Anne Allen (2)

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This delightful story reflects the island life it depicts; atmospheric, gently paced and full of mystery and romance. The characters are crafted realistically and easy to visualise. This is not an action packed read but the laid back writing style draws the reader into island society and culture. The cast of secondary characters give the story its depth and variety and bring the island community to life for me.

Contemporary favourites cookery and gardening widen the scope of this novel and prevent it from becoming too self absorbed and dark. The descriptions of the cosmopolitan restaurants, food and the cottage garden are vibrant and knowledgeable; as is the insight into the publishing industry.

Jeanne the vulnerable but talented heroine of 'Dangerous Waters' is a writer who returns to her childhood home many years after a traumatic incident drove her back to the mainland. Her chosen career has a dramatic boost when she discovers her grandmother's hidden secrets and much treasured ancestral recipes. Coupled with reconnecting with friends from her school days and deciding what to do with her legacy, Jeanne's day to day life is an absorbing read. Jeanne's poignant flashbacks reveal her traumatic past. Mystery and dangerous undercurrents threaten Jeanne's emotional recovery until she isn't sure who she can trust.

'Dangerous Waters' is definitely worth reading and I look forward to the rest of the Guernsey Novels.

I received a copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review.… (més)

It took me a while to get into this book. It had a good story line, but maybe just not for me. I sympathized with main character for wanting for find her real family, but felt bad for her adoptive family and how they got left out of the book, and mostly left out of her life during this time as well. Kind of sad. I know that she tried to keep them up to date and included, but still it would seem very troubling to lose your child to this kind of heartache. I was happy to see a family reunited after many years and a lot of times that doesn't happen in real life.… (més)

This story is Ms. Allen's second novel centered around Guernsey. A place, after reading these novels, I would really enjoy visiting.
Nicole Oxford has just left her cheating husband, took a leave from her career, and is looking for what is next in her life. She realizes as an adopted child, she really needs to know more about her past, before she can face her future. Her journey takes her to Spain to visit her parents where they have retired, and she hopes to make them realize how important they are to her, and that her search for her biological parents does not effect her love for them.

Much to her surprise the search yields information very quickly, and she gets in touch with the woman who gave birth to her. Thus begins a story of three woman, her birth mother Helene, grandmother Eve and Nicole herself, and the heartwarming results of their finding each other, and the changes it brings to their lives.

I thouroughly enjoy Ms. Allen's ability to weave history in and out of her story. Descriptions of Guernsey, beautiful beaches, the people and the secrets Eve has been keeping about her life as a "Land Girl" during WWII bring the story to life.

I highly recommend this novel, a story of family, long lost loves, and a new love to complete Nicole's story.

I received this novel from the author for an honest review.
Pat Fordyce… (més)

Anne Allen has a talent. She is an author who writes a story seamlessly melting past and present together with a sense of real lives lived. In “Finding Mother,” Allen plays on the idea that we all have things we might have changed given the chance.

One of my favorite things about Allen’s writing is the care with which she writes her characters. We’re able to feel softness for each of them because no one is purely good or purely bad. The characters are simply real. Allen writes real people trying to do their best in a world that cannot help them. Allen takes risks with her characters but those risks are done in a way that benefits the plot and leads the reader to feel a deeper level of concern for what happens within her plot line as the story develops.

As a story of a woman in flux looking for her roots, “Finding Mother” could have been quite a heavy narrative. Allen’s writing style lends a very human feel. Life is not all downs for most folks. There’s humor and lightness and, sure, the dark days but it is those moments of little victory that allow us to go on and she infuses the story expertly with those moments in their perfect time.

“Finding Mother” is very good women’s fiction.… (més)