1939. Huyendo de la guerra que se cierne sobre Londres, una niña es acogida en una bella mansión campestre, donde será testigo de una trágica historia de amor que dejará en ella una profunda huella.
A principios de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Anna, de ocho años, es eviada a Ashton Park, una magnífica mansón victoriana convertida en internado y regentada por un matrimonio aristocrático. Lejos del Londres asediado por las bombas, su refugio se convierte en una ventana al mundo de las emociones. Allí, a su corta edad y a pesar de su inocencia, será testigo de una historia conmovedora de amor y pérdida que marcará su vida.

This book was given to me to read by a co-worker, and as our reading tastes are usually similar I looked forward to reading this debut novel from this Author. I will come straight out now and say the only reason this book received the two thumbs it did is because it is located in my home county of Yorkshire, England.

However, if you like books with multiple characters, each with their own separate plot and agenda, this may be the book for you. I found the profusion of characters and plots became rather confusing after a while, and this nearly resulted in my consigning it to my empty ‘did not finish’ pile. The reason it did not end up there was the hope I held that when I turned the next page the development of the main protagonist would start and the storyline proper would then get underway. Unfortunately this was not to be the case and I’m not sure if it is the sheer number of characters that prevented this, or sympathy for the Author that they may have been a little unsure of themselves in this area of their writing. I feel that if the Author had pared down the amount of characters in the novel, and concentrated some of that energy into the development of the key ones, this would have become a much better, if not compelling, read.

What a disappointment, I was expecting a book based around the evacuees from the London Blitz and the way it affected them both mentally and physically; I was expecting maybe something more along the lines of ‘Good Night, Mr. Tom’, but received a rehashing of parts of ‘The Go-Between’ and ‘Atonement’ without any of the plot development or characters that would truly make it worth the time I invested in reading this. I feel that an outstanding editor would have been able to point out these issues to the Author, and with gentle guidance been able to help them turn this into a fresh perspective on love and happiness.

The ending of this book was the final nail in the coffin for me; most of the novel takes place during World War II, and when I say most it is probably about 75% of the book, then in the final 25% the Author suddenly felt the need to cram sixty years into about 50 pages; no explanation or tie in to the rest of the book, just ‘here it is’. In this particular case this is one of those books that would have been better off left with an open-ending without the Author feeling the need to tie everything up neatly.

Unfortunately I don’t feel I could recommend this book to any one group of readers, but it may be something that book clubs would enjoy dissecting at their meetings.


Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/04/02/review-the-very-thought-of-you-rosie-aliso...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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This book was given to me to read by a co-worker, and as our reading tastes are usually similar I looked forward to reading this debut novel from this Author. I will come straight out now and say the only reason this book received the two thumbs it did is because it is located in my home county of Yorkshire, England.

However, if you like books with multiple characters, each with their own separate plot and agenda, this may be the book for you. I found the profusion of characters and plots became rather confusing after a while, and this nearly resulted in my consigning it to my empty ‘did not finish’ pile. The reason it did not end up there was the hope I held that when I turned the next page the development of the main protagonist would start and the storyline proper would then get underway. Unfortunately this was not to be the case and I’m not sure if it is the sheer number of characters that prevented this, or sympathy for the Author that they may have been a little unsure of themselves in this area of their writing. I feel that if the Author had pared down the amount of characters in the novel, and concentrated some of that energy into the development of the key ones, this would have become a much better, if not compelling, read.

What a disappointment, I was expecting a book based around the evacuees from the London Blitz and the way it affected them both mentally and physically; I was expecting maybe something more along the lines of ‘Good Night, Mr. Tom’, but received a rehashing of parts of ‘The Go-Between’ and ‘Atonement’ without any of the plot development or characters that would truly make it worth the time I invested in reading this. I feel that an outstanding editor would have been able to point out these issues to the Author, and with gentle guidance been able to help them turn this into a fresh perspective on love and happiness.

The ending of this book was the final nail in the coffin for me; most of the novel takes place during World War II, and when I say most it is probably about 75% of the book, then in the final 25% the Author suddenly felt the need to cram sixty years into about 50 pages; no explanation or tie in to the rest of the book, just ‘here it is’. In this particular case this is one of those books that would have been better off left with an open-ending without the Author feeling the need to tie everything up neatly.

Unfortunately I don’t feel I could recommend this book to any one group of readers, but it may be something that book clubs would enjoy dissecting at their meetings.


Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/04/02/review-the-very-thought-of-you-rosie-aliso...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
( )

(7.5)At the outbreak of the Second World War, London families were encouraged to evacuate their children to the countryside, where they would be safe from aerial bombing. Eight year old Anna Sand's father is already away fighting in Egypt, so it is a wrench for her to be separated from her mother. Anna is fortunate to be placed at Ashton Park along with 80 odd other children. It is a beautiful old house owned by Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, a childless couple. Thomas was struck down with polio early in their marriage and their marriage is floundering. They decide to set up a boarding school. As an only child, Anna is a quiet and studious and soon comes to the attention of the Ashton's, especially Thomas.
Anna and the other children do not anticipate the length of their stay and it is only after a tragic event that Anna's stay comes to an end. In the absence of her parents she has formed a strong attachment to both Ashton Park and some of the teachers. However this attachment causes Anna to struggle as an adult to form close relationships.
This book was a little disappointing for me, as it falls more into the romantic fiction category, with it's strong emphasis on the adult relationships within rather than the upheaval for the children. ( )

Historical fiction is a magnet to me. I loved this book so much, it was difficult to lay it down. I felt right at home with the story. No, I was not a evacuee little girl in England in August, 1939 being bussed away from her mum to somewhere in the countryside. Anna, along with many other children who did not have relatives in the countryside were sent there to protect them from the soon expected bombings by the Germans.

Anna and her group had the good luck of being taken to a beautiful old mansion. She was a reader like me and was amazed at the marble floors and the amazing statues on the grounds, the many rooms and the sound of classical music on a piano. This story starts with her and brings in people like the owner of the mansion who was wheelchair bound, his beautiful but uncontented wife. A teacher who made learning very special, and of course her mother and close to the end, her father.

This stands out to me from this book, the quote from one of Alfred Lloyd Tennyson's poems
"I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

There is much more that I could tell you about this wonderful book but that is for you to find out. ( )