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Escaping the Back Country #2
Deleilah
Deleilah Hanover leaves an affluent and destructive marriage, losing her entitlement to half the international corporation she helped her husband build from nothing. Broken by circumstance and shunned by the elite Auckland social set, she hides in a rural town to lick her many wounds. Harvey Gilroy offers a shoulder to cry on and Deleilah makes the grave mistake of trusting him as she journeys to his farm for what she thinks is a holiday.
Desperate and once again on the run, Deleilah meets someone from her past and is drawn back to the tiny tourist town of her childhood in the foothills of Mount Pirongia. Just passing through, she is forced to face the demons of her teenage years and make amends for her abandonment of family and friends two decades earlier.
But things are not as they seem and Deleilah can't share the truth about her sudden departure, not even with her three childhood friends. The foreigner, the fat kid and the foster boy have grown into a banker, a police officer and a horse whisperer and one of them holds the key to Deleilah's terrible secret.
Desperate and once again on the run, Deleilah meets someone from her past and is drawn back to the tiny tourist town of her childhood in the foothills of Mount Pirongia. Just passing through, she is forced to face the demons of her teenage years and make amends for her abandonment of family and friends two decades earlier.
But things are not as they seem and Deleilah can't share the truth about her sudden departure, not even with her three childhood friends. The foreigner, the fat kid and the foster boy have grown into a banker, a police officer and a horse whisperer and one of them holds the key to Deleilah's terrible secret.
319 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 28, 2016
About the author
K.T. Bowes
39 books66 followersMarried and bringing up four children during her twenties and thirties, K T Bowes reserved her storytelling for them.
She emigrated to New Zealand in 2006 with her family on a one way ticket. They arrived with just one suitcase each. The international bestselling Hana Du Rose Mysteries began shortly afterwards, hammered out on an old laptop used for Skyping family back home.
Since then, she has published more than twenty five books ranging from women's literature through teen series, to a fantasy trilogy.
The author has given interviews to That's Life Magazine and the BBC during her writing career. Each of her first in series novels are free to readers on all digital platforms.
K T Bowes has a passion for folk art and renovating wooden furniture. Her work as an archivist often appears within story lines. After two significant falls, she gave up horse riding but often has a guest horse or two in the paddock. She lives above the city of Hamilton, close to the Waikato River and the Hakarimata Ranges. Many of her novels are based in New Zealand, but some transport the reader back to England and the Midlands where she grew up.
She emigrated to New Zealand in 2006 with her family on a one way ticket. They arrived with just one suitcase each. The international bestselling Hana Du Rose Mysteries began shortly afterwards, hammered out on an old laptop used for Skyping family back home.
Since then, she has published more than twenty five books ranging from women's literature through teen series, to a fantasy trilogy.
The author has given interviews to That's Life Magazine and the BBC during her writing career. Each of her first in series novels are free to readers on all digital platforms.
K T Bowes has a passion for folk art and renovating wooden furniture. Her work as an archivist often appears within story lines. After two significant falls, she gave up horse riding but often has a guest horse or two in the paddock. She lives above the city of Hamilton, close to the Waikato River and the Hakarimata Ranges. Many of her novels are based in New Zealand, but some transport the reader back to England and the Midlands where she grew up.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 27, 2017
I have had this book on my kindle for ages, it was the only book I had downloaded on my phone, when I was out of Wifi range so it got bumped up the tbr so I had something to read at lunch and break times today (My current review read is hard to pick back up at the minute due to the Manchester Bombing at the Ariana Grande concert).
BUT Wow, once I started I couldn't put it down.
Now I know the place the book is set in places I have visited/lived (the Hamilton part anyway) but the writing and the worldbuilding was so good I felt as if I was sat on that balcony feeling the peacefulness described (the Lake was a favourite spot to visit and walk around).
The horse related parts also showed that Ms Bowes does indeed know her #EquineStuff, and I loved how she brought the wild Kaimanawa horse's into the story.
I finished this rural romance today, after reading long into the wee hours of the morning to a place I felt I would be able to sleep and not think where the story was heading.
Ms Bowes wrote a story that had me in the dark to who the father of 'Leilah's child was until the very end, in fact she put so many believable red herrings in that I had to go back a few pages to make sure I had not missed anything.
So well done for keeping me glued to my kindle all day and all last night.
A very real story, that highlights the reality of the struggles women go through to walk away from an abusive relationship.
My favorite character is Mari, her description is the double of my 'Whaea' (mother, aunt,aunty) I recommended this book to mine as I am sure she would enjoy this New Zealand themed book, lol even my new home 'Southland' is mentioned.
The only downside to the story is that there isn't a glossary in the book. the Kindle app dictionary doesn't do Maori unfortunately - so any readers who want to know what the words mean when you come to them, as long as you have Wifi/the Internet, then click SEARCH and Google will find this Dictionary, which has the added bonus of sound - I have and never will be able to speak the language properly it's a hard one to learn) - and its not really a downside - but I found it hard as I wanted to know and I didn't have any internet to search.
One part of the story reminded me of an actual event that happened while I lived there, I wondered if this was the inspiration for part of the events that happened.
A well deserved 5 stars
BUT Wow, once I started I couldn't put it down.
Now I know the place the book is set in places I have visited/lived (the Hamilton part anyway) but the writing and the worldbuilding was so good I felt as if I was sat on that balcony feeling the peacefulness described (the Lake was a favourite spot to visit and walk around).
The horse related parts also showed that Ms Bowes does indeed know her #EquineStuff, and I loved how she brought the wild Kaimanawa horse's into the story.
I finished this rural romance today, after reading long into the wee hours of the morning to a place I felt I would be able to sleep and not think where the story was heading.
Ms Bowes wrote a story that had me in the dark to who the father of 'Leilah's child was until the very end, in fact she put so many believable red herrings in that I had to go back a few pages to make sure I had not missed anything.
So well done for keeping me glued to my kindle all day and all last night.
A very real story, that highlights the reality of the struggles women go through to walk away from an abusive relationship.
My favorite character is Mari, her description is the double of my 'Whaea' (mother, aunt,aunty) I recommended this book to mine as I am sure she would enjoy this New Zealand themed book, lol even my new home 'Southland' is mentioned.
The only downside to the story is that there isn't a glossary in the book. the Kindle app dictionary doesn't do Maori unfortunately - so any readers who want to know what the words mean when you come to them, as long as you have Wifi/the Internet, then click SEARCH and Google will find this Dictionary, which has the added bonus of sound - I have and never will be able to speak the language properly it's a hard one to learn) - and its not really a downside - but I found it hard as I wanted to know and I didn't have any internet to search.
One part of the story reminded me of an actual event that happened while I lived there, I wondered if this was the inspiration for part of the events that happened.
A well deserved 5 stars
July 22, 2018
A couple of surprises wrapped up in this story that kept me reading through the night and I'm now left wondering if there will be another story as a new chapter in Deleilah's life begins. I read Pirongia's secret prior to this but now I feel like I have more of an insight into Deleilah I want to go back and re-read it.
Just like other characters from K T Bowes' books, Deleilah is easy to relate to and connect with. Bowes uses a recipe of horses, farms, disfigurement and medical conditions softened by convincing female lead characters and it works.
Just like other characters from K T Bowes' books, Deleilah is easy to relate to and connect with. Bowes uses a recipe of horses, farms, disfigurement and medical conditions softened by convincing female lead characters and it works.
July 16, 2018
Some say you can’t go home. Can Deleilah? Leilah fears men. She has been mistreated by them and she walks right into more abuse. She works to get through her fears and move on to a new life, but at a very dear cost. Regardless of her fear she has a plethora of suitors from her past. Will she pick one? I enjoy K.T. Bowes books so much that she has this old man who reads mostly action thrillers reading her romances.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews