THE SUMMER GUEST by EMMA HANNIGAN

THE SUMMER GUEST

BY EMMA HANNIGAN

THE BLURB:-

Lexie and her husband Sam have spent years lovingly restoring No. 3 Cashel Square to its former glory. So imagine Lexie's delight when a stranger knocks at the door, asking to see the house she was born in over sixty years ago.

Kathleen is visiting from America, longing to see her childhood home... and longing for distraction from the grief of losing her husband.

And as Lexie and Sam battle over whether or not to have a baby and Kathleen struggles with her loss, the two women realise their unexpected friendship will touch them in ways neither could have imagined.

In Caracove, there's more than a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

THE REALITY:-

A truly lovely story at a time when I needed a truly lovely story and a bit of an uplift! After reading the blurb, I did worry that I'd stepped into the genre of chick lit, but this wasn't sarcastic chick lit that tries to be clever and ironic but ends up being painful (urgh!) This was more than that- a great story, told very well.

As most of the main characters are around my age group, it was easy to associate with the issues that they're dealing with. I think it's always important to create good, descriptive scenes, so that readers can envisage where exactly things are taking place, and the writer does this well with her detailed depictions of Lexie's house and the area of Dublin she lives in, and also the surrounding part of Ireland. It helps that I've been to both Dublin and Howth- it's nice to read novels set in places you've been to.

The lives of the characters are all clearly depicted, along with their shortcomings, issues and angsts. Kathleen's entry into the story offers a totally new perspective and though at first Amelie's teenage diary writings got on my nerves, I do think they were important for building her character, and also as an added contrast in terms of writing style.

The supernatural appearance of rainbows, albeit in unexpected ways, add a sense of other worldliness and make us question whether there is some kind of afterlife, and whether the dead come back to visit the living one way or another. I personally think they do!

Although there is sadness in the story, things do kind of work themselves out to a natural conclusion and the story finishes all wrapped up. Difficult to put down, and a truly magical read.