This is such a heartbroken book. The story is told over a dual timeline. I like the authors writing style. It made the story very suspenseful. A good book

An evocative tale of how much the world wars cost in human lives left bereft and saddened when young men left and never returned. The story centers on two sisters and how they survived when so many did not. Their history will be discovered when their niece finds letters and pictures of the sisters before and after the war.

A beautifully woven tapestry of love, loyalty, secrets and sacrifice, Suzanne Goldring’s latest novel The Shut-Away Sisters is an extraordinary historical novel from this fabulous storyteller.

London, 1915 and the war has changed the world beyond all recognition. In the East End, hungry children queue for rations and bombs fall on the city with alarming frequency. The war has made fifteen year old Florrie grow up fast, especially with her dad fighting in the trenches and her sister Edith becoming more and more subdued. When Florrie discovers that Edith is sneaking out in the middle of the night, she decides to follow her, however, little does she realise that what she is about to discover will end up rocking the foundations of her already fractured world. Yet, Florrie has no choice but to keep her sister’s secret because if somebody finds out what Edith is hiding, their lives simply will not be worth living.

Years later, Kate is nursing a broken heart. In desperate need of distraction, she begins sorting out the house her aunts Florrie and Edith shared. Looking through their wartime photographs, Kate is struck by the change in her aunt from a young and hopeful girl with smiling eyes to a hollow-cheeked young woman with an aura of sadness and despair. Determined to find out what had caused the pain in her aunt’s eyes, Kate begins to dig into her family’s past and finds an extraordinary secret that will force her to revaluate everything she thought she knew about her aunts.

Can old ghosts ever be laid to rest? Or will her aunts’ sacrifices end up having shocking repercussions that will end up echoing down the decades?

Suzanne Goldring simply never fails to pen immersive, emotional and captivating historical novels that bring to life the courage, adversity, triumphs and tragedies ordinary people went through during the war and she once again does this beautifully in The Shut-Away Sisters. As always with a Suzanne Goldring novel, I found myself completely gripped by this beautifully told story of loyalty, secrets, hope and despair and found myself reaching for the tissues on plenty of occasions.

An outstanding writer who pens historical novels that are impossible to forget, The Shut-Away Sisters is another superb tale from Suzanne Goldring’s talented pen.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed reading it the plot was interesting and the characters made me want to know more about them. I highly recommend.

The Shut-Away Sisters by Suzanne Goldring is my first read by this author.
It is absolutely a heart-breaking read and leaves you questioning why life can be so unfair sometimes.
A dual timeline, we find ourselves spending time with Kate in modern times, she has just gotten out of a bad relationship and taking a break from a workhorse of a boss to clear out her recently deceased aunt Florrie's house for her father.
In past times her father grew up as the youngest child with two older sisters, that are seven years apart. When Florrie was fifteen years old her older sister Evie's beau Frank goes off to fight in WWI leaving her sad, lonely and waiting for him. The waiting turns into years and Evie becomes reclusive, rarely leaving her room, eating little while writing letters to her beau and poetry.
Years go by the parents pass away, the brother goes off to fight in the war and Florrie becomes the caretaker of Evie who has become an invalid. Florrie has a chance at marriage but feels obligated to care for her older sister as they spend the rest of their days together in this house.
It is an intriguing book to read as we see Kate discover a locked door in her aunt's house. What secrets will she uncover upon entering the unknown room. Very suspenseful book, the more I read the more I discovered and the more my heart broke.
I need more books by this author, NOW. All the rest of her books are on my wish list.

Pub Date 29 Jun 2021
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Lots of potential which was sadly unmet. It was interesting enough but ultimately a very forgettable read which I wouldn't recommend. However the writing was strong enough that I would consider reading her work again in future.

I absolutely loved this book! It was such a captivating read! I couldn’t stop reading! I loved the characters and the story! Highly recommend!

If you're a fan of historical fiction then 'The Shut-Away Sisters' is another great book to add to your pile. It is a thrilling, heartbreaking and captivating story that will keep the reader reading in a single sitting.

I very much enjoyed this read. The different lives entertaining together, the story of florrie especially intrigued me. Great easy read!

Thank you for the chance to read this book - to Netgalley, the publisher and the author

This is a new author for me and I found the book slow to get into - in fact I had a couple of attempts to read it.. Hence the long time for the review.

Its an interesting story but wasnt really for me for some reason.

Thank you again

After the death of her great aunt Florrie, Kate moves into Florrie's house to help sort out her things. While cleaning out the house, Kate discovers family secrets her aunt tried to keep buried. This one was a little slow for me in the middle, and I figured out the secret a few chapters before the big reveal. But I did generally enjoy the story, and how the two generations of the family were connected through the dual timelines.

I am a huge fan of this author. I’ve read all of her books (links to those reviews at the bottom), which have all featured WWII. I was very excited to see that she went further back to WWI for this story.
As with several Historical Fiction novels, there are two storylines, one historical and one contemporary. And, as usual, there is the draw of trying to figure out how the two are connected. In this instance, the connection is pretty clear.
From the blurb and other reviews that recount the plot, the reader knows that Kate (contemporary, 1999) has had a personal crisis and is asked by her father to help clean out his Aunt Florrie’s house, and she is the voice of the historical storyline.
The way Florrie’s storyline is told is clever. It took me a bit to make the connection to an early chapter, but once I did, the story flowed. The method allowed for Florrie’s voice to be clear and her attitudes to color the retelling of her story (which makes sense).
Now that we have the basics out of the way, I want to talk about specific things that jumped out at me.
I found the parallels between Florrie and Kate to be intriguing. As Kate struggles with the stresses of work and rebuilding her personal life, so does Florrie struggle with the events of her time. It’s not a spoiler to say that because of the timeframe, Florrie has to deal with WWI, the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, and post-war troubles.
There is a commonality in the way that each woman handles their particular issues. I liked this, because family has always told Kate that she looks like Edith, but it is clear that her mettle is solely Florrie.
I thought that the historical timeline was much more fleshed out than the contemporary one. In spite of all of the tribulations, there was a lyrical sense to Florrie’s account of history, and those chapters lulled me right into her world.
In other words, there is sometimes a jolt between contemporary and historical timelines in books of this genre. That wasn’t the case for me here. Each time we went back to Florrie, it was literally like stepping back easily into time.
The author did a phenomenal job of recounting the little things of the period. Yes, WWI and the 1918 Spanish Flu were horrific, but so where the countless repercussions that each of them caused.
Men who didn’t want to fight in the first place and then who weren’t released from service post-war, families that were dealing with the double hit of war and illness…not to mention the longer-lasting after-effects of war, including mustard gas.
But where the author really excelled was the slow mental decline of a person who could not face reality. I don’t want to say too much and give away an excellent part of the story. But the way the sisters are written showed two very different approaches to dealing with adversity.
Kate’s storyline seemed almost inconsequential at times, and I think that might have been on purpose. While living in Florrie’s house, she gets to know the people of the neighborhood and realizes how trivial and superficial her knowledge of people can be.
Indeed, it’s a realization that should wake us all up – previous generations have faced much more challenging times and come through them. Although, given the events of the past in this book, not everybody came through them intact and better off.
I know I’m kind of rambling but points just keep popping into my head that I think are important. For example, around WWI, it was important for young women to find a beau and get married young.
But what happens to a woman when her chosen suitor goes off to war? And what happens when that war almost decimates a large portion of the male population? What is a woman supposed to do then? Again, Florrie and Edith have two very different approaches.
I did think that the end of both storylines seemed rather abrupt. The event that essentially ends Florrie’s part (and finally ties the two time periods together) served its purpose in that there was a sense of resigned fatefulness for her – there was nothing more that could be said or done…so there wasn’t. It became what it ended up being.
I promise that all makes sense in the book.
For Kate, it also seemed a tad hasty. I would have liked to see a comeuppance of her sisters-in-law, for example. As it was, they (and her brothers) just sort of faded away. The same could be said with Florrie’s brother. Although, the reader does have to make some connections to realize his importance in the story even though it isn’t specifically spelled out.
This is probably the longest review I have written. I have so much more to say about this book, because each time I think about it, I find some other parallel, or something else that struck me.
I guess that’s the sign of a really good book – it continues to make you think long after the last page has been read. This definitely qualifies.

I'm a huge fan of this author since she wrote MY NAME IS EVA! Her characterisation is fantastic and her descriptive prose is just beautiful and evocative beyond words. I will read everything she writes as long as she's writing it!

A great dual timeline story of 1915 and 1999 and I really enjoyed both the present day and historical aspect of it. The book was full of good characters and it made a refreshing change for it to be a WW1 story rather than WW2, plenty of action and hidden secrets made it compelling reading

I fell in love with Suzanne Goldring’s writing after reading The Girl Without a Name. Goldring just has this style that easily draws you right in and immerses you in her wonderfully crafted and oftentimes heartbreaking stories. Goldring’s newest release, The Shut-Away Sisters follows in those same footsteps and is once again another five star read for me.

The story shifts between dual timelines from the present 1999 and the past 1915 during WWI.
Kate, in the present, has been living with her boyfriend, Dave, for the past five years. But, all of that changes when Kate realizes Dave is not the man she fell in love with. Licking her wounds, she comes back to her family home while she decides on her future and what all that entails. In the meantime, her father gives her the keys to her great aunt Florrie’s home. The home Florrie shared with her sister, Edith, who has already passed on. Florrie is not far behind as she is now in the hospital and the end is quite near. Kate’s father gives her the task of documenting and categorizing the contents of the Florrie’s and Edith’s home and here is where she finds a locked room in the house. What secrets does this room hold? Florrie and Edith share their own secrets and have for many years. Their story is told from the time they were young in 1915 during the war and they are interwoven with Kate’s story in the present.

I have to say I really love the dual storyline between the past and the present. I definitely do not read a lot of books that center around World War I either, so this was refreshing and yet heartbreaking to read about. War changes people and not only just the soldiers who fought in the war, but also the people left at home…mothers, sisters, sweethearts, etc. The war affected everyone. This is plainly shown with Florrie and Edith and how they had to make sacrifices during this time such as food rationing and also how they feared the fate of their loved ones sent off to war. The war isn’t the only thing they have to worry about either. The Spanish Flu is also gaining momentum and wiping out people in their communities. Life during this time is definitely not easy especially for Florrie and Edith. Florrie really steps up here and makes one of the biggest sacrifices of all. Is this really where the story of two sisters begins?

If you love a story that pulls you in, character driven, and both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, then you definitely do not want to miss The Shut-Away Sisters by Suzanne Goldring. This story is another top read for me for the year.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book for an honest review.

Sweet story with dual timelines - Florrie and Edith during and after WW1 and their great-neice Kate in 1999. I found myself really disliking Edith but Florrie is delightful!

Through a series of diaries, letters and poems found in the old home of two aunts she had barely known, Kate Miles uncovers the history of the reclusive spinsters through WWI and the post-war era. In 1999, reeling from her lover’s infidelity, Kate uses the house as a stop-gap refuge. Amongst the aunts’ belongings is a hand-stitched, carefully wrapped wedding dress and new linen sheets folded and tied with ribbon, which a long-time neighbour tells Kate are ‘bottom drawer’ contents. Moving episodically between the diary and the present-day, Golding examines the sisters’ lives – Florrie, age ten in 1915, a diligent and sensitive child who helps her mother with daily tasks, and Edith, seven years Florrie’s senior, who spends the war years brooding for her soldier boyfriend. Alone in her room and refusing any social interaction with the outside world, Edith writes endlessly. Long after the war, and still pining, she engages in secretive behaviour that leads Florrie to conclude that her sister is mentally unbalanced, and thereby is Florrie’s life course set.

Goldring provides a detailed tableau of the simplicity and quietness of life, war and post-war privations, sacrifices made and secrets kept. Despite being seven years younger, after their mother succumbs to the Spanish flu, 15-year-old Florrie runs the household with no assistance from Edith, pointing out how differently sisters can view their responsibilities. Florrie’s toils in husbandry and housekeeping are rewarded, but there is heartbreak to come. Although Kate’s contemporary work-life sections are drawn-out at times, her delicate care over what fragments of her aunts’ lives to preserve, and her interactions with long-time neighbours about the reclusive siblings, is heartfelt. There is an ordinary everydayness to the author’s story, which is very moving, and the fate of the many spinsters left behind by the Great War resounds through the book’s poignant title.

It’s 1915 in London, the war is underway, bombs can be heard, rationing has started.
Father is at war, mother is doing her best to run the household, eldest daughter Edith writes daily letters to her sweetheart who is out fighting, sister Florrie helps her mother where she can. But the war stretches out, the rations become smaller, many men don’t come home.
And when the war finally ends, some are still away. While Florrie takes on more and more responsibility, Edith only writes in her room or checks the lists at the town hall, hoping not to find Frank’s name on the list of deceased soldiers.
Years later, as Florrie passes away, her niece Kate moves into her house to find respite from her broken relationship and sort through the house left behind by the two sisters.
She finds some old photos, in which Florrie turns from a little girl into a serious woman with a sad look in her eyes, she finds houseware and clothes, she speaks to neighbours and yet never seems to find out more about her aunt Edith. Is it really possible no one has ever spoken to her or seen her except at church? Why did the sisters live alone in the house for so long? And why is one room locked?
No one seems to know what happened to Edith and Florrie. That is, until Kate discovers the diaries and finds her way into the locked room. Suddenly history unravels in young Florrie’s journal entries recording the simple everyday life she led until the moment everything changed.
While the writing set in the current time is a bit disappointing and the dialogues unrealistic, the historic part - which is th heart of the book - is gripping even when talking about seemingly mundane things such as food and housekeeping in times when rationing was a reality.

This was a slow starter for me but overall, it was a well written, enjoyable read. The narrative flicks between Kate in 1999 and her great aunt Florrie during and after World War Two. Florrie's story is harrowing and tragic. Her life is filled with great sacrifices, deep sadness and loss. Her journey was impactful and very emotional. For me, it was Florrie's story that kept me invested as I found Kate to be quite a bland character that I just didn't connect with. I found myself wanting to rush through her parts to fill in Florrie's story - the tragedy of the war, the spanish flu that claimed so many lives, her sister's struggle with grief. Her story was packed.

I think the author has a wonderful way with words and there were lines in the story that were utterly captivating. There's a great richness to everything.

"The stair carpet was almost threadbare in the centre; in the bathroom a brown stain slid like a large melancholy tear marking the white enamel bath, while a faded pink flannel clung to the edge of the sink, stiff with the rigor mortis of abandonment. And every surface, every ledge and every ornament was misted with a light film of dust, barely noticeable until Kate traced her finger across the bathroom shelf; it was as if a sleeping powder had been sprinkled over the whole house and its contents, sending it into a state of hibernation."

I like that all the loose ends were tied and the story ends on a positive after so much heartache.

The best word I can come up with for this book is heartbreaking! It has been a few months since I have read a book, with the present meeting the past, that has put me through so many emotions. I was honestly drowning in this book. I might have missed a couple appointments because I was so involved. This is definitely a book I will be recommending and do not regret one minute of reading.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.