It’s a delight today to be helping launch the blog tour for the new book from the lovely Victoria Connelly, The Way to the Sea (and isn’t that cover just gorgeous?). Independently published on 11th May, it’s now available for kindle (and free via Kindle Unlimited) and also in paperback. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the author for my advance reading copy.
You might be more familiar with a number of Victoria’s excellent series – perhaps you particularly enjoyed The Book Lovers or The Austen Addicts, or maybe her more recent The House in the Clouds. But every now and then, she writes a wonderful standalone, like The Beauty of Broken Things – I absolutely loved it, one of my 2020 Books of the Year, and a very special book indeed (you’ll find my review here). So I was delighted when I saw that her latest was a standalone too – and if I wasn’t looking forward to it enough after spotting that cover, I was even more excited when I read the synopsis…
When Cate Rivers leaves her husband in the middle of the night with their young daughter, Eliza, she has no idea what the future holds. Taking a live-in position at Hollow House on the Dorset coast, she determines to make a new life for her and Eliza.
But Cate’s new boss, fossil hunter Charles Thorner, could do without the problems of a couple of runaways under his roof. He’s got enough worries of his own, including a painful past which still holds him prisoner today.
As the two of them learn to work alongside each other, secrets are shared and a new closeness is found, but they soon discover that you can only hide from the past for so long…
The Way to the Sea is the latest heartwarming novel by the bestselling author of The Beauty of Broken Things and The Rose Girls.
Victoria Connelly really does write the loveliest books – true to life, with very real characters dealing with contemporary issues, their stories gently and beautifully told, with a warmth and perfect emotional touch that makes them so enjoyable and such a pleasure to read.
Cate and eight year old daughter Eliza flee their Cambridgeshire home in the middle of the night, escaping a degree of domestic violence – and that’s never graphically shown – that’s made her fear for her life. In desperation, she’s managed to make contact with old school friend Allie, who’s found her a live-in housekeeper post on the Dorset coast with a man known locally as “Mr Fossil”. Immersed in his work with palaeontology, Charles Thorner is none too keen about the fact she has a child – although reassured that she won’t disturb the peace as, after the trauma she’s witnessed, Eliza no longer speaks.
Cate’s employment begins with a trial period, successfully negotiated – and while Cate lives with the fear that her husband will find her, a gentle friendship develops with her initially curmudgeonly employer, who has his own particularly sad reasons for living a solitary life. Aware of her fascination, Charles reluctantly agrees to teach Eliza a little about his passion – and takes her to see his mother, with dementia and in a nursing home, who unexpectedly tells him (unreliably, of course) that Eliza has been reading to her. When she’s (quite delightfully) heard laughing as she plays with Charles’ dog, Cate hopes that speech may not be so far behind – but their difficult experiences are sadly far from over.
In tandem, this is also Allie’s story – a single mother to twelve year old Jack, his biker father and free spirit Craig never present, he’s now back and apparently keen to be part of their lives. After an uneasy start, their relationship builds – until Craig reveals plans to take his son on a dangerous South American adventure, and she needs to find a more comfortable compromise they can all be happy with.
I really loved this book – the fossil research becomes a metaphor for slowly uncovering the pasts of the damaged people at the book’s core and rebuilding their lives, and it’s gently and beautifully done. The character development is so superbly handled, as is all the emotional content – the friendship between Cate and Charles, perhaps developing into something more, was particularly real and convincing, and very moving. But it’s not all about the characters – the setting is beautifully captured too, the wildness of the coastline, the beaches with their towering and fragile cliffs, and the brooding atmosphere of the hollow lane was something I could really feel. And there are touches of considerable drama too – edge-of-the-seat reading, when the fear is real and the pages turn rather faster.
This was a book that really warmed my heart – one of those stories that you finally set aside with a satisfied sigh, sorry that it had to end. Highly recommended by me – I really loved it.
About the author
Victoria Connelly lives in a 500-year old thatched cottage in rural Suffolk with her artist husband, a springer spaniel and a flock of ex-battery hens. She is the million-selling author of two bestselling series, The Austen Addicts and The Book Lovers, as well as many other novels and novellas. Her first published novel, Flights of Angels, was made into a film in Germany. Victoria loves books, films, walking, historic buildings and animals. If she isn’t at her keyboard writing, she can usually be found in her garden either with a trowel in her hand or a hen on her lap.
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Sounds fabulous, and what a wonderfully atmospheric cover! X