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#EmptyShelf 2016 #3: Harriet Evans, A Place for Us

place-for-usThis book was recommended via the Georgette Heyer Appreciation Facebook group, and was only 99p on Kindle, so I gave it a go. Not clear on the link as in this book there’s only one vague reference to Georgette Heyer, and the author is more commonly aligned with Maeve Binchy and Rosamund Pilcher.

I read this book over a couple of evenings – it was fairly easy reading, and as its perspective bounced between not only the main characters in the book, but between the different time frames – the story built up. As someone who’s interested in how the Second World War shaped people’s lives, and in people’s motivations – there was definitely plenty of psychological interest in this book, and some nice little twists.

The book is set around Winterfold, a beautiful (fictional!) house near Bath – the lives of those inside on the surface appears all beautiful, very aspirational class – the picture starts to crack as we see the difficult lives so many have had – dealing with abusive upbringings, living through the war years, poverty, mental health, domestic abuse, being apart from one’s child post separation and all sorts mixed in with what looked at first to be a fairly fluffy read. I’d read another book by this author (but have lots of other books to read first)!