Book Synopsis:
A secret family history of love, anguish and betrayal.
After her beloved grandmother Rozenn’s death, Morane is heartbroken to learn that her sister is the sole inheritor of the family home in Cornwall—while she herself has been written out of the will. With both her business and her relationship with her sister on the rocks, Morane becomes consumed by one question: what made Rozenn turn her back on her?
When she finds an old letter linking her grandmother to Brittany under German occupation, Morane escapes on the trail of her family’s past. In the coastal village where Rozenn lived in 1941, she uncovers a web of shameful secrets that haunted Rozenn to the end of her days. Was it to protect those she loved that a desperate Rozenn made a heartbreaking decision and changed the course of all their lives forever?
Morane goes in search of the truth but the truth can be painful. Can she make her peace with the past and repair her relationship with her sister?
You Let Me Go is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below or through your local indie bookstore.
My Review:
This was a very absorbing and well written story that I thoroughly enjoyed.
As frequent readers of my blog will know I’m a huge fan of dual historical fiction especially if it is set during the second world war so this book really appealed to me from the start. I would love to have a relative who I could investigate from this period so I loved living through Morane as she tried to find out more about her grandmother.
Normally in a dual timeline story I find I like the historical side of the story the best but in this book I actually found both storylines very intriguing. It was very interesting to follow Rozenn through her war time experiences and learn more about what life was like under the German occupation but it was also fascinating to follow Morane in her investigations. There are perhaps a few lucky discoveries in her investigation but I liked seeing the two stories come together and to start to understand more about Rozenn’s past and why she made the decisions she did.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and will definitely be recommending it to other fans of historical fiction. The ending was very interesting and I liked finding out the truth about Morane’s grandmothers and making some surprising discoveries about her life. The ending was very interesting and I liked the way the author came to a neat, satisfying conclusion.
Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for my copy of this book and to Amazon Publishing for my copy of this book through Netgalley.
About The Author:
Eliza Graham’s novels have been long-listed for the UK’s Richard & Judy Summer Book Club in the UK, and short-listed for World Book Day’s ‘Hidden Gem’ competition. She has also been nominated for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
Her books have been bestsellers both in Europe and the US.
She is fascinated by the world of the 1930s and 1940s: the Second World War and its immediate aftermath and the trickle-down effect on future generations. Consequently she’s made trips to visit bunkers in Brittany, decoy harbours in Cornwall, wartime radio studios in Bedfordshire and cemeteries in Szczecin, Poland. And those are the less obscure research trips.
It was probably inevitable that Eliza would pursue a life of writing. She spent biology lessons reading Jean Plaidy novels behind the textbooks, sitting at the back of the classroom. In English and history lessons she sat right at the front, hanging on to every word. At home she read books while getting dressed and cleaning her teeth. During school holidays she visited the public library multiple times a day.
At Oxford University she studied English Literature, which didn’t teach her much about writing a modern novel, but expanded her knowledge of the literary canon and how people have used books and words to communicate with one another since Saxon times.
She has worked as a ‘Saturday’ girl in Marks & Spencer, an entrance-hall cleaner, a trainee banker and as a PR consultant and business writer, covering subjects from long-tail insurance risks to jumbo factory loo rolls.
Eliza lives in an ancient village in the Oxfordshire countryside with her family. Not far from her house there is a large perforated sarsen stone that can apparently summon King Alfred if you blow into it correctly. Eliza has never managed to summon him. Her interests still mainly revolve around reading, but she also enjoys walking in the downland country around her home and travelling around the world to research her novels.
Find out more about Eliza on her website: http://www.elizagrahamauthor.com. You can also follow her on Twitter: @Eliza_Graham.
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