The publisher’ presentation
A secret lies behind every door…
The Dordogne, 1936
Amid tangled gardens and crumbling walls, Chateau Rousseau guards its secrets well.
Pushing open its faded door, Thirza Caruthers arrives to care for her great-aunt. She’s made a promise – unaware of what awaits.
As the skies darken above Europe, the chateau begins to reveal its secrets: stories of forbidden love, devastating betrayal, and a child who vanished years ago.
But in uncovering the truth, Thirza may lose herself forever.
My reading experience
This book continues the family saga that started with the Greek House. It starts in Corfu, in 1936. Europe is in the midst of deep change that announces the war. There is already civil war in Spain, and this is where Emilio goes to find one of his daughters, Lucia, who has gone to Italy and then to Spain, attracted by nationalist movements. Thirza and their daughters Valentina and Romi are called by Dulci to go to France and look after their elderly aunt who is returning from hospital to her castle, Chateau Rousseau. Aunt Bérénice is the holder of many secrets, and while caring for her, Thirza and her daughters discover little by little what the castle and its owner have been hiding for so long.
What the characters have in common in this second novel is their strength and their commitment to what they believe in. Emilio, Thirza, and Bérénice all have strong beliefs, and they are prepared to follow them even when it makes their lives hard. Emilio believes he can bring his daughter Lucia back on track. Thirza goes through many ups and downs and is sometimes tempted to change her life but always returns on the path that she and Emilio have set for themselves. Bérénice suffers in silence for something that happened a long time ago.
I found Bérénice a very deep character. She is prickly and always in a bad mood, quite aggressive and even violent. But behind all that is pain, grief, loss that is unbelievably painful. Dinah Jefferies writes these feelings vividly and from experience.
In the author’s signature style, the novel takes us to different locations, with atmospheric writing full of colours, views, scents and impressions.
I absolutely enjoyed reading this book, like I have every book by Dinah.
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for giving me the pleasure of reading this book on an ARC. All opinions are my own.
You a find Dinah on Facebook, where she shares about her writing and impressions of the places she researches for her novels. And her website is rich with information about all her books and her life.
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