Hope Cottage by Catherine McCarthy

After the breakup of her marriage, and the death of her mother, Cassie Wilkinson moves to a quiet English village to start anew.

Despite its name, Hope Cottage seems hopeless at first sight. Stinking, filthy and falling to pieces, Cassie initially regrets her decision to make a new life with her surprise inheritance.

However, with perseverance, Cassie uncovers family secrets that helps transform both the cottage and herself into something better than before.

Hope Cottage engaged me from the first page. I easily identified with Cassie. While our lives are very different, McCarthy so expertly portrays the grief of losing a mother, combined with the haunting negatively of Cassie’s ex that continues to destroy her self esteem, that she leapt from the page as a real person I could empathize with.

The village of Marleston is equally real. I could see it, hear the cadence of the locals voices and smell the mildew in the run down cottage.

The author perfectly captures the complexity of life and humanity. Even on the sunniest day, there are still shadows to be found, and so it is with the characters. Despite Cassie encountering love and positivity, there’s always one, but the antagonist of the piece is sensitively portrayed and, unfortunately, painfully realistic.

Reading this book brought me back to the months after the death of my mother. The freshness of grief, the thoughts and dreams, and the overwhelming sense of loss. It also reminded me of my own relocation after her death and having to deal with the inevitable people that entails, although the house I moved into was far from the condition of Hope Cottage at the start of this book.

I award Hope Cottage…