#BookReview + #Giveaway ~ The Faerie Tree by @JaneCable ~ Contemporary #RomanticFiction #MiniBlogBlitz @rararesources

Welcome to the first day of the mini blog blitz for The Faerie Tree by Jane Cable, courtesy of Rachel’s Random Resources. Many thanks to Jane for my copy of the book.

My Thoughts

It will be Izzie and her daughter Claire’s first Christmas without husband and father, Connor. They’ve just left the probate office and the town is busy with Christmas shoppers. With her sights set on the coffee shop Claire accidentally bumps into a homeless man on the street. She is confused. Does she know this man? Somehow she thinks she does recognise him.

Twenty years ago, before marriage and motherhood, Izzie and Robin met through their jobs and began a fledgling relationship which quickly developed. When circumstances intervened and Robin disappeared, Izzie was distraught. Now, realising the homeless man was who she thought, she resolves to find him and satisfy her curiosity about what happened all those years ago. She tracks Robin down to hospital where he is suffering from pneumonia and hypothermia. Realising life on the streets was no longer a possibility Izzie offers him the use of her spare room.

Robin and Izzie are both damaged by past events and hope this chance opportunity will enable them to make sense of what happened. Perhaps a love that never quite died can be resurrected. Could they be so lucky as to have a second chance? The story unfolds from both perspectives but strangely their memories differ significantly. Whose version of events is the true one? Both seem very plausible.

The wonderfully described faerie tree, where people go to leave gifts and make wishes, is central to the story and I enjoyed the nod to folklore, paganism and the natural world and how it can help when a person is struggling. Robin and Izzie are compelling and extremely well drawn characters, two people whose lives have taken dramatically different turns since they first knew each other. The well paced narrative skips from present to past, filling in the gaps in both Robin’s and Izzie’s lives from when they originally met until the present, all the while observing the dynamics of their rekindled relationship. It was never obvious how things would play out with these two complex characters who are trying, each in their own way, to deal with grief and trauma. A very enjoyable and sensitively told story.

About the Book

HOW CAN A MEMORY SO VIVID BE WRONG?
In the summer of 1986 Robin and Izzie hold hands under The Faerie Tree and wish for a future together. Within hours tragedy rips their dreams apart.

In the winter of 2006, each carrying their own burden of grief, they stumble back into each other’s lives and try to create a second chance. But why are their memories of 1986 so different? And which one of them is right?

With strong themes of memory, love and grief, The Faerie Tree is a novel as gripping and unputdownable as Jane Cables first book, The Cheesemaker’s House, which won the Suspense & Crime category of The Alan Titchmarsh Shows Peoples Novelist competition. It is a story that will resonate with fans of romance, suspense, and folklore.

Jane Cable writes romantic fiction with the over-riding theme that the past is never dead. She published her first two books independently (the multi award winning The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree) and is now signed by Sapere Books. Two years ago she moved to Cornwall to concentrate on her writing full time, but struggles a little in such a beautiful location. Luckily she’s discovered the joys of the plot walk.

Giveaway

If you’d like to enter the giveaway to win PB copies of The Faerie Tree and The Cheesemaker’s House (UK Only) please click the Rafflecopter link.

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.