Wanted Please - Harrogate / York / Leeds area

[Cinnamon]

Chat about 'Tell me your secret' by Deirdre Purcell

 

I am afraid I gave up on it fairly early on - couldn't get to grips with it at all,but would still love to hear what everyone else thought

 

The book to read now, for discussion to start on march 1st is 'The 5 people you meet in Heaven' by Mitch Albom

 

I am aware that at the moment there are no further books listed. This is due to a lot of people dropping out or not getting back to me with their choices.I am busy pm'ing the next few on the list,so keep an eye out

[Laura & CTB]

Hmm - strange one this!

 

I loved reading about the story of Violet, her life and encounter with a local lad which was very descriptive and very sad when she was imprisoned. However - for soooo many years??? Why??? Was it explained? Maybe I missed it.

 

Claudine's story started off okay but I began to get fed up with it - I couldn't really care about her and thought how she met up with Violet was rushed and too contrived.

 

Good start but should've stayed with Violet !

[Seagazer]

I agree with Laura. The bit about Violet and Coley was the best bit and how strict some parents were in the old days.

 

Claudine's husband affair was forgiven rather quickly and could have perhaps been gone in to a bit more.

 

I really felt miffed with the story after Claudine discovered Violet, it all seemed rushed and as if not too much thought had been put into it.

 

It was easy reading but left me a bit disappointed.

[chickencam]

Ok I may be an odd one out here then.

 

I really enjoyed it.

 

I felt that it was a powerful yet well written love story. There were a few areas were credibility went a bit out of the window, but you do hear some horror stories about how young girls were treated in the past. People just don't have the same need to keep up their reputation these days, but in some cases in the past it was considered vital to keep up appearances.

 

I also liked the way the drunken one night stand that Claudine's husband had was handled. I have what I hope is a very strong marriage and I certainly wouldn't throw it away on a brief indescretion. Given the circumstances, what was going on in their lives paled into insignificance in the face of Violet's story. I think that if we were more prepared to forgive and compromise in today's world, society in general would be a better place.

 

There are usually two sides to every story, and this book did a very good job of illustrating this.

 

I have bought a couple more of her books from our local Red Cross bookshop, and I will give those a go too. I would say that this was not my usual choice of book, but that is after all the point of reading book group books.

[Couperwife]

I really enjoyed this too

 

I seemed to read it incredibly quickly and would also read it again.

 

I think the party of Violet being locked up for so long was a bit odd, but I think the family possibly didnt quite know how to "release" her, you are right Laura, it wasnt really explained, but I think it was told from Violets side, she wouldnt have known what here parents were thinking when they did the locking up.

 

I would recommend it to others

 

cathy

x

[Tina C]

I enjoyed it too. I sruggled a bit at first (I found the switch from one character to the other confusing at one point early on and that annoyed me) but the story of how she got locked up was fascinating and believable, although shocking too. At a certain point the ending became predictable but I still wanted to read to the end. I think the parents would have kept her locked up to prevent anyone ever knowing what they had done to both her and the baby. So sad. Thanks for selecting it, as I don't think I would have read it otherwise.

[P&P]

It took me a while to get into it too because of the switching between story-tellers, but I really enjoyed it once it all started coming together. I was more interested in Violet's character and story than Claudine's, and somehow missed along the way the reason why Claudine's father had not told her anything at all about her mother's side of the family, but I found it an interesting story, and I would now consider reading other books by the same author.

 

Pauline

[dippy bird]

I have to say, I loved the book - took a little while to get into it,but then I couldn't put it down. I have already read "The five people you meet in Heaven", so you guys hurry up and suggest something else for me....

[chickencam]

I have also read this month's book, so am eagerly awaiting suggestions.

[Seagazer]

I've nearly finished this month's too

[docsquid]

It isn't the sort of thing I'd normally read, and I honestly wouldn't read any more of her books. I found the story pretty predictable from the first couple of chapters, apart from a few little twists. It was obvious that Claudine was Violet's niece well before it was announced in the story, just like it was obvious that the old man at Whitecliff was her former lover from the moment he appeared in the story. Once you knew that, it all kind of became a bit pointless reading the bits in the middle.

 

I didn't mind the change of narrators as much as some of you obviously did - I quite liked that aspect of her writing.

 

I don't read fiction very often, but this didn't attract me to this particular author. I prefer stuff where the plot isn't predictable. However, the book club has led me to try something different, and that is a good thing.

[Willow]

I enjoyed this although found it slightly difficult to get into. I didn't find Claudine as well developed a character and found the way she got interested in the house a bit contrived and the continued references to her boss and the need to get an answer on the house as she was getting to know her aunt irritated me as not being relevant.

 

Although the long incarceration stretched credibility things were very different in those days especially in Ireland and that would have been a huge scandal. I found her acceptance and the account of how she came to accept it odd and it might have been more interesting to have explored what she did with her time.

 

Although there was a certain predictability to events once Claudine and Violet got together I found it hard to put down for the last 1/3 of the book as I wanted to see it unfold.