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Scatterbrook
When Tilly Cartwright leaves the family farm to go on the voyage of a lifetime aboard the magnificent Titanic, little does she know what is about to unfold.
Caught up in the horror of the ship sinking, and the drama of a girl with no memory of who she is and where she comes from, poor Tilly’s adventure of a lifetime turns into a puzzling and sometimes frightening mystery that she is determined to solve.
Caught up in the horror of the ship sinking, and the drama of a girl with no memory of who she is and where she comes from, poor Tilly’s adventure of a lifetime turns into a puzzling and sometimes frightening mystery that she is determined to solve.
331 pages, Paperback
Published December 16, 2021
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Sally Wragg
12 books25 followersI've had novels published by Robert Hale and Ulverscroft and have also self-published. I love writing, the relationship between pen and paper and what's going off in my head at that particular moment in time. When I'm not so occupied, I enjoy walking in the Derbyshire countryside (good for writer's block!) or playing my guitar, rather badly, I have to say. I'm also a keen football fan and alternate Saturday afternoons can usually find me cheering on the Rams at Pride Park.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 25, 2022
This novel was a lovely surprise and a real pleasure to read! The first I have ever read by the author (she writes quite a lot!), and will not be the last!
A mystery surrounds a young woman's life as after being rescued from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, she is left with no memory of who she is! Befriended with another young rescued woman, Tilly, the young lady renamed Hettie decides on solving this bewildering mystery with her new friend. Indeed as Hettie had only been a 3rd class passenger, noone from the ship company deems it important to enquire about her!! Both English girls travel back to England and stay at Scatterbrook, Tilly 's family farm.
I loved reading about the main characters, their life on the farm (harsh life but a lovely family), descriptions of the countryside. The plot is enthralling with twists and turns though not a high paced one: it could not, with no modern facilities (internet surfing, mobile phones), the distances between places of investigations needed time to reach!!! I loved it!
Thank so much, Sally, for sending me a physical and dedicated copy of your novel! You made my day!
A mystery surrounds a young woman's life as after being rescued from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, she is left with no memory of who she is! Befriended with another young rescued woman, Tilly, the young lady renamed Hettie decides on solving this bewildering mystery with her new friend. Indeed as Hettie had only been a 3rd class passenger, noone from the ship company deems it important to enquire about her!! Both English girls travel back to England and stay at Scatterbrook, Tilly 's family farm.
I loved reading about the main characters, their life on the farm (harsh life but a lovely family), descriptions of the countryside. The plot is enthralling with twists and turns though not a high paced one: it could not, with no modern facilities (internet surfing, mobile phones), the distances between places of investigations needed time to reach!!! I loved it!
Thank so much, Sally, for sending me a physical and dedicated copy of your novel! You made my day!
January 10, 2022
Scatterbrook was my first introduction to this author. Ms. Wragg weaves a clever tale as she takes the reader on a voyage of peril and subterfuge. Her heroine, Tilly Cartwright, is a young woman of action and prone to unexpected adventures as she repeatedly takes matters into her own hands. The unfortunate sinking of the Titanic results in Tilly’s rescue and rehabilitation of a young drowning victim she comes to know as Hettie. As together they seek to discover Hettie’s identity, a strong bond is formed. This story has all the components a reader seeks in historical fiction – facts, intrigue, joy, peril, and resolution. The bonus is a tangled love story, or two. I enjoyed the book as I experienced many emotions and found myself trying to solve the puzzle of Hettie right along with the characters. I look forward to reading more works by this author.
January 24, 2022
As the descendant of a brush-with-death Titanic survivor, I was thrilled to find this book on Amazon. Ms. Wragg uses such vivid imagery to describe the English countryside of 1911-12, that this Yank had no trouble visualizing the world in which the two female survivors land after surviving the famous maritime disaster. Add to the descriptive beauty of Scatterbrook Farm the intrigue of memory loss in one of the girls, and you have a wonderful twisting yarn that you won’t able to put down—I know I couldn’t. All the confusion, loss and mystery engendered by that plot line led to a wonderful read. The disparate personalities of the characters also drove the story so that I was even able to identify with the bad guys as I read. Not only that, but there were some wonderful love stories that kept me turning the pages. I highly recommend this book. Five stars well earned!
February 5, 2022
Thank you to the author for sending a copy of this book in return of an honest review.
**This review is without fear or favour**.
Despite the synopsis leads us to believe Tilly is the main character, I felt Hettie was the star of the show. Also, even though Titanic has less relevance to the story as it may seem in the synopsis, I felt it was interesting the frame was based around it. Utilising this frame, the author was able to show how painfully life carries on, survivors have to go back to their lives one way or another and how important is to have a good support system around.
What I really liked about this book is the fact the characters are very relatable and I was able to get immersed into their lives straight away.
Their kindness and understanding of each other's needs and old fashioned goodwill to help kept me getting drawn back to the book.
Something I found engaging was that the use of slang was nicely done, just right, to make the dialogs more real. I didn't feel it was too much at any stage, so I was able to keep reading easily which I thought this is a difficult one to get right but the author managed really well.
As the story moves on, and probably during 2/3 of the book, I kept wishing the author had picked one character as the main character and used fist person to tell part of the story. This would have given some more depth to the story.
These well desired first person deep views of the story came towards the end and I enjoyed those pages the most.
The pages written from Hettie's point of view were written in a wonderful suspense way and, as previously mentioned, I enjoyed them very much.
One point to note is that it wasn't clear where these first person outbursts came from as they come quite unannounced since the previous 2/3 of the book were written from an omniscient perspective. I think they would have taken more significance if they came from the character reading an old diary or from letters written and never sent or similar to keep the consistency across the book.
Overall, I rated this book a 4* because I felt this book was well written, "a comfort book" to go back to to remind us that true friendship can be found in the most incredible circumstances and that this friendship could be what can save us from ourselves.
**This review is without fear or favour**.
Despite the synopsis leads us to believe Tilly is the main character, I felt Hettie was the star of the show. Also, even though Titanic has less relevance to the story as it may seem in the synopsis, I felt it was interesting the frame was based around it. Utilising this frame, the author was able to show how painfully life carries on, survivors have to go back to their lives one way or another and how important is to have a good support system around.
What I really liked about this book is the fact the characters are very relatable and I was able to get immersed into their lives straight away.
Their kindness and understanding of each other's needs and old fashioned goodwill to help kept me getting drawn back to the book.
Something I found engaging was that the use of slang was nicely done, just right, to make the dialogs more real. I didn't feel it was too much at any stage, so I was able to keep reading easily which I thought this is a difficult one to get right but the author managed really well.
As the story moves on, and probably during 2/3 of the book, I kept wishing the author had picked one character as the main character and used fist person to tell part of the story. This would have given some more depth to the story.
These well desired first person deep views of the story came towards the end and I enjoyed those pages the most.
The pages written from Hettie's point of view were written in a wonderful suspense way and, as previously mentioned, I enjoyed them very much.
One point to note is that it wasn't clear where these first person outbursts came from as they come quite unannounced since the previous 2/3 of the book were written from an omniscient perspective. I think they would have taken more significance if they came from the character reading an old diary or from letters written and never sent or similar to keep the consistency across the book.
Overall, I rated this book a 4* because I felt this book was well written, "a comfort book" to go back to to remind us that true friendship can be found in the most incredible circumstances and that this friendship could be what can save us from ourselves.
February 27, 2024
Scatterbrook Hooked Me from the Start
Tilly Cartwright’s adventure of a lifetime sailing to America on the Titanic sets the scene for a dramatic opening as it hits an iceberg. She is among the survivors and in the lifeboat a girl, believed dead, is recovered from the sea. Her eyes snap open, focusing on Tilly and they become firm friends. Arriving in New York, they are taken to hospital and a young doctor, Miles Dawson, tells Tilly that her friend (who becomes known as Hettie) is suffering from amnesia. Returning to England and Tilly's home, Scatterbrook Farm, with the support of her family, they set about unravelling the mystery of who Hettie really is, with love and romance along the way.
An absorbing book, Scatterbrook hooked me from the start. Excellently written, it is easy to read, historically well researched and I loved the characters. It keeps you thinking and is full of surprises. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tilly Cartwright’s adventure of a lifetime sailing to America on the Titanic sets the scene for a dramatic opening as it hits an iceberg. She is among the survivors and in the lifeboat a girl, believed dead, is recovered from the sea. Her eyes snap open, focusing on Tilly and they become firm friends. Arriving in New York, they are taken to hospital and a young doctor, Miles Dawson, tells Tilly that her friend (who becomes known as Hettie) is suffering from amnesia. Returning to England and Tilly's home, Scatterbrook Farm, with the support of her family, they set about unravelling the mystery of who Hettie really is, with love and romance along the way.
An absorbing book, Scatterbrook hooked me from the start. Excellently written, it is easy to read, historically well researched and I loved the characters. It keeps you thinking and is full of surprises. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
August 4, 2022
Hard to believe this got such good ratings. The story dragged. Could have been told with less words.
the editing was the worst I've seen yet....commas in wrong places, sentences that did not make sense and worse, a characters name was misspelled in one chapter. I realize I am a very critical reader, but to some of us, it grates to see such sloppiness in books. I guess I should have been an editor.
the editing was the worst I've seen yet....commas in wrong places, sentences that did not make sense and worse, a characters name was misspelled in one chapter. I realize I am a very critical reader, but to some of us, it grates to see such sloppiness in books. I guess I should have been an editor.
April 23, 2023
review to come
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews