Christmas at Hope Hall - Pam Rhodes

Pam Rhodes’ ‘Hope Hall’ trilogy has been a joy to read from the start, and Christmas at Hope Hall doesn’t disappoint.  (OK, just to reassure you, it’s not strictly a Christmas story, despite the title, but as well as a good read at any time, it’ll make a nice Christmas present.) 

It’s been lovely to follow the characters who visit Hope Hall and to pick up their stories.  Ray begins to come to terms with his grief with a little help from a small dog which unexpectedly bounces into his home, and there are life-changing moments for several of the characters we’ve come to know through the series, including wedding bells!  We also find out that the slightly scary Ida may not be as formidable as she has appeared previously. 

Harvest Festival sees tensions between traditional and new ways, and the forthcoming panto introduces even more stresses. In between there’s a quiz at which Percy, the man everyone thinks Ida loathes, has an accident and Ida’s reaction leaves her friends with more questions than answers!

In my view Hope Hall is one of Pam’s best series yet.  I was so desperate to keep reading that I even read this book while walking on the treadmill! My only complaint is that this is the last. I would really love to read more about the people of Hope Hall – I’m especially curious about Brenda. Pam and Lion – any chance this could become a four book series?

9781782642893, Lion Fiction, out now, £8.99

Note: for transparency, I was sent an advance copy of this book, but I was not required to write any specific or favourable review. All views herein are my own. 

When the Day Comes - Gabrielle Meyer

While fiction genres are pretty well established, from time to time there do seem to be trends, and for a while now one of them has been ‘dual time’ stories.  When the Day Comes is a dual time story with a difference.  Libby is a ‘time-crosser’, someone who lives the first twenty one years of her life in two time periods.  She loves her life and close family relationship with her time-crosser mother in 1774 colonial Williamsburg, but when she sleeps there she wakes in 1914 ‘s ‘Gilded Age’ New York where though more prosperous her life is harder.  

 

In 1774 she falls in love with Henry Montgomery, a man with dangerous secrets as revolution approaches, but in 1914 her status-chasing and self-obsessed mother is determined to marry her off to a titled man she doesn’t love.  She tries to follow her heart, but circumstances and time are conspiring against her.

 

This book has been instantly catapulted into my top five of the year so far. Everything about it is superb. The characterisation of both of Libby’s families (especially her 1774 mother, whose ‘other time’ was two hundred years later than the 1770s where she settled), the sense of place and time, the feeling of impending ‘big events’ approaching and the complexity of the plot. What’s more, it’s absolutely believable and credible.

 

It's really exciting to find an author who writes as beautifully and compellingly as Gabrielle Meyer, and I’m thrilled  that there are another two books to come in this series.  When they do I’ll be shutting out the world so that I can do some uninterrupted reading.

9780764239748, Bethany House, June 2022, £9.99

Note: for transparency, I was sent an advance copy of this book, but I was not required to write any specific or favourable review. All views herein are my own.