Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
Ali McNamara
Rating: 5 stars
The sun is shining on the golden castle on Rainbow Bay - and change is in the air!
Amelia is a single mother, doing her very best to look after her young son, Charlie - but money is tight an times are tough. When she first hears that she is the last decedent of the Chesterford family and that she has inherited a Real-Life Castle by the Sea, Amelia can't quite believe her ears. But it's true!
She soon finds that owning a castle isn't quite the ticket to sorting out her money problems that she'd first hoped: she can't sell, because the terms of the ancient bequest state that any Chesterford who inherits the castle, must life there and work towards the upkeep and maintenance of the family home. So ever-practical Amelia decides to uproot her little family and move to this magnificent castle by the sea.
Living in a castle on the beautiful Northumberland coast is fun at first, but organising the day-to-day running is a lot more complicated than Amelia first imagined. Luckily she has help from the small band of eccentric and unconventional staff that are already employed there - and a mysterious unseen hand that often gives her a push in the right direction just when she needs it most. It's only when she meets Tom, a furniture restorer who comes to the castle to help repair some antique furniture, that Amelia realises she might get the fairy-tale ending that she and Charlie truly deserve...
------------------------------
There's always something extra magical about Ali McNamara's novels and this one is no different. The last novel I had read of hers was brilliantly written and captivating and I knew that this one would be the same. Immediately, I was drawn in with it's pretty cover. I love the colourful flowers used, the cute car in the middle, the huge imposing castle in the background - and of course the glistening sea on the right hand side! Everything looks beautiful and makes for a really spellbinding cover.
Onto the story itself, I immediately warmed towards main character Amelia. You could see from the start that she was doing all she could to help make Charlie's life the best it could be on such a low amount of money. When I read the part where Amelia looks in the fridge for dinner and it's mostly empty, it really upset me and I had high hopes that they would get their happily ever after - after all, it was the least they deserved after what they had been through!
When they arrived at Chesterford Castle and there was a few ghostly goings on happening, I couldn't wait to read more about it - I found it so interesting reading about the previous inhabitants of the castle - some of them sounded quite cheeky! As well as main character Amelia and her son Charlie, there are also a bunch of other secondary characters that you get to know and love too. I particularly liked Arthur, he seemed like a lovely man underneath his grumpiness! And I also loved Dorothy's character too. I also really enjoyed reading about Amelia and Tom's relationship and seeing where that was headed - I just wanted it to desperately work out for Amelia because she really had been through quite a few wars and deserved to be happy.
Throughout the book, I just felt like there was this magical, spellbinding energy and I loved it. I love Ali McNamara's style of writing - it's wonderfully captivating and I enjoyed every page, every character. It was a fabulous novel and I can't wait to read more by this author in the future. Thank you to the publisher for a chance to read this novel via Netgalley, which I have reviewed honestly.
No comments:
Post a Comment