I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book but from the first chapter I was hooked. The story is very well-written and the characters are immediately likeable and intriguing. The setting is beautiful and the book was very easy to “get into”. The character of Nell was well observed and I also felt that the author wrote well when writing from the children’s point of view.
Nell arrives back in her old home village after years of living away in London as a single parent of twins, nine year old Joshua and Freya. Abandoned by her husband Silas when the children were just two years old, the shy, timid Nell has become stronger, determined to give her twins the best life she possibly can despite her own feelings of grief and inadequacy.
Her strength is tested when she runs in to Daniel, who was her major crush at school. Many years ago he had been party to a cruel trick played on her by Lauren, the school queen bee who was dating Daniel at the time and is now his ex wife. Despite her reservations, Nell is won over by Daniel who is genuinely sorry for his part in the incident and the two of them begin a tentative relationship, despite the scars inflicted on them by their previous marriages.
Never far away, though, is the shadow of Silas. Who is he? Why do some of the older residents of the village remember him with adoration? What is in the box hidden in Nana Gwen’s bedroom that he has asked her to keep secret? And what is so special about Joshua?
When Silas returns to seek out his son, life is completely shaken up for Nell, Daniel, her children, and for several of the other villagers, but Silas himself makes a discovery that changes everything he had assumed about himself. All of them must face up to the truth of the past to find a way to the future…whatever that future may hold.
This is a beautiful romance with a sprinkling of magic. Read it and be enchanted. 5/5