, was published in 2018.

Hannah has written for a number of media outlets including Harper’s Bazaar, The Independent, Fairfax Media and Australian Women’s Weekly. She is a dual citizen of the UK and Australia, though currently lives in the South West of England with her family.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Hachette Australia for providing a digital ARC of The River House by Hannah Richell for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon and my webpage

A local friend was raving about Hannah Richell's writing (and books) and I had to admit I hadn't read any.

Thankfully I'd requested her latest and I can see why my fellow-avid-reader loves her work. Her writing is stunning. I'm not a very visual person so some of her incredibly descriptive prose is probably wasted on me, but she strings words and phrasing together in an almost lyrical fashion. As if it comes easily. 

This book unfolds from the points of view of all family members... the three daughters, their eccentric author mother, Kit and their father Ted (a playwright who's remarried).

Their relationships are complicated and Margot's arrived home after not seeing her mother for eight years, having left under a cloud at 16yrs of age after her parents divorced.

I was actually really surprised that everyone dumped on poor 24yr old Margot so much. I kinda guessed at the supposedly 'evil' thing she'd done at 16, but it felt kinda weird no one wondered more about the why. It didn't quite gel for me so there was a sense of implausibility over the events of the past. It meant that -  despite Richell's beautiful words - I probably wasn't quite as enthralled as I could have been. This would certainly have been a 4.5 star read if so.

We're given insight into all of the characters as each narrates part of the story and I probably identified more with some than others - which I expect is the point. I initially found the head-hopping a little disconcerting but think having the half-a-dozen narrators interrelated (metaphorically and literally!) meant that there is a consistent pacing and flow to their story.

Those minor gripes aside....  from the prologue I was smitten by Richell's writing.

I was reminded of my compulsion to bookmark all of Favel Parrett's There Was Still Love opening pages; and how I'm always in awe of (though slightly intimidated by) Tim Winton's descriptive prose as well as those of Eliza Henry Jones, Sofie Laguna and Chris Hammer, and their ability to firmly place us somewhere else entirely.

Though I wasn't entirely convinced by the likelihood of some of the backstories, I very much enjoyed the way in which Richell examines the relationships here: those between the sisters themselves and individually with their mother and father, and then with the other loves in their lives.

This is a beautifully bittersweet novel and I look forward to reading more of Richell's stunning writing.

This is Hannah Richell’s fourth novel and it’s the story of a family with cracks. Eve, Lucy and Margot are sisters. Margot fled the family years ago and has rarely been seen since. However for the occasion of a wedding, refusing to attend is not really an option and so Margot finds herself back in her childhood home, back with the mother that resents her, a father that lives somewhere else now and two sisters that want to know why she left, why she did what she did, something that Margot has never been able to confide. She promises to be on her best behaviour though, not to stir anything up for the length of her stay. But sometimes, some promises are too difficult to keep.

Margot is in her mid-20s, she left home at 17 or so and has made her own way ever since. She’s obviously very angry about something and also hurting badly. She did something incredibly awful before she left, something that people can’t seem to get their heads around. Now Margot is back, her sister Lucy is getting married and everything is being planned in about a week, which is quite Lucy-esque. She’s a free spirit and it’s up to older sister Eve to assume to responsible role, organising catering and the marquee, drinks, music, flowers etc. The sisters seem to have some clearly defined roles and even as adults, they cannot seem to escape them.

Margot’s story comes out quite slowly – the book takes great care to fill in the background of the sisters’ parents, Kit and Ted and how they met, came to be together and their early years in the country home. Also how their roles reversed, how it was suddenly Kit that was the breadwinner and Ted fulfilled the day to day parenting role. The girls struggled with connecting to Kit as they grew up – she was always buried in her work, rarely ‘present’ in the way that they longed for. She forgot important things, she abandoned plans to work. They didn’t have friends over because she couldn’t be counted on not to do something embarrassing, like show up in the middle of the day in her pyjamas, or barely dressed at all. Her sisters being older meant that they left to go to college and live adult lives, which left Margot on her own, especially after their father moved out with the breakdown of the relationship. For Margot, this was just the beginning of her pain and it’s something you can see coming before it unfolds, although I didn’t actually expect it to be as deep and as severe as it was – not did I expect the staggering consequences and all of a sudden, Margot’s actions before she leaves home make sense with cold clarity.

This is a wonderfully written book, a book that deeply explores a fractured family and dissects their pain. The pain isn’t over either, because there are several revelations at the end of the novel, from both the past and also one that revolves around the present, that are incredibly distressing. There are a couple of scenes within this book that I feel would be incredibly difficult for some people to read, especially those that have experienced one or both of those incidents. It’s really hard to say this without spoiling the story, because it’s important in terms of why Margot….became the Margot of the present. They’re both vital pieces of the journey that led to her estrangement, the resentment she felt, the self-loathing, the destruction and they give the reader understanding to her actions, they make it very clear how much pain she was in and how no one really noticed. She had changed deeply, most I think putting it down to the changed living circumstances at the house, no one really tried to find out precisely why she was behaving the way she was and then it was basically too late. However that doesn’t change the fact that the scenes are really very confronting, quite graphic (especially the latter one). And for me, Lucy’s story is deeply affecting.

Hannah Richell creates an incredible atmosphere, an incredibly intriguing family and set of circumstances and lobs a few grenades that keep the story moving. I was so keen to find out the answers, what had happened both in the past and what was driving the plot forward in the future. It was gripping from start to finish.

8/10

When Margot Sorrell received the text from her sister Lucy, saying “please come home, I need you”, she knew she had to return to Lucy’s side. The heartbreak of the past that she’d buried so deeply wouldn’t stop her returning to the family home and celebrating Lucy’s sudden and unexpected wedding. The estrangement from her mother Kit, the tension with her father, her need to see their eldest sister Eve – surely for a few days Margot could hold it all together.

Windfalls was the home they had all grown up in. Situated beside the river that had featured so largely in their childhood; their lives - still flowing silently as it always had. Could Margot spend the following few days with her family in a place that held good memories as well as bad? For Lucy she would do her best. But immediately it seemed it would be harder than she thought it would be. The bitterness and anger were still there, the heartache and confusion still on their faces. Would Margot ever find peace again?

The River Home by Aussie author Hannah Richell was an emotional read about a family broken, seemingly beyond repair, and the courage and love it takes to mend what many years had shattered. A beautiful story which tugged at the heartstrings, The River Home is one I highly recommend.

With thanks to Hachette AU and NetGalley for my ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Being a fan of Hannah Richell’s previous novels I was excited to receive a copy from Netgalley to read & review ahead of publication. Three sisters reunite at their childhood home Windfalls in Somerset after Lucy sends estranged sister Margot a text saying she is getting married a few days later, & the words I NEED YOU. Reunited the sisters & their separated parents grapple to rebuild their connections as secrets from the past are revealed. As the story evolves with chapters from the past & the present, we get to know each of the characters. The author brings each character to life so well you want, almost need, their story to be revealed. This well written family drama of a dysfunctional family is heart wrenching in places & although I didn’t reach for the tissues, some may.

‘I need you.’

Sisters Eve, Lucy and Margot Sorrell grew up at Windfalls, a seventeenth century house by a river, in the English countryside. Lucy is to be married (a spur of the moment decision), Eve is exasperated (but handling the organizational aspects) and Margot has returned home (reluctantly). There’s tension between family members, secrets (both present and past), resentments carried from the past.

‘What is it about a homecoming that can strip a person of all that they have become?’

Slowly the story unfolds. Events from the past need to be acknowledged while each of the women, and their parents, deal with their own lives as well as the wedding arrangements. Why is Lucy getting married in such a hurry? What does Margot need to apologise for? And what about Eve?

The story moves between present and past, gradually information is revealed. This family has broken apart because of secrets, can it be reunited? Tragedy and human frailty are part of this story, as is courage and determination. Well-developed characters facing issues many can relate to, doing the best they can, given what they know. Be warned: parts are sad, and tissues may come in handy. A novel to read slowly, to think about and to reflect on.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This is a story of a family broken apart by the secrets they keep from each other. One family member, for her own personal reasons, tries her hardest to bring the family back together. It is a very emotional book. Keep the tissue box handy.

Hannah Richell writes well and she works hard to produce well rounded characters who you can become attached to and care about. As the secrets come out and confrontations and accusations begin, no one character is all good or all bad. They are, as we all are, struggling with human frailties and doing the best they can at the time.

The author exposes the past and the secrets a tiny bit at a time throughout the story. This serves to make the book practically unputdownable as you develop a desperate need to know what happened. I carried on reading very late into the night because I just had to finish it.

In my opinion, a good book, well written and definitely worth a read.

I really enjoyed the story of the three sisters and the unraveling of their secrets as the plot unfolds. I really enjoy books where characters have secrets and we get to learn them along with the other characters in the book and this book does that so well. The pace is well done as you want to keep reading to find out the secrets that they have been keeping. A flashback is well woven through of the parents life and I enjoyed this part of the book a lot. I especially enjoyed Margot’s story as she has the biggest secret of all the sisters and I found her character interesting and I wanted to know more about her. The reasons for the secrets were interesting and relatable to the audience. The characters felt real and you wanted to get to know them more as the book unfolds. This is a great book and I hope you enjoy it too. Happy reading ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5