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A review by skenebean
Die Sanduhr unserer Liebe: Roman by Kate Riordan
4.0
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Cotswolds, I’ll admit it. I remember beautiful walking holidays there as a child, and as I grew up I fell more and more in love with the wonderful area. I then studied at the University of Gloucestershire and made more and more friends who lived locally, making me feel a sense of pride and ownership towards Gloucestershire. But, I have to admit, Kate Riordan’s writing make that feeling turn from a soft spot into an outright, boastful pride. I’ve raved about her descriptions before. She has a wonderful skill for building up whole worlds in one’s imagination, but her talent truly lies in old, slightly spooky houses. When I was little I used to visit National Trust houses with my grandparents or with my mum, often being left behind as I stood in a daze, imagining all the people who had lived there, the stories that had taken place and mysteries that had existed. It was no wonder that I became such a lover of historical fiction, where my imaginings could be brought to life. And Kate Riordan doesn’t just create characters or locations, she makes them real, creating something completely believable that makes you laugh and jump and cry. Historical, romantic suspenseful and supernatural, The Shadow Hour is an excellent book that I couldn’t help but get completely stuck into.
The book follows two characters, Harriet and her granddaughter Grace, but the narrative splits to explore what happens to each of the women as, decades apart, they leave home to become governesses for the Pembridge family at Fenix House. Like Grace, we think we know the facts of what has gone before, due to the stories told by Harriet. However, we quickly realise that these were not entirely truthful, and I spent the entire novel longing to know everything: what happened to Harriet… what would happen to Grace (and other characters but I am avoiding even a hint of spoilers because you seriously have to read this yourselves) and how the two narratives intertwine and link together.
When I reviewed The Girl in the Photograph, I marvelled at Kate Riordan’s subtlety of writing. Both novels, although this is fresher in my mind, walk the fine line between an overwhelming contextual portrait and a ‘story’, with both tales showing realistic people living their real-feeling lives; both novels walk the line between a captivating love story without this being the only theme (or even the main theme) and both novels balance hints (and ‘glimmers’…) of the supernatural without every going anywhere near unbelievable…
The book follows two characters, Harriet and her granddaughter Grace, but the narrative splits to explore what happens to each of the women as, decades apart, they leave home to become governesses for the Pembridge family at Fenix House. Like Grace, we think we know the facts of what has gone before, due to the stories told by Harriet. However, we quickly realise that these were not entirely truthful, and I spent the entire novel longing to know everything: what happened to Harriet… what would happen to Grace (and other characters but I am avoiding even a hint of spoilers because you seriously have to read this yourselves) and how the two narratives intertwine and link together.
When I reviewed The Girl in the Photograph, I marvelled at Kate Riordan’s subtlety of writing. Both novels, although this is fresher in my mind, walk the fine line between an overwhelming contextual portrait and a ‘story’, with both tales showing realistic people living their real-feeling lives; both novels walk the line between a captivating love story without this being the only theme (or even the main theme) and both novels balance hints (and ‘glimmers’…) of the supernatural without every going anywhere near unbelievable…