Hidden Chapters
Great launch for Hidden Chapters. My first review is from Grady Harp, top 100 Amazon reviewer! Yes and he gave me 5 stars! Here is what he said:
Mary’s opening chapter sends shivers up the spine with her keen description of the waterfront, the discovery of a young girl washed up on the beach. We meet Catrin as she discovers the victim with Gareth and Catrin’s brother Aled is missing and dies in the same mysterious area. The synopsis states it more clearly: ‘Summer 1994 - With a glittering future as an architect ahead of him, golden child Aled mysteriously dies on Worm’s Head, a tidal island at the dramatic Rhossili Bay on the Welsh Gower Peninsula. Summer 2012 - Catrin, Aled’s sister, returns to The Dragon House for the first time since Aled’s death with Bethan, her adopted Deaf daughter. They join family for a memorial service to Aled to prepare the house for sale. She longs to put the past behind her. However, the web of lies and secrets which have been spun by her father and others slowly starts to unravel. Catrin, facing a crisis in her marriage, discovers that she must face this past if she is to heal and take control of her future. Elizabeth, Bethan’s wealthy birth mother, has hidden her past. Crisis in her life prompts her to attend the memorial and see her birth daughter Bethan for the first time. Her arrival sends shock waves through the family.’
Mary’s ability to spin tales that incorporate unusual characters and circumstances is uncanny. Her prose, while eloquent, is at time difficult to follow – until the reader realizes that Mary has placed pertinent stumbling blocks in her story to propel the tension. In addition to being a story on the grand scale, this novel is also one that examines motherhood on several levels, the intricacies of adoption, and secrets that keep a family together as well as isolating the members for the truth. In the end it shares with the reader the importance of hope and the durability of courage in facing the pat to mold the future well. Tough story, exceptionally well related. Grady Harp, August 16
Mary’s opening chapter sends shivers up the spine with her keen description of the waterfront, the discovery of a young girl washed up on the beach. We meet Catrin as she discovers the victim with Gareth and Catrin’s brother Aled is missing and dies in the same mysterious area. The synopsis states it more clearly: ‘Summer 1994 - With a glittering future as an architect ahead of him, golden child Aled mysteriously dies on Worm’s Head, a tidal island at the dramatic Rhossili Bay on the Welsh Gower Peninsula. Summer 2012 - Catrin, Aled’s sister, returns to The Dragon House for the first time since Aled’s death with Bethan, her adopted Deaf daughter. They join family for a memorial service to Aled to prepare the house for sale. She longs to put the past behind her. However, the web of lies and secrets which have been spun by her father and others slowly starts to unravel. Catrin, facing a crisis in her marriage, discovers that she must face this past if she is to heal and take control of her future. Elizabeth, Bethan’s wealthy birth mother, has hidden her past. Crisis in her life prompts her to attend the memorial and see her birth daughter Bethan for the first time. Her arrival sends shock waves through the family.’
Mary’s ability to spin tales that incorporate unusual characters and circumstances is uncanny. Her prose, while eloquent, is at time difficult to follow – until the reader realizes that Mary has placed pertinent stumbling blocks in her story to propel the tension. In addition to being a story on the grand scale, this novel is also one that examines motherhood on several levels, the intricacies of adoption, and secrets that keep a family together as well as isolating the members for the truth. In the end it shares with the reader the importance of hope and the durability of courage in facing the pat to mold the future well. Tough story, exceptionally well related. Grady Harp, August 16
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