The Glass House by Eve Chase
This novel is set over two time periods 1971 and the present day. The author writes in a dreamy and metaphor strewn style. Some of these metaphors feel so apt that you find yourself re-reading passages in order to appreciate them fully. I had not read anything else by this author but immersing myself in this story made we want to try her other novels.
The plot is interconnected and told through the eyes of three main characters Sylvie, Hera and Rita. The plot opens in the in 1971 with Rita arriving in London to be a nanny to two young children and a new baby. Then there is a disaster and the family are moved to the wilds of the Forest of Dean and Rita has to cope with all this entails. We know that she is also struggling to come to terms with a trauma from her own past.
The other voice set in this period is Hera the plump teenage daughter of the family. She had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new sibling and fails to comprehend quite how her mother has been shattered by her terrible experience.
In the present we meet Sylvie who has left her husband of many years and is now living in a small flat on her own. Then Sylvie’s mother is taken into hospital and her world seems to fall apart. She begins to investigate her past; which had always been a mystery she had not wanted to unearth.
Throughout the story you wonder how these strands will be interwoven and some might say that the coincidences which occur push the bounds of possibility but, because you are engaged with the characters, it is possible to suspend disbelief and let the story flow to its pleasing conclusion. I would think that this would make a highly entertaining book for book groups and provoke a great deal of discussion.
Many thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this - under the title of The Glass House. As with lots of other books at the moment, it's written from two viewpoints across two timelines. Of course you know they're going to interconnect, and working out how is half the fun of reading the story.
Rita's story was my favourite half of the book with the evocative descriptions of the forest to entice you in. A lovely read.

The Glass House is another fantastic novel from Eve Chase that moves between the early 1970’s and present day. In 1971, Rita works as a nanny for the wealthy, but damaged Harrington family. When a series of tragedies occur at their London home, the patriarch Walter thinks time at their country home in the Forest of Dean will benefit his fragile wife Jeannie. After an abandoned baby is found in the forest near their home and an family friend comes to visit, events take a sinister turn.
In the present day, Sylvie is dealing with recently separating from her unfaithful husband when her elderly mother suffers a serious accident and her teenage daughter, bound for Cambridge drops a bombshell.
Eve Chase has a magical way of writing that grips you from the very start. Her characters make you smile, cry or utterly furious and there are so many plot twists that even when you think you’ve got the story sussed, you realise that you really haven’t! Highly recommended.

I feel like this could have worked better than it did as the drama took a while to actually happen and it seemed like the author was trying to build up all the other areas of the story before adding the action as described in the book. The dramatic sections in the first third did not seem fully relevant and I didn't particularly care about a couple of the plot points that were happening.

This is a haunting tale spanning many years. The plot is quite interconnected and convoluted so prepare to have your wits about you when you begin. We start in the past with the Harrington family (mum and two children) as they flee London to their forest house after the loss of a child. An abandoned baby is welcomed into their family but there is a tragedy involved there too. There's also a nanny and a housekeeper, along with a couple of villagers. Fast forward to the present and we follow Sylvie as she struggles in her own life with mother in hospital and the frail relationship with her daughter after splitting with her husband. What connects these two timelines? Well, I don't think I dare even hint at that as, as already mentioned, the plot is so interconnected that to even try and hint at anything else might inject spoilers into my review. Suffice to say, it had me rapt and on the edge of my seat as I delighted in all the secrets and lies as they were revealed. Some I guessed ahead of time, others hit me in the face along the way... It's one of those books where you need to be prepared to be confused, hold your questions, and just trust in the author. If you can do that and stick with it, you will be richly rewarded.
If I were to list all the things that happen in this book it would be a long list. This book really does have it all but, and this is important, it didn't feel as busy as that list would suggest. The way that the author spins all the threads, intertwining them at exactly the right moments, made the journey lighter than perhaps the subject matter could have made it. Not that anything is diluted, more spaced out, with many reveals, both major and minor, along the way rather than relying on one (or two) big twists towards the end. This made the book more balanced and, well basically made me keep reading. So entranced I was and eager to finally get the whole picture.
The characters were all well drawn and came across as feeling real. They all played their parts very well, even the minor ones. As well as being a tightly plotted book, it was also quite character driven at times. I connected well with the majority and really did care what happened to them. That really helped.
This is my first book by this author but it definitely won't be the last. I'm off to check out her back catalogue. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a bit slow to start with and I was close to giving up but kept on going and it definitely picked up. I loved the mystery and the characters. Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to review the book.

A little slow to get off the mark but in appreciation of the author having to set the scene for a rather complicated plot, once we were off then there was no stopping this reader! I sympathised with Rita and understood Sylvie’s hesitant quest for truth! I got to know both characters and I liked them, do like to like my characters! There were no loose ends, the talented author was able to bring about an emotional and fitting conclusion which brought a very satisfying lump to my throat! . A extremely satisfying tale told with warmth and compassion - I would definitely book tickets to watch the film!

I am sorry but I don’t think I quite get this book. From the blurb I thought it had great promise but after reading only a few pages there are few things that have nagged me and I can’t quite get into. The whole past and present feels off it doesn’t feel like 1970 more like 1870 just that instead of a carriage there’s a car. The characters feel odd and not in a good way. Having said that I can see how the mystery and the shift from past to present and back will appeal to certain readers. I am sorry to say it’s missed me entirely.

This has all the elements I love in a book with a remote, slightly creepy house set deep in forest and plenty of family secrets to unravel layer by layer.

It is told in two time-frames starting with a body found in the woods in 1971 and jumping back and forth to present day. In 1971 Rita, young nanny to the rich Harrington family, finds herself living with Jeannie Harrington and her children at Foxcote Manor deep in a forest after the elegant family townhouse in London has burned down. Head of the Harrington household, Walter, has remained in London to control his job and also hopes to keep control of his household via Rita.

In present day London, Sylvie is starting a new life in Kensal Town after separating from her husband Steve. Their 18 year old daughter, Annie, is going between Sylvie’s flat and the family home. Annie decides to visit her grandmother in the West Country but there is then a terrible accident.

We learn more and more secrets as we discover more about the characters past and present. It was a great, well-written, story which kept me captivated with a good conclusion.

I look forward to more works by this author. With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Outside a remote manor house, a baby girl is found. The Harrington family take her in and keep her secret and enjoy life with her. But within days there will be a dead body and shattered dreams. Years later, the truth will be put together piece by piece... The book is told in two time lines and we slowly learn the story. An enjoyable read with secrets, shocks and connecting tales. I found it a little hard to follow but it is a good read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

If you like your mysteries atmospheric then I highly recommend The Glass House - it's the kind of book that makes you look up in surprise at your present-day surroundings. Long-fused mysteries in the past and present take a tantalisingly long time to weave together but the wait is absolutely worth it. Beautiful, transportive writing.

I absolutely loved The Glass House ,beautifully written ,full of suspense and mystery .Told in two time lines and through the main characters Rita ,Hera and Sylvie , the story travels from the Forest of Dean in the 70's to present day London.What I liked best is how all the stories eventually entwined to a very satisfactory ending .Many thanks to the Publishers the Author and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review .

What an intriguing and almost timeless book this was.
Though part set in the 70s and also a modern timeline, this story could be set earlier because of the manor house and the vintage feel to the drama that unfolds. It is entirely mesmerising to read the story of Jeannie, Teddy and Hera, and their nanny Rita, the brooding, wild and sinister woodland that surrounds their house, keeping in the secrets and yet threatens to unravel everything. Then the modern story is of Sylvie and her daughter Annie, who are both struggling with tragedy and huge life changes.
Inevitably the two timelines intertwine and you are cleverly shown glimpses of what connects both stories, and what reasons each narrator has for their secrets.
I couldn't put it down, especially the last third; it had me gripped to find out what would happen but also stirred deep emotions about family, love, motherhood and I felt it was such a privilege to read these women's stories.

Rita lost both her parents in a car crash when she was just six years old: since then she's always craved a family. She'd lived with her grandmother in Torquay until she got a job as a nanny with the Harrington family in London. Soon her engagement to Fred, a Torquay butcher, fell through and the Harringtons became her family. In 1971, after a fire at the London house, Jeannie Harrington, her children, 13-year-old Hera and 6-year-old Teddy, along with Rita went to the family's house in the Forest of Dean. It wasn't quite dilapidated, but it certainly wasn't the same standard as the London house had been before the fire.

Walter Harrington threatened Rita: if she didn't report back to him about his wife's state of mind and actions, whilst they were at Foxcote Manor he'd sack her and employ someone who was more amenable. For herself, Rita would probably have gone rather than be bullied into doing what she knew was morally wrong, but she was close to Hera and Teddy and Knew that Jeannie didn't have it in her to look after them properly. Jeannie was recovering from the loss of her baby a few months earlier and her state of mind was suspect.

There's been another man in the picture for a long time. Don Armstrong had been Walter's best friend, but he seemed to have transferred his affections to Jeannie - and she to him. Don didn't care whom he hurt and at Foxcote Manor the affair was blatant. Then Hera found a baby abandoned in the woods and for the summer the family would treat it as their own, until the night of the shooting.

In the present day, Sylvie is moving her possessions into a small flat. She's separated from her husband, Steve, but she hopes that for the sake of their daughter, Annie, they can remain on reasonable terms. Annie's due to go to Cambridge to read maths. Well, that was the plan until she told Sylvie about the baby... And Sylvie's mother had an accident which left her in a coma.

This is a cracker of a book. When I started reading I simply wasn't going to be away from it for too long and I finished it in just over twenty-four hours. Rita is a superb character. The children call her 'Big Rita' and at one point she's described as devoted as a Great Dane. That sums her up perfectly. They're not her children, but she loves them as though they are. She's always been conscious of her size and tries to minimise it - and hide the scars from that car crash. Even with Fred she never felt completely relaxed about who she was and that doesn't change until she meets local woodsman, Robbie Rigby.

We hear Rita and Sylvie's stories and gradually we see them converge, but even as they do I really couldn't see how they were going to work out to my satisfaction, but they do: we're safe in the hands of a very skilled author and I turned the final page with a feeling of satisfaction and just a small sigh of regret that the book was finished. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

This wasn't the book for me I found it quite hard to follow at times, it just didn't engage me. I must admit I was tempted to throw in the towel on several occasions but I always read a book till the end when I have requested to review it.

The start of the book had me gripped but by about half way through my attention had started to wander and I started to skip big paragraphs of description to move the story on a bit.
The story was very atmospheric but very slow moving. I did finish the story and enjoyed the ending, but I felt that it should have had some of the middle section edited a bit more as some of it didn’t move the story forward.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

I found this book to be rather mesmerising. I didn't understand it very much at all to begin with, but it kept on drawing me on. I wans't even sure that I was particularly enjoying it - but I had to keep on reading it. This is where I could go into superlatives saying how wonderful it is. But I'm not going to - all I say is if you want a deep heartwarming, confusing, wonderful story - read it, just read it.

Loved it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I read an advance review copy of the book. This review is voluntary, honest and my own opinion

An intricately woven tale.

This was my first read from Emily St John Mandel and she has beautifully written an intricately woven tale, which mainly centres around four main characters... Vincent (female), her half brother Paul, Jonathan Alkaitis, and Leon Prevant.

Although all the characters are fictional, there is a huge parallel to the massive financial crisis of 2008. The setting moves in several areas of America, especially in New York, and in Canada. At one point further on, we are taken to other destinations, via one character’s sailing experiences.

As the plot unfolds we are taken back and forth in time, plus meeting numerous other characters and how they become enmeshed in an extremely immoral lifestyle, all because of their link to Jonathan Alkaitis, who owns The Glass Hotel.

Many issues are explored, from mega-rich lifestyles, corruption, seizing unlawful opportunities, drug addiction, lies and deceit!

I particularly enjoyed unravelling the stories and fates of all the characters, but I personally found there was far too much depth revolving around the 2008 crash.

Galadriel.

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of this book to review.

Struggled to get into this one I’m afraid. Far too dark and a bit too slow to hook me but thank you so much for the opportunity to read this.

This book has a beautiful setting, a house in the forest which gives is that edgy dark feel. The Characters were well thought out . My only downside was the story was to slow for my liking, it wasn’t going to shock me so I found myself wanting it to end.