“I love her more than life and I failed her. I won’t fail her again.”

Book blurb

My thoughts

I chose to read this novella for #NovNov23 but things got in the way and so this is a my final review for 2023 – yes it’s taken me a while to finish but here it is at last.

Sylvie is divorced after she was found to be having an affair. She is taking her daughter Antonia on holiday, finally taking her to meet her grandmother. Sylvie has been estranged from her mother, Rosalie, for many years now but as Antonia has been asking for some time to meet her grandmother. Sylvie hopes that Antonia (and she) won’t regret this decision.

Rosalie lives in a cottage and manages the renting of two attached cottages in Devon. Geoffrey, an artist, has a room with Rosalie. Across from these cottages is another where Theo lives he keeps himself very much to himself. The other cottage is occupied by three holiday makers Caroline, Tom and Chris.

Sylvie believes that Theo can answer some questions about her background that she has not been told by her mother.

The storyline is intriguing. Will Sylvie regret letting Antonia meet her grandmother? Who is Theo and what does he know that Sylvie doesn’t? Why were Rosalie and Sylvie estranged?

Louise Walters takes 133 pages set over a week to write this story about rekindling relationships between mothers and daughters yet it is so much more. It’s a mystery, it’s an exploration of how people relate, why they make the decisions they do and how that affects them and others.

This story crept up on me until I was fully immersed in their lives and I too wanted to find out what had brought Sylvie to this point and whether she would get her answers. Antonia meets her grandmother just as she is turning sixteen, for her this is as much a time of growth and experience as she angrily blames her mother for breaking up the family and interfering in her life. Theo is another large character who I found interesting, annoying and ultimately liked. Rosalie we know from the other characters until the end when she, perhaps in a rather bizarre way to appease Sylvie’s request that she not allow Antonia to be hurt by Geoffrey, shows her real self. Her story is, perhaps, the saddest of all and whilst I felt a deal of sympathy and anger at what happens to her her own actions and words make her difficult to like. Chris, Caroline, Tom are much more in the background although Chris comes to the for as he and Sylvie develop a kind of friendship which was a lovely part of the story.

The ending is just right. The characters are well drawn as we come to know them in varying degrees through the story. The book well written. There is so much packed into this amazing story that it seems unbelievable that it is a novella but that is the skill of Louise Walters.

Book: Purchased | Highly recommended

Other LWB I’ve read: Mrs Narwhal’s Diary by S J Norbury | In the Sweep of the Bay by Cath Barton

Note: Louise Walters recently closed her publishing company, Louise Walters Books (LWB), after several years of indie publishing. She continues to write, edit and publish her own books. See below under information for more including links to her work and those writers she once published. Indie publishing is a tough job and it’s important to do as much as we can as readers and/or bloggers to support these amazing publishers. Buy their books (preferably direct or from independent bookshops) if you can, review their books, follow them individually, as part of @IndiePressNet and share your love of indie publishers their books and authors as much as possible – your contribution however small might just be the difference between them sinking or swimming!

Information

Published: Louise Walters Books (LWB – 5 Aug. 2022) | 133 pages

Buy: The Hermit and other Louise Walters books | Amazon links below

Author: Louise Walters (from her website).

“I’m a writer and a freelance editor, working at home in rural Northamptonshire, in England. I was an indie publisher from 2017 to 2023. Sadly, in June 2023, I made the decision to no longer publish books by other writers. Many factors led to this decision. The cost-of-living crisis was certainly one of them.

However, I am still writing and publishing my own books. The three already published have had a facelift! Please see the new covers over on my shop. 

If you are in need of editorial help, I’m still very much in the market for that, so please have a look at my editorial page. I offer great services at reasonable costs, with some reductions available. I also offer “off-the-peg” services at fixed costs which you can buy at my shop here. I also work as an editor with Jericho Writers, and with Reedsy. 

Please also see my blog for chat about writing, editing, and publishing. 

More information about the wonderful books I published over six years of Louise Walters Books can be found in my LWB catalogue, which is a lovely archive of talent! Some of the titles I published at LWB are still available in audio.”

Please click on the titles below to be taken to their Amazon listings:

In the Sweep of the Bay by Cath Barton

The Naseby Horses by Dominic Brownlow

Don’t Think a Single Thought by Diana Cambridge

The Last Words of Madeleine Anderson by Helen Kitson

Old Bones by Helen Kitson

Mrs Narwhal’s Diary by S J Norbury

The Dig Street Festival by Chris Walsh

Books

Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase by Louise Walters (Hodder 2014 – Amazon Link)

A Life Between Us by Louise Walters (Amazon Link)

The Road to California by Louise Walters (Amazon Link)

The Hermit by Louise Walters (Amazon Link)