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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
4.5⭐️
would've been a 5 star read for me if not for the rushed ending.
would've been a 5 star read for me if not for the rushed ending.
In 1940s Bath, Will Emerson lives at Avon Lodge with the love of his life Elsa. Their happiness is interrupted by an aerial attack by German bomber planes. Will rushes to the back garden go rescue a 6 year old neighbourhood boy who has been trying to reach his daddy in the RAF on Will's radios in his workshop. As he gathers the boy in his arms and runs towards the house, Elsa is telling him to go back, he won't make it to the cellar in time.
Over 60 years later, Laura is hired to become a carer for Will, now in his late 80's. She has to assess whether he is capable of living on his own. He has insisted he was once married to a young Austrian woman called Elsa but there is no record of her ever existing.
Can Laura solve the mystery of Will and Elsa?
Told in two timelines, this story really kept me hooked right the way through. A very entertaining and interesting book.
Over 60 years later, Laura is hired to become a carer for Will, now in his late 80's. She has to assess whether he is capable of living on his own. He has insisted he was once married to a young Austrian woman called Elsa but there is no record of her ever existing.
Can Laura solve the mystery of Will and Elsa?
Told in two timelines, this story really kept me hooked right the way through. A very entertaining and interesting book.
This was a very readable and engaging story. I was worried, as I read, that all the multiple threads wouldn't come together, but they do! I wasn't always sure about Laura, and her mum was a bit bland for my liking, but all the historical parts were brilliant, and the opening scene was a perfect hook into the story.
I did have some small quibbles over the resolution - which I don't want to note here as I'd have to talk about too many spoilers. I think it's enough to say that any story that has anything even vaguely hinting at time travel, or dimensions, or parallel universes, always leaves me overthinking things *too much* and never fully resolves for me! I had also thought that the radios and transmitters would be put to more use than they were - probably more me overthinking the sci-fi aspects.
But really, it was Elsa and Will's story that I loved, and wanted to read more of.
With thanks to Netgalley for my copy.
I did have some small quibbles over the resolution - which I don't want to note here as I'd have to talk about too many spoilers. I think it's enough to say that any story that has anything even vaguely hinting at time travel, or dimensions, or parallel universes, always leaves me overthinking things *too much* and never fully resolves for me! I had also thought that the radios and transmitters would be put to more use than they were - probably more me overthinking the sci-fi aspects.
But really, it was Elsa and Will's story that I loved, and wanted to read more of.
With thanks to Netgalley for my copy.
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow this book was amazing! As soon as I finished it I wanted to read it all over again, something I never do!
I loved Days of Wonder when I read it a couple of years ago, and was so excited when I received an email from the publisher to read the author’s latest book. Well it grabbed me from the first page! I had to know more about Will and his wife Elsa and if Laura was able to help him.
I love dual timeline stories and this is one of the best I’ve read. It’s told through Will’s journals from the late 1930s, and from Laura’s point of view in 2007.
I loved Will, Elsa and Laura, they were fabulous characters who I believed in and wanted the best for. I sympathised with Laura as she struggled to make sense of Will’s situation. Was he telling her the truth or was the dementia making him make everything up about Elsa?
This was one of those books that captivated me and made feel like I was inside the book with the characters. I could see everything that was happening to them and could almost feel the electricity and here the buzz of the radio in the house when strange things were happening every time Laura visited Will. She didn’t know if it was her imagination, the withdrawal affects from her medication or something spooky going on! I didn’t know either and really hoped it was real. There were some fantastic reveals in this story with one near the end that really took me by surprise.
I loved the period details from the wartime story and went scurrying off to Google to check out Sham’s Castle. I can easily see this as a film, it’s ripe for a book to screen adaption, and I can imagine David Warner playing Will.
I highly recommend this one if you enjoy dual timeline novels partly set in World War Two.
Thanks so much to Clara Diaz at Little Brown Group for my digital copy via the NetGalley app.
I loved Days of Wonder when I read it a couple of years ago, and was so excited when I received an email from the publisher to read the author’s latest book. Well it grabbed me from the first page! I had to know more about Will and his wife Elsa and if Laura was able to help him.
I love dual timeline stories and this is one of the best I’ve read. It’s told through Will’s journals from the late 1930s, and from Laura’s point of view in 2007.
I loved Will, Elsa and Laura, they were fabulous characters who I believed in and wanted the best for. I sympathised with Laura as she struggled to make sense of Will’s situation. Was he telling her the truth or was the dementia making him make everything up about Elsa?
This was one of those books that captivated me and made feel like I was inside the book with the characters. I could see everything that was happening to them and could almost feel the electricity and here the buzz of the radio in the house when strange things were happening every time Laura visited Will. She didn’t know if it was her imagination, the withdrawal affects from her medication or something spooky going on! I didn’t know either and really hoped it was real. There were some fantastic reveals in this story with one near the end that really took me by surprise.
I loved the period details from the wartime story and went scurrying off to Google to check out Sham’s Castle. I can easily see this as a film, it’s ripe for a book to screen adaption, and I can imagine David Warner playing Will.
I highly recommend this one if you enjoy dual timeline novels partly set in World War Two.
Thanks so much to Clara Diaz at Little Brown Group for my digital copy via the NetGalley app.
Very charming, a novel about time and causality, but with rounded characters and beautifully described emotions breathed into it. It turns what could be a somewhat dry narrative into a rich reading experience, and it made me want to really soak up the Georgian delights of Bath (stopped there once for a few hours en route to somewhere else, seemed very busy and didn't like it much). I'm not sure that the ending is as strong as the build-up, but there were twists that I did not see coming and the two main characters are gorgeously written.
The frequency of us is the story of Will and Elsa who meet during the war and fall in love. They are living happily ever after until their house is bombed. After Will recovers, he can find no trace of Elsa and no one believes she existed. Decades later, Laura is assigned as Will’s carer and her assessment of his health leads her to become entangled in the mystery of Elsa’s disappearance.
I sank in to the story of The Frequency of Us quickly and found Will cantankerous but charming. I enjoyed seeing the mystery of Elsa’s disappearance unravel. It was a story that spanned several genres with really humorous moments interspersed with really creepy, skin crawling events. I found my interest waned during the middle of the book and couldn’t relate to Laura’s obsessive need to find out what happened to Elsa. Because of this, I didn’t feel the tension or urge to get to the answers and some aspects of the ending seemed a little too convenient.
It’s a really interesting idea for a novel and I am sure fans of romance and sci fi genres will enjoy unravelling the mystery of Will and Elsa.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Sphere for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
I sank in to the story of The Frequency of Us quickly and found Will cantankerous but charming. I enjoyed seeing the mystery of Elsa’s disappearance unravel. It was a story that spanned several genres with really humorous moments interspersed with really creepy, skin crawling events. I found my interest waned during the middle of the book and couldn’t relate to Laura’s obsessive need to find out what happened to Elsa. Because of this, I didn’t feel the tension or urge to get to the answers and some aspects of the ending seemed a little too convenient.
It’s a really interesting idea for a novel and I am sure fans of romance and sci fi genres will enjoy unravelling the mystery of Will and Elsa.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Sphere for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated