I loved the description of the Greek island. The story is told over a dual timeline. It is a good story. The plot was well thought out. The characters were well developed. It has an engaging writing style

I had saved this to read on holiday and I'm so glad I did. The descriptions of Greece are beautifully vivid and transported me to the Greek islands. I really enjoyed the story and would recommend. I was completely engrossed as the characters were appealing and the secrets were revealed gradually. It is far more interesting than your typical easy holiday read.

I’m a huge fan of this author so I was very excited to be invited onto the blog tour for this her latest book. Once again the author has written an intriguing, emotional book that I thoroughly enjoyed!

Firstly I loved the beautiful descriptions of the Greek Island Casterllorizo which were strikingly vivid, often making me feel like I was actually there witnessing everything for myself. The author also includes a bit of information about Greek Culture and traditions which was especially fascinating to find out more about. I’d definitely like to visit the Greek Islands one day.

The story is told in two time lines one following Sophia through the second world war and the other following her grandaughter Olivia as she tries to find out more about her grandmother and her family history. I must admit to enjoying Sophia’s story a bit more as it was fascinating to learn more about the Greek Islands role during the war. I had no idea that they were occupied by Italy and that they weren’t allowed to speak Greek during the occupation. Some of the events described in this book are quite gruesome and really heartbreaking at times, more so because the reader know them to be true. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy Olivia’s story though. It was interesting to follow her connecting with and learning more about her family. I liked how Olivia finds out something in the present day and then the reader is taken back in time to learn more about it, I thought that was very clever.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be recommending it to others. The slow reveal of secrets was tantalisingly done and I soon found myself so wrapped up in the story that it was very hard to put down. It is much more then the easy beach read you might expect as some of the events are very hard hitting. There are some slower moments in the book, but do keep reading as things soon pick up again.

The ending and final reveal was brilliant and I closed the book with a happy, contented sigh. Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Zaffre for my copy of this read.

I enjoyed reading this and the descriptions of Greece were perfect! However I found it a bit long winded in parts, like it was a chick lit novel but wanted to be a bit more. I did enjoy it though and would recommend it x

This book is a perfect summer read. If, like me, you have never been to a small Greek island, then this will have you longing to make a trip. The writing transports you right there. Set in two time frames, you can appreciate the changes over half a century, but also acknowledge how little difference time makes when a place is so remote.
Highly recommended holiday reading.

Patricia Wilson’s The Summer of Secrets is a complex, emotional and beautifully layered tale that follows three generations of a single family tangled up in a web of hidden truths, devastating lies and impossible sacrifices.

Sofia has big dreams. Dreams which she sadly had to put on the back burner to support her older sister Maria and her large family on the Greek island of Castellorizo. The gathering clouds of the Second World War might be fast approaching, but surely the terrible conflict will not come anywhere near this idyllic Greek hideaway…or will it? There is peril on the horizon that will tear the sisters’ lives apart forever and change them beyond all recognition…

After the end of her marriage and the death of her mum, Olivia is devastated. Wracked by grief and heartbreak, a chance to escape from her life and go to the Greek island of Castellorizo is just what the doctor ordered. Growing up, Olivia had heard that her grandmother Sofia had been born on the island, but her family’s past is shrouded in mystery. Arriving in Greece, Olivia meets her elderly great-uncle George, who is the only link to the past, but with his ailing health and fading memory, he cannot really shed any light whatsoever on what really happened to her ancestors during the war in Castellorizo.

Oliva, however, needs to find out the truth about the past, but as she starts to look into the secrets of her family that have been hidden for generations, she begins to wonder whether some things are best left dead and buried…

Patricia Wilson is a lyrical, instinctive and talented writer with a wonderful gift for making both her settings and her characters come to instant life. The Summer of Secrets is a powerful family saga that is emotional, heart-wrenching and uplifting and which grabs the reader’s attention from the start and keeps them avidly turning the pages until the very end.

The Summer of Secrets is a story that cannot fail to resonate with readers as it sensitively explores grief, heartbreak, renewal and love.

Patricia Wilson’s The Summer of Secrets is a book that will get under readers’ skins and stay with them long after they’ve turned the last page.

Thankyou for giving me the chance to read this in advance. I’ve read all of Patricia Wilson’s books and this one didn’t disappoint. Highly recommended

I do so love reading Wilson's books; they are the perfect summer read and this was no different. Once again, we find ourselves located on a beautiful Greek island and Wilson transported me to the idyllic, warm landscape. We also have a very likeable family with a tragic story that Wilson slowly reveals through the eyes of George and Olivia. I just adored reading this, everything about it captured my imagination and left me wanting more. There is so much love and happiness in this but there is also an incredible amount of pain and heartache, all of which Wilson captures perfectly. I could not have wished for a better read.

The Summer of Secrets is the sixth book by Patricia Wilson and it’s gorgeous cover epitomises what this book is about. Set on the tiny Greek island of Castellorizo with a very small population, the story weaves back and forth between the war years as the island suffered and the present day. It has a blend for the most part of a good, solid storyline with intriguing characters and a secret at its centre and fantastic descriptions of the island, it’s people and it’s traditions. With such eloquent, visceral descriptive writing the reader feels transported to the island where the intrinsic beauty of the landscape and the noble spirit of the residents shine through.

Baba, the father of the story, and his brother Kurillos are awaiting the birth of Baba’s second child which he desperately hopes will be a boy. As Mamarita is in labour a catastrophe occurs when a devastating earthquake strikes the tiny island located several miles off the coast of Turkey. Buildings are demolished, boats sink, cracks and chasms appear, and lives are lost but amidst this carnage a new being enters the world. Sofia is born, not the son Baba wanted but none the less Sofia will go on to be an integral element to what will go on to be a large family and she is a character who plays a very important role throughout the story.

After the dramatic opening to the book, we move forth to the present day to Brighton, England where Olivia has just lost her mother. She hopes to scatter her ashes on the island and we soon discover that Sofia was her grandmother. Instantly, the readers interest is piqued. What caused Sofia to leave the island? Why was it such a taboo subject never to be spoken about? Olivia knows no details of her families past but she desperately wants to know the reasons for the silence within her family that echoes with so many unanswered questions. Her mother always said no good came in digging up the past but maybe now the time has come for some burrowing back through the years to uncover the family secret that tore a loving and united family apart. The secret and a certain event are hinted at throughout the book. It seems as if the majority of the characters that feature in the present day know what occurred but it’s Olivia who is the one that is clueless and it won’t be easy to reach the truth. It’s a slow and leisurely path to the significant event that sent so many other wheels in motion and when we do reach it in the later stages of the book it was brilliantly written.

Of course, I won’t say what it was, but it was so vividly written. I could picture it image by image playing out in my mind as if I was watching things unfold on the big screen and to learn at the end that it was based on real events was even more horrifying to read knowing that it was real. This happening sets in motion another chain of events for the principal character Sofia and I will say this is where I found the book to descend into something implasuable. Being 100% honest, I found it to be so far fetched that it couldn’t possibly be true. OK, yes I can see the act did happen but as to why it occurred I found myself having to suspend my disbelief and view it as a something that needed to occur in order to explain a major plotline that was hinted at in titbits throughout the book. I understood how it tied in with the business the family operated but yet it just seemed to over the top. But pushing this to one side and forgetting about it underneath it all there is a good story here that details the history of the island whilst focusing on one family over a period of many years. The heritage of the island, the traditions and the residents are given a strong voice and a light is definitely shone on a different side to the war you may not have read about before as so many books in this genre are set in Germany or France etc.

Sofia’s younger brother George, always known as the baby of the family and the one who was protected, is still alive in the present day. He holds the key to all the secrets but he doesn’t give it willingly to Olivia. I liked how this occurred because George knew deep down that instead Olivia needed to go on a journey back to the island to really understand what her family was all about and how the island and the war shaped and moulded them. When Olivia arrives to the island, unaccompanied by George as he has just undergone an operation, she wishes he was there by her side to help her make sense of everything. She meets electrician Greg who will try and help her get the family’s house and distillery on the hilltop accessible again. After all, now that her mother is gone it’s Olivia who is the one who has come into an inheritance but Australian Rob has other plans in store. As so many of the islanders emigrated to Australia there is now a long line of descendants who have their own claim to the house.

Olivia is a kind and willing person and wants to do things by the book but to me Rob just came across as quite sneaky with ulterior motives. As Olivia tries to navigate her way through filling in the blanks in her family history she slowly uncovers bits and pieces. In the present day occurrences of the past are mentioned and then we go back many years and things are explained in significantly more detail. But really, it’s her Uncle George she needs by her side as he was there, he knows what happened. When she tries to contact him back in England and can’t get any answer, her senses are alerted. What has happened to George? Is he ok?

After the earthquake of 1926 we are taken all the way through to the war years and for several years after its endpoint. Sofia, for the most part, narrates the story and she is even more of a matriarch than her mother as she tends to the distillery where the family distils precious oils that can bring a special kind of euphoria and which have been sold to Parisian fashion houses. We learn of the family’s renown for this most special of traditions and how oldest daughter Maria married Mustafa the Turk who was a sailor and trader and in turn they went on to have 16 children and this is where I feel the term matriarch is most appropriate for Sofia because she cared so deeply for and tended to those children as if they were her own. She was like the glue that held the family together and when the worst befalls the island and they are bombed during the war she remains resilient and strong and her love for English soldier Jamie fortifies her through the difficult journey ahead of her. Even more so when the island was evacuated. I found all this to be so fascinating to read about because what unfolds did happen to the islanders. Their lives were disrupted. They faced starvation and possible death and to be ripped from your home when the tiny island is all you have ever known must have been devastating and full of pain, loss, confusion and anxiety.

At times, when reading as it starts in 1926, I was wondering when would we get to the war years and the event which is endlessly mentioned but no specific details given. The family history and all their traditions and the extended members etc was interesting to read but at times I felt the book went off on tangents and I questioned their necessity in the overall plot. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed reading this book as a whole but perhaps if it was slightly shorter with some scenes cut out which would have meant all that would have been included was all strictly relevant and moving the plot forward at all times. Towards the end you can see why the author included what I deem extra or unnecessary but it just felt too long winded in order to reach the climax. Yes, it helped build a picture and helped the reader to understand the overall context behind the big mystery but for me it just meant things dragged in parts. So yes, overall, I did enjoy The Summer of Secrets and it is worthy of a read especially if you happen to be abroad in sunny climes to read considering the beautiful imagery throughout but I still think I prefer some of the author’s earlier books.

I love Greek islands and the history behind them particularly in the world wars so this duel timeline story surrounding the Eastern island of Castellorizo was very appealing to me.
There were things I loved and some things I didn't love so much about this book. Some of the passages felt padded and like a lot could have been covered in a much shorter amount of writing but I can understand there was a lot of history of a large family to cover and that the history had clearly been very well researched.
I didn't love the ending, particularly one aspect that went a little too far out for my taste, but that's just my opinion. The heartbreaking ordeals of the islanders through the period covered is as poignant now as ever as we find war on European soil again; the suffering & displacement of innocent people and the desecration of a beautiful paradise was tough reading and I was certainly gripped and appalled at what they went through.

Patricia Wilson's books are always wonderful and this one is no difference. This book is written with lots of love, and lots of heart. It is part mystery, part romance, part learning who you are. It is one that will pull on your heart strings but one that will also make you smile.

Another one I could not put down and devoured in one sitting. I absolutely recommend this book. Be ready for an afternoon or evening of completely neglecting any chores as this one will have you hooked within the first chapter. I live for books that leave me speechless and this book did just that. I actually feel quite sorry for the next book that I read because there is no way it be able to compete with this one.

The settings for this book are set in dual lifetimes and this along with the well given characters made for a really great read. This is one to re-read at some stage. 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC

Absolutely could not fault this book. Loved it from start to finish.
Loved that it was a duel timeline book, the characters are brilliant and the setting was amazing, the facts and details made it seem like I was there.
Highly highly recommend this book you will not want to put it down!!

After the death of her mother Olivia decides now may be the perfect time to visit Castellorizo, the place where her mother was born. Her Great Uncle George is the only surviving relative she has that still has a connection to the Greek Island but due to his age his memory is fading, and Olivia is intrigued to find out what made her grandmother Sofia leave all those years ago.
The story is told through a dual timeline with the majority of it focusing around Sofia from the day she was born until the events that led her to leave the island once and for all. I was really intrigued by Sofia’s story, and it was interesting to learn more about the family history as Olivia connected with the residents that remembered her. Sofia was quite a headstrong character and although she was determined to follow her own dreams there was still the pull of the family, one she would do anything to protect even if it did mean putting her life on hold at times. Her story takes us through the war where the Island was taken over by the Italians and Greek was not allowed to be spoken. Despite this the family still managed to lead a happy life and it was only when they were forced to leave for the first time that they were touched by real tragedy that changed them forever.
I enjoyed seeing Olivia slowly connect with her family history and the people who lived on Castellorizo, many of them for generations but it was Sofia and her story that captured my imagination the most. It was also interesting to find out about the role the Greek Islands had in the war as this was not something I was aware of in the past. The author has managed to capture the true feeling of the island and given descriptions that transport you to the heart of the family and gives you characters that you become invested in.
This is going to be a great book for the summer and whilst it may not be the traditional romantic summer read there is still a love story at its heart mixed in with the tragedy and the secrets.

I love this author and every book I have read by her has been amazing and this was no different. She is my go to author for beach reads, however I unfortunately read this one at home so had to get ocean ambianceolaying on alexa instead. I loved it.