Today I am sharing my review for one of my favourite reads of the year so far, a stunning story that I fell in love with upon arrival at the rundown Ponden Hall.
Trudy has returned to her beloved childhood home recently widowed with her son Will after an estrangement from her Mother. I found this story beautifully creepy and enthralling, it mixes modern day with events that happened hundreds of years ago. The ghosts trapped in the house have always spoken to Trudy and now they are leaving clues about events in the past.
This book has a dark and slightly gothic feel that made me want to just keep reading. It was a story of how the house had many stories to tell of loss and love over the years and through the generations of the Heaton’s.
As the past and present come colliding together the book keeps gaining momentum and I found more and more that I couldn’t put the book down as was so keen to see what would happen to Ma, Trudy and Will.
A truly brilliant and memorable read with superb characters that you will love and hate in equal measures, this book made my spine tingle and I loved it!
Book Blurb
Ponden Hall is a centuries-old house on the Yorkshire moors, a magical place full of stories. It’s also where Trudy Heaton grew up. And where she ran away from…
Now, after the devastating loss of her husband, she is returning home with her young son, Will, who refuses to believe his father is dead.
While Trudy tries to do her best for her son, she must also attempt to build bridges with her eccentric mother. And then there is the Hall itself: fallen into disrepair but generations of lives and loves still echo in its shadows, sometimes even reaching out to the present…
Available to purchase here
About the Author
Rowan Coleman’s first novel Growing Up Twice was a WHS Fresh Talent Winner. Since then, Rowan has written fifteen novels, including The Memory Book which was a Sunday Times bestseller. It was selected for the Richard and Judy Bookclub and awarded Love Reading Novel of the Year, as voted for by readers.
Her latest novel, The Summer of Impossible Things, is a Zoe Ball TV Book Club selection.
Rowan lives with her husband and their five children in a very full house in Hertfordshire, juggling writing novels with raising her family. She really wishes someone would invent time travel.
You can find out more about Rowan at http://www.rowancoleman.co.uk or follow her on Facebook or Twitter @rowancoleman
Many thanks to Random Things Tours for my invite to take part in this blog tour