February Books

The best books from my February reading are:

Imogen Clark - In a Single Moment

The novel opens in Lincoln in the summer of 1976, when two mothers give birth in the same hospital room in the middle of the heatwave. For Michelle, it's her fourth child, although she and Dean married young. Sylvie, in contrast, is an older mum having her first child. The babies are taken to the nursery to settle overnight. But when she returns to her simple but bustling home, Michelle begins to wonder if there has been some mistake. She'd thought little Donna was the image of her father, but no longer sees any resemblance. Could the babies have been swapped accidentally? Sylivie, in the well-heeled part of town, finds it hard to bond with new baby Leonora, but attributes it to the fact that motherhood was not a role she particuarly desired. As the years go by, Michelle can never quite forget her uncertainty about Donna, much as she loves her. Then unexpectedly, she sees Sylvie and recognises her. Ought she to voice her suspicions to her, or let things lie? If it turned out to be true, the knowledge could cause much heartache to both the girls and their families. But even keeping  such a momentous secret can disrupt lives. This is a novel that keeps the reader guessing throughout. Will the truth ever be known? 

Gail Muller - Unlost

A non-fiction memoir about a woman finding herself through an extreme outdoor experience. Englishwoman Gail Muller developed an excruciating pain syndrome in early adulthood. For years she tried to live a normal life, concealing the extent of her illness from friends for the sake of acceptance. Following life-changing but little-known treatment, she decided to walk the Appalachian Trail, an almost 2000-mile-long hiking trail, following the east coast of America, in an attempt to regain her confidence. Although some people hike this trail for recreation, there are a huge number who walk it from beginning to end, carrying all their needs in one backpack and camping along the way. This is the account of how she endures hardship, discomfort, extreme weather and danger to find something lost within herself. The book is peopled with a selection of varied characters, from her gritty determined fellow-hikers to the people who help them along the way. We learn about the strange codes of conduct and the insulated world of the long-distance hikers who test their endurance to the limit, cut off from the world with the bare minimum of goods needed to survive. It's a fascinating read, seeing how Gail finds her inner courage and strength after many years of poor health, and how it restored her belief in herself.

Luisa A. Jones - The Broken Vow

This is actually the second book in a series, and I hadn't read the first one. However, I was intrigued when I read an excerpt, and I'm a fan of World War I fiction, so decided to read it. I wasn't disappointed. The beginning of the novel supplies us with a secret which is never revealed to Charlotte, the heroine. This is a clever device because presumably it will be revealed in a future novel in this series, and is an enticement to read on! In 1914, Charlotte is mourning the loss of her beloved father. Her emotionally distant stepmother Rosamund is expecting a baby, and if this turns out to be a boy, Charlotte will lose her inheritance. There's some consolation in the fact that she's now engaged to Eustace, in fulfilment of her father's dream for her to marry into the aristocracy. But the wedding is delayed as she's in mourning and Eustace has gone off to fight in France. As the War begins to reveal that it's not a jolly men's adventure after all, and the grim reality of its horrors begin to affect so many families back in England, Charlotte too is forced to face up to real life. Finding a determination and strength inside, she opens the doors of her father's house, Plas Norton, to be used as a convalescent home for injured officers. It's harder than she could ever have imagined, but with the help of her friend Venetia and others from all levels of society, she finally begins to grow up - but at what cost? And will the birth of a little half-brother take it all away from her? Well-written with plenty of historical detail to set the drama in its time.